I need recommendations

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm from Panama and I plan to go to the US to study for college. I'm at last year of high school and going to take the tests and stuff but first, I must find some colleges to apply to.</p>

<p>I wanted to study arts (graphic design, illustration), psychology, phylosophy and humanities. </p>

<p>Any state is okay for me, but it should be welcomed to minorities (since I'm asian but I use spanish as my main language). I want it be be like a big city. Sunny but with a refreshing weather. </p>

<p>Cost, it doesn't really mather (my dad says he's got enough saved). oh, and I want it to have soccer and table tennis, doesn't matter what level. And a campus, a good campus.</p>

<p>Any recommendations? I don't know about any city of the US, just traveled to NY and CA a few times and it was all cool, so I thought you guys could help me.</p>

2

<p>I don’t really have the opportunity to practice my english here. Will it be hard for me to fit in there with my bad english? Will I do bad at tests and stuff?</p>

3

<p>It probably depends on the subject. I have a friend from China who didn’t speak great English when he got here, although he has learned quickly. Philosophy classes have been hard for him as it often deals with minute differences between words. Coming from Spanish may be easier due to all the cognates and (relatively) similar sentence structure.</p>

<p>The US has so many different colleges that its hard to give you a name right off the bat. Knowing where you stand academically would help. Although I bet someone else on here would be better at that than I.</p>

4

<p>How good/bad is your English? Are you using a an online translation site right now? If not, you seem like you could get by with the English you know. Rutgers University-New Brunswick/Piscataway in New Jersey is a great university that is open to every ethnicity and has a decent international base. There tend to be some students from other countries who have problems with writing classes at time but you might be able to get by.</p>

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<p>I’m not using a translator. I think my english is fine, but I might have trouble communicating person to person. Might. </p>

<p>And academically, Well, here, my average grade is 4.5 (4.5 out of 5.0). Don’t know how to convert to GPA tho. I do a lot of extra extra curricular stuff outside of school.</p>

<p>I don’t know, any suggestions are welcomed. I wanted to focus on arts and physchology and maybe phylosophy with humanities.</p>

<p>I checked San Jose State, and it was okay. But I read some reviews and it says it was kinda bad. I also took a look at the Academy of Arts, but I thought I should go there after my 4 years at a college.</p>

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<p>No other recommendations?</p>

7

<p>

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<p>I’m not sure what “refreshing” means to someone from Panama. :D</p>

<p>Judging by your criteria, I’d suggest that you look for schools in California. San Francisco, San Diego, etc. You might also look at the University of Miami. I think that it’s arts programs have a good reputation (music, anyway).</p>

8

<p>ed1127 - There are >3,000 four-year colleges in the U.S., most of which will fit your qualifications. You’ll have to get a lot more specific before you get any helpful feedback.</p>

9

<p>I agree with gadad, but there are websites you can use to start your own search.</p>

<p>Most universities and LACs (liberal arts colleges) will have soccer, but I think that table tennis programs are more often found at the colleges/universities with larger student populations. The same thing (big rather than small colleges) goes for finding a college that offers graphic design as well as the other program interests you have. </p>

<p>My suggestion: start with something like the website for collegiate table tennis and narrow it to those areas in the U.S. with the weather you prefer. To my mind, “sunny but refreshing” pretty much narrows the choice to California, but that’s me. You could also look in the mid-Atlantic states and if cold weather is not a big deal, the NE and parts of the Midwest. </p>

<p>Go here and click on the “view all member schools” near the top to see lists of colleges in the national divisions. [National</a> Collegiate Table Tennis Association . Team](<a href=“http://www.nctta.org/teams.html]National”>National Collegiate Table Tennis Association . Team)</p>

<p>For CA, you could look into colleges in a range of selectivity: Stanford, USC (in Los Angeles), and the UCs: lUCBerkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine (more suburban sprawl than city, though), UC Santa Cruz. Also some Cal States (Fullerton and East Bay.)</p>

<p>If you want a big city, besides L.A., there’s Miami and Boston (BU for example also offers graphic design.) Or you might reach for Brown (in Providence) and take design classes at RISD.</p>

<p>A quick way to do research on admission rates, costs, and lists of majors and programs offered at different colleges is to go to the website for “college navigator” and enter the name of the college you’re investigating. Lots of helpful information on this site.</p>

<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>

10

<p>Sorry no recommendations here, but I wouldn’t worry about your English ability. Lots of people go to college in the US from around the world, and many only have a superficial understanding of the language. </p>

<p>The fields of study that you mentioned, can be found at nearly any school in the country. However, if you are looking for competitive ping pong, you may be out of luck. I have never heard of competitive table tennis in the states at any level, certainly not collegiate.</p>

11

<p>It’s okay. I could probably find a club near the college.</p>

<p>But the most important for me, is that the college needs to offer a decent graphic design program and the city must welcome minorities and be like a big city. Or near a big city, with lot of lights, stores, activities, etc.</p>

<p>Can I have some reviews by you guys about colleges from California and about their graphic design programs?</p>

12

<p>oh, btw. </p>

<p>What’s the difference between Public and Private for me (an international student)?
And what’s the difference between a Liberal Arts college and a normal college? </p>

<p>Sorry for the questions. :)</p>

13

<p>sorry for triple post, but I can’t seem to find a perfect college for me using the collegeboard thing.</p>

<p>i’ve found some but they always lack something, like this University of California: Irvine
it has everything i need, the price is ok, but it doesn’t have graphic design!</p>

14

<p>UCI has studio art and digital design…maybe you should read more closely through the university website to see if it has programs that fit you.</p>

<p>If you’re looking through the “college navigator” run down of programs, don’t look only for graphic design because it may not be listed. See if there is visual arts or studio arts and then go to the college website to get more specifics. </p>

<p>Another suggestion in CA is San Jose State University.</p>

<p>In other cities: Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh), Univ of Cincinnati, Pratt Institute (NYC), and WashU (suburban St. Louis). </p>

<p>Also, you can go to Discussion Home (listed to the left under Discussion Menu) and then scroll down to College Majors. Click on the one for art majors and then do a search for graphic design. Many threads to look through for suggestions…or post your own specific question there about what you’re looking for in a college. Good luck.</p>