<p>I've noticed that some good public schools, such as the University of Virginia, have several notable alumni that I admire, while some good liberal arts colleges, such as Wesleyan University, have no notable alumni that I personally am interested in. Now, I think this opinion of alumni is completely personal, since I'm considering alumni with the same career I want whose work I highly respect, rather than "famous rich people" or some other general category. As a result, some colleges on my list have many alumni whom I would love to emulate, whereas their peers have none.</p>
<p>Going back to my example, maybe Wesleyan doesn't have any alumni I admire because Wesleyan is much smaller than the University of Virginia. Then again, another LAC like Wesleyan has several alumni I admire. So is it okay if I use the alumni as a consideration when I like two schools almost equally and want to reduce the number of colleges I apply to? I feel like I should aim for a college that produces people in my field who inspire me...</p>
<p>(And side note: Is my reasoning correct? Do LACS--not top ones like Williams, but good ones like Wesleyan--have less notable alumni simply because they're smaller? I like the idea of a liberal arts college, but the lack of personally-admired graduates in my field does give me pause...)</p>
<p>Ok this might sound a bit harsh but do NOT choose a university because of the people who went there. I know your asking because of graduate school but just because you got to a school that famous people went to means nothing for your research or paper. </p>
<p>Choose the college that YOU like. If your really interested in grad school then choose a school with professors that are at the top of their fields or have published papers.</p>
<p>Besides, how do you know for sure who the alumni are? Some schools will list them but how complete and accurate is any list you are looking at? Accurate enough for you to base a decision on? I don’t think so…
Have you compared course catalogs to see what is offered in your major? have you compared facilities for your major (important for sciences especially), have you compared the faculty, have you talked to any professors or department heads, have you talked to students in your major???</p>
<p>Hey, some kids decide based on the quality of the food in the cafeterias, but I think there are many more important factors to consider.</p>
<p>@ETS: It’s not that I want to follow famous people, it’s that I want my work to be like that of these particular famous people. I figure it’s not unreasonable to assume that some of their training came from the university they attended. And all of the schools I’m applying to have top professors, so I’m fine on that measure.</p>
<p>@BeanTownGirl: Well, to narrow down my list of colleges to apply to, I eliminated those on the other side of the country, those with a pre-professional feel, those with a majority of science and engineering and business majors, those that are too small, those with an atmosphere I do not like, etc. Since every college offers my majors and I don’t have a preference as to the courses those majors will offer, and since I would be happy at most universities, this would just be a way to remove the last two or three colleges from my list so that I have around a dozen instead of 15. Or I could just apply to all of them anyway, I guess…</p>
<p>If you are applying to selective schools, then it is not unreasonable or unusual to apply to a dozen or even 15. My son’s list was at 13 when he started applying. If you are considering schools like Wesleyan with low acceptance rates, then you should cast a wide net. Once you see where you get in and what is affordable, then you can debate about how to choose one. In the meantime, you will have many months to think about things and gather more info…</p>