<p>I feel like, with a lot of schools, they have a strong area of study in certain subjects (ie strong science, english, etc).
What if you have no idea what you want to study? I'm really not sure where I should be looking...large universities? Small liberal arts? Midsized?
Any advice for me? Thanks</p>
<p>Large universities, like state schools, usually have a ton of different majors so you can decide later</p>
<p>Weird i think LACs would be best because you’d have a easier time with advising and forming relationships with people who can steer you.</p>
<p>Either choice is right.</p>
<p>The true answer is – with the exception of a few students, in my opinion, the same schools that are good for those who have known what they wanted to do since they were 3 years old are good for those with no idea. Honestly, the average college student changes their major at least once before they graduate. It’s tough to know at age 18 what you want to do with the rest of your life (much less age 10), especially since you’re not exposed to the wide variety of careers out there.</p>
<p>It’s one thing if you know that you are interested in some kind of engineering and you go to a school like Caltech or Georgia Tech, or for nursing majors, but there are so many students here who ask “What are the best schools for psychology?” or some other liberal arts field when honestly most good schools are solid in virtually every major that their school offers (even if some are better than others); it is incredibly difficult to accurately rank undergraduate programs; and in addition, only about 1/3 of your college classes will be taken in your major. The other 2/3s are going to be general education requirements and other classes that will make up the ~120 credits you need to graduate.</p>
<p>Anyway, rather than thinking about who can steer you in the right direction (don’t worry – you’ll get there. All of the thousands of graduates from all sizes of university eventually end up picking a major they like), think about the kind of environment you like to learn in. Would you prefer to be in a large lecture hall with 100-200 other students for the first 2 years of university life, to cheer on a big-name basketball or football team, to live in a town primarily made up of university students, faculty, and staff, to partake of all the amenities that a large-scale university has to offer? Or would you prefer to take classes with fewer than 20 students (sometimes just 10, or 5, or 2), participate in smaller-scale activities with a few closer friends, and live on a smaller campus? Think about the kind of activities and interests you have.</p>
<p>Of course, these situations aren’t always exactly the same – UCLA, UGA, and Michigan have approximately the same amount of undergraduates, but the atmospheres at those schools are very different. The same could be said of many LACs, like midwestern Grinnell vs. suburban (and mostly female) Sarah Lawrence vs. West Coast Pomona.</p>
<p>If you think you’ll be happy with something mundane like English, history, math, or poli sci, almost any college will fit the bill. More “exotic” majors like advertising, horticulture, music therapy, turfgrass management, or wildlife will require a larger university.</p>
<p>Actually, state schools might NOT be a good idea. At some state schools, it can be hard to get into the classes you need, much less the classes you want. That’s why it takes some students longer to graduate from a large state school. So if you don’t decide on a major until you’re a almost a junior and you can’t get into the classes you need… That said, any school that’s large and/or flexible is going to be easier, since there will be more classes and more majors to choose from.</p>
<p>I was in the same boats as you and university of conn is the best school for a undecided major. They have a whole special school where you meet with a gudiance cousnelor to find your intrests, then they put you in classes untill you find what you like</p>
<p>At some public universities it can be hard to get into the classes you need, but that’s true of a lot of colleges of different sizes. I went to a small LAC and was a psychology major, along with about 20% of my class. You had to register in the first 4 hours of registration for non-required classes in order to get into the most popular ones – because if you didn’t, you didn’t get the class, and they weren’t adding any more sections.</p>
<p>Public universities have more people to register for classes, but they also have more faculty members to teach more sections of the same classes. In addition to that, there are a wider variety of different kinds of classes in the same discipline, so you can take very interesting classes. Plus MOST unversities give class preferences to juniors and seniors and will kick a freshman out so a senior can take a class that he or she needs (I’ve seen it happen at places big and small), and at large universities some classes are restricted to just juniors and seniors. Many universities are using time tickets so that seniors register first, followed by everyone else in order.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t know if that’s the reason it takes people more time to graduate from larger public schools. First of all, it doesn’t universally – some public unis have greater 4-year graduate rates than some smaller colleges. Second of all, there are so many confounding factors that it’s hard to come to a conclusion without a study of some kind – I mean, public universities also have more low-income kids who may not be able to come up with the money every semester and so drop out or take longer; they also may have more transfer students than the smaller colleges.</p>
<p>Thank you for the help</p>
<p>It’s a shame that 18 year olds are pressed to declare what they are going to do with the rest of their lives. It’s ok that you don’t know. I would recommend a small liberal arts college where the development of thought is primary. Your passion will reveal itself in due time.</p>
<p>If you don’t know what you want to do and don’t have a strong sense of self-direction, definitely stay away from large state flagship universities. Smaller public schools are okay, but only if you can’t get into a good private school, preferably an LAC.</p>
<p>An inexpensive one.</p>