<p>What things would make you immediately cross a school of your list?
For me it is
In order:</p>
<p>Cost
Majors
Merit Aid
Low Retention Rate
Low Graduation Rate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Merit aid or lack thereof would be part of the (net) cost factor, right?</p>
<p>Seems that if there is no way a school can be affordable even with the reachiest merit scholarships, or if the school does not offer the student’s possible majors (or preparation for them if a community college), then the school is not worth applying to.</p>
<p>Aid availability
Campus
Retention/graduation rate
Lack of interesting (major-related) courses
Location/setting</p>
<p>Net-price for my family
Class sizes in upper-level courses in my major
Quiet housing/honors housing/sub-free housing
Access for weekends to urban areas (so, train ride away, at the maximum)
Job placement/alumni network/career center</p>
<p>Lack of merit aid
Lack of preferred major
Lack of reputation within the major (as per those in the field)
Stats way too low for the student (not merely in the top 25%)
Location</p>
<p>Lack of diversity
Unchallenging environment
Skewed male:female ratio</p>
<p>I don’t think any one thing would automatically make be completely cross a school off my list (except for being too close to here)…but a few things that would matter a lot would be (in no particular order) skewed male/female ratio, known for being especially conservative, bad department in what I want to major in, and cost of course.</p>
<p>I immediately ruled out all-women’s colleges, tech schools, schools with less than 4000 (or at least 2000) undergraduates, schools not on the East Coast (or anywhere with a higher average temperature than where I live), and schools that don’t offer my major.</p>
<p>^I second the women’s colleges point. That would definitely cross a college off my list.</p>
<p>Yeah, I definitely prefer coed. I would rule out schools with less international exposure, low graduation rate, low rankings, low ethnic diversity, bad gender ratio and without much aid. And they have to be located in great college towns, in warm places. I NEED warm places :)</p>
<p>D had certain criteria for considering a school:</p>
<p>1.Had to offer a Chemical Engineering major
2.Had to have some sort of nutritional science as a back up
3.Had to have an orchestra that she could continue to play her viola and offer a performance minor would be a bonus
4.Had to offer a coop
5.Had to be at least 1 hour away but not be further than 7 hours away
6.She would prefer a private school</p>
<p>Everything else seems to be negotiable.</p>
<p>Mom and Dad added:</p>
<p>1.There has to be an opportunity for enough aid to reach our financial restrictions
2.She had to choose at least 1 school that she could be assured she could get into and would meet our financial restrictions.</p>
<p>Mom and Dad have their safeties. Now she is waiting on the rest.</p>
<ol>
<li>Has to be in or no more than 30 min from large city</li>
<li>Has to be diverse</li>
<li>Top 50 (flexible)</li>
</ol>
<p>My son has crossed off several schools, because they do not have cross country/track and field programs. He would like to continue to compete while in college. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, as his parent, I cross off schools without good merit aid.</p>
<p>Whenhen’s unique cross offs:
- Lack of an active Hillel or other Jewish organization on campus
- Few trees in the surrounding area.
- In a truly rural area. There should be at least a few stores within a three mile radius of the school
- No trails, or poor ones within a mile of the school.</p>
<p>The usual stuff:
5)Cost
6)low graduation rate relative to what type of institution it is
7)Non commuter/suitcase school
8)A student body with FAR lower stats than mine (at least a 6 point spread wrt ACT scores between my stats and the upper quartile), and no appropriate way for the better students to take harder courses.
9)All male college. Don’t think it would have been worth my time to apply to one of those.
10)All women’s college not within an active consortium.</p>
<p>Some preferences:
-less than 1/3rd greek
-Somewhat outdoorsy student body
-Few if any lecture classes
-Smaller school. Ideally between 2000-5000 undergrads
-The school supplies Coke, not Pepsi
-Racial and socioeconomic diversity
-less than an hour away from a city of note
-Quite a few gen eds, but nothing like Columbia’s core
-A place where no matter if it was 3AM on a Saturday night, I could just sit down and read whatever</p>
<p>Looking back at my pre-college days, I would say:</p>
<ol>
<li>Weak-mediocre reputation (both school and engineering program of interest)</li>
<li>East coast and/or urban setting (I prefer Western rural or suburban campuses)</li>
<li>Lack of merit aid</li>
<li>Uninspiring campus layout/archiecture</li>
<li>Ivies (Excessively competitive; Elitism, hyper-competitive students weaken the overall college experience)</li>
</ol>
<p>-Schools that are overly liberal/hippie/crunchy/granola
- Schools that aren’t in the United States
- Schools that have over 60% or more guys
- Public schools (unless they have a ‘private school feel’)
- Schools that do not have a campus/quad
- Schools that are third or fourth tier schools
-Schools that have low retention/matriculation rates - Schools that are predominately commuter schools
-Schools that lack a cohesive student body/school spirit/etc
-Schools that are too small (under 2000) or too large (over 15000) students</p>
<p>Cutthroat competition, and also the visit. That tells you more than any statistic can tell you.</p>
<p>As a parent, I tried to steer my kids away from schools that were not in-state tuition or if private, were not known for having good financial aid. Another big “turn off” for me was a school in an unsafe neighborhood. Coming from a large public school, my kids were not even remotely interested in looking at colleges that were smaller than their high school.</p>
<p>When I first started seriously formulating my list, I had a few major criteria that guided me all the way through:
-Can’t be in the Chicago area (this was important as I live there and didn’t want to stay in the same city for the rest of my life)
-Must be academically challenging
-Can’t be a technical or otherwise specialized school (even though I’ll be a computer science major)
-Can’t be for-profit
-Can’t be super-small (no fewer than 3,000 undergrads or so)
-Can’t be where my parents went (legacy would’ve helped, but I didn’t want to feel like I was living in their footsteps)</p>
<p>After these, it came down to money, size, location, demographics, depth and breadth of various programs, internship opportunities, and a few other factors. I don’t regret my list at all.</p>
<p>What made me cross a college off my list:</p>
<p>As an undergraduate:</p>
<ul>
<li>Poor reputation in major</li>
<li>High net cost</li>
<li>Close enough to home for commuting (the truly expensive ones were outside my home province anyway)</li>
<li>Too many gen-eds</li>
</ul>
<p>As a prospective grad student:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of subject availability</li>
<li>Low net stipend</li>
<li>Poor reputation in the desired subject within my subfield</li>
<li>A student body that was out of my range</li>
</ul>