<p>i don't see beauty / aesthetics of the campus in the list of factors. Am I misreading something?</p>
<p>Prestige won't buy you a cup of coffee. 2004 Princeton study says that bright kids are like cream that rises to the top, and success ALWAYS comes to those with perseverence, not prestige. There isn't a single professor at ANY school who has "perserverence" in their syllabus because it can't be taught. Reality gives us an equal playing field, and perserverence stands to be the winner every time. Success has been defined by many who ARE successful as 5% inspiration and 95% persperation. The Ivys can provide the inspiration, but so can your local community college. Get perspective to survive and thrive.</p>
<p>i think fit has to be the most important thing.</p>
<p>And we have to be careful how we define "fit." The one factor that is left out all too often - and dangerously - is the lack of experience of being away from home. A student who had never been away from home received a full scholarship to Georgetown ($50,590/yr!), and couldn't wait to come home because she was terribly lonely. Loss to parents over 4 years: $200,000. Ouch!</p>
<p>Finances. I should have thought of this earlier. Getting into top colleges isn't hard. Paying for them is.</p>
<p>I think the most important factor is your intended major. thats why you're there right? but also the atmosphere and vibe you get from the college should also have a small amount of role in your decision because if you're not happy there, then your lifestyle and grades may suffer.</p>
<p>I wanted to vote them all.....</p>
<p>All are important in choosing which ones to apply. But, important is to get accepted, then see which one fills most of the criteria from your choices.</p>
<p>louis </p>
<p>most college students change their major something like an average of 2 times. So you want ot make sure that your school has multiple things that interest you. I applied to brown as a neuroscience major and wanted to dabble in art on the side, at RISD. Well thank god I ended up at Brown and not the other schools i was considering that had only craft centers, and no curricular ceramics programs, because now i'm strictly an art major!!!</p>
<p>This happens to mucho people</p>
<p>i think the main difference between ivy and state is 1. the effort you have to put out to find the resources for a fab education, and 2. the atmosphere, not the results. </p>
<p>i'm not going to lie. i like that my school is prestigious. it does make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. but that's not why i go here. the fact that is prestigious is in many ways a result of its other charactersistics, not the other way around. </p>
<p>prestige mongers bore. omg i HAVE to pick harvard over yale even though i like yale better because 2 more people in the world recognize Harvard's name. once you hit a certain bar with prestige, it's all you can ever, ever need. not that you really need it anyways.</p>
<p>and i honestly don't think finances should be that big of a consideration. i hear every parent on this board groaning and threatening to throw things at me. I mean it is easy for me to say. I take out loans but my parent shell out cash. But if it can be afforded, in any way shape or form (even if that means loans and a lot of debt), it's SO worth the experience you get. it's so worth it. </p>
<p>if you can't afford it, then, well, it's moot. but there's a big middle ground of choosing to afford it and not.</p>
<p>IMO (but not in any particular order...)</p>
<p>1.) Academic Quality -resources available</p>
<p>-I'm not "ivy" material and I know that and I'm okay/happy with that :) </p>
<p>-I just want a school that will give me a sound education and provide me with resources (like internships/research) so that I may go to grad. school and excel in my career (when I find out what it is...)</p>
<p>2.) Comfortable "gut" feeling</p>
<p>-I've been to four college visits and I know that the mysterious "gut" feeling is very important to me...</p>
<p>3.) Cost
-My dad just turned 60 and my mom's not far behind. Plus, we have a pretty low income (pell grant...). I don't want them to worry about the finances; in fact, I want to be able to send money home for them (part-time work). It's important to me that they won't have to suffer for my future. </p>
<p>I just want to say that I really enjoyed reading all the opinions & debates in this post. This had really revived my enthusiam towards going to college and it has also served to help me know which college I want to go to and why.
...To think, I've been going crazy over which college to attend! All I needed was a little dose of CC :).</p>
<p>I think the most important factor in selecting a college depends on how comfortable you feel there. Of course it is important for the college to have a strong program in the intended area of study, but how many students also change their major at least once in the first few years of college? As far as having friends/boyfriend/girlfriend at the school I believe hurts the overall college experience. I think choosing a school based on personal opinions and not on friends allows for the student to develop beyond highschool.</p>
<p>I'm going to be blunt: prestige is probably the most important factor; you're going to get a better job after graduating from HYP than from Compton Community College. And after all, the whole point of college is to get a decent job, isn't it (besides getting an education, etc)?
Secondly would be the social scene. I personally would rather die than go to a school where no one ever parties or goes out. I realize that for some people partying isn't their thing, but everyone should choose a school which fits them regarding this aspect.
Thirdly, location/climate. I would ideally go somewhere far away from home; I think commuting is the worst damper on getting a good college experience. Also, weather plays a big role in the typical student's happiness. Some prefer cold, snowy weather, while others prefer constant sunshine. I belong to the latter group, and because of that I'm looking at quite a few schools in California.
And finally, attractiveness of the opposite sex. It may sound shallow, but you're going to be spending four years there, and you'll most likely be dating at least a few times.</p>
<p>Hmmm... for me, it's possibly "other".... or possibly a combination of "prestige" and "good vibes" - which is why I ended up voting for the latter.</p>
<p>Because to me, I would say it's the student body... just the entire diversity of people that are generally attracted to (and attend) that school. So I chose Stanford because its students, honestly, are both brilliant and laid-back..... while at Berkeley, for instance, the atmosphere is much too liberal :)...</p>
<p>And a lot of my friends have similar motives - many are attracted to UC Davis's well-behaved quaintness (at least compared to most colleges) and UC Irvine's abundance of Asian students ;P.</p>
<p>Do you really rhink prestige is the most important factor to chose wherwe you are going? You might get a job much easier if you went to HYP than to Compton Community College but you stay in the job if you are good enough, and sometimes the college with the best name is not the one with the best education.</p>
<p>I think than the most important factor in deciding the college you want to attend is the one who will give you more for the period of time you are going to be there. The best college is where you see the curriculum and youi have liked the classes, that you have liked where the college is situated, because if it is an at area that you do not like the living experience is going to be very hard and you might have a bad college experience.</p>
<p>I think the most important part of college when you are going to selected is the curriculum, because is what you are going to learn and do for the rest of your lifes, that is your foundatuion</p>
<p>pear, i'm really laughing at you. </p>
<p>like, with love, but stilll, laughing at you</p>
<p>SO many schools have ENOUGH prestige to get you a good job that once you hit a certain level, you're fine. There is a large, large middle ground between HYP and a cc. And sure, perhaps HYP have more prestige than say, Penn (i'm just throwing that out there), but is the quality of the education better? Not at all, and those who matter know this. </p>
<p>And COME ON, attractiveness? I don't balk here because it's not important, but because how on EARTH are you going to determine this? If you visit, you'll see a small slice of the student body tops. And at least for me (and other non-shallow people...) a person's attractiveness is killed if they are a douchebag.</p>
<p>Personally the three most important factors to determine when selecting a college are the curriculum, the environment it has and how much it costs and if you can afford it. The prestige a college faculty has for certain careers are up to a certain pint important. Also, you are not going to a college you feel uncomfortable in and stay there for four years, so the sorroundings do affect. And finally the cost of the university is one of the most decisive because if it is out of your budget you can't attend to it.</p>