<p>I am seeing alot more kids( yes kids at 16/17 even 18) Making college decisions based on odd criteria. I mean it would seem the actual quality of the education is way down on the list compared to say climate or my gf is going instate so I am leaning towards this school for that reason..ect.</p>
<p>what gives?....</p>
<p>since I believe it’s not where you go but what you do there that matters, I have no problem with students doing this–as long as they work hard and long when they get to that nice climate.</p>
<p>Quality of the education is certainly a nebulous term. How does one determine the quality of the education? and for whom is this quality promised when each of us is different? </p>
<p>I don’t think you’re right in your assessment, but I have my worries, too: I see too many students thinking that quality of education is synonymous with prestige of the institution. </p>
<p>I’m not sure the times are any different. I think the internet makes more information available. My decision 30+ years ago was influenced by where my BF of the time was. I’m sure these criteria have always been used for decisions, even prestige in some circles, but I think we hear more about it now. There are a lot of schools out there that will provide a good education, why not narrow things down based on other criteria?</p>
<p>I feel like here at CC, people are doing the opposite. I see very few students making judgments on climate or social relationships (which I actually think are important!) but more students making decisions based on relatively small to negligible differences between schools - like Program A is ranked #3 in engineering but Program B is ranked #10, but I have a full ride, which one should I attend? Or trying to assess the quality of undergrad classes and experiences from research rankings and being hyperfocused on the potential to get into med or grad school.</p>
<p>Don’t get wrong; it’s not that I don’t think those things are important. But it’s that the vast majority of schools (especially most of the schools CC kids bring up) will do all of those things quite adequately, and that success after college is less correlated with the prestige of the school and more influenced by the ambition and acts of the actual student themselves. Furthermore, most kids will spend far more time outside of the classroom than they do in, and the social relationships they develop during college are really important. They can turn into professional networks, but they can also turn into lifelong friendships. Also, some of those non-academic experiences can be very personally but also professionally rewarding in ways students didn’t expect - like being an RA made me realize I really love helping and advising people.</p>
<p>Many colleges are very, very similar. Students are often choosing between similar schools with regards to “quality of education,” which is very hard to really understand unless you actually go to the school and even harder to compare between schools that you’ve never attended. If you’re picking between schools that are all highly regarded or all in the same general “tier,” then it most likely doesn’t matter which school you pick. I feel like a lot of students and parents get really worked up over rankings and quality of programs, and while those are important, beyond a certain point, it’s really hard to distinguish between them, especially at an undergraduate level.</p>
<p>And to be fair, climate is a very important thing to consider that I feel like a lot of students disregard because of the “name” of a school. Going to a school solely because of your girlfriend isn’t a great idea, but if everything else is equal, there’s nothing really wrong with picking a school because you want to be nearer to your significant other (or even family, for that matter). It’s important to be happy at wherever you’re going to live for the next four years, and I can understand how an 18 year old wouldn’t necessarily want to deal with adjusting to college, figuring out a major and career path, adjusting to an extreme change in climate, and having a long-distance relationship all at the same time. Especially when all the schools they applied to would be perfectly great colleges to attend.</p>
<p>I picked my school because it was next to the beach and had pretty mild weather. Does that mean it was a horrible decision? Not at all, I would have been perfectly fine at any of the schools I was accepted to, and they were all good schools.</p>
<p>Many students will be able to find a fairly large number of schools which are affordable and which offer the things that they want to study. Once those baseline criteria are met, is it at all surprising that other criteria come into play?</p>
<p>Other students have fairly significant non-academic constraints like severe cost constraints, or proximity to where they live (particularly non-traditional students who may be working part time and going to school part time, but traditional students sometimes have severe location constraints, whether self-imposed or imposed by their parents). They may therefore be lucky to find a school that meets these constraints while offering the things that they want to study.</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalumnus. It makes sense to use criteria like climate and geographic setting after you’ve already done a first-pass selection of schools that meet your academic needs (for availability of desired programs and rough match to your stats). </p>