Consider These Ten Factors In Your College Search
Selecting an initial pool of colleges for consideration is, perhaps, the most important part of your college search. The key is to start early, focus on factors that are important to you, cast a wide net and continue to narrow your choices based on additional information you gather.
Selecting a large pool of 20 to 25 colleges upfront gives you the flexibility to eliminate colleges that you decide do not suit you and still have a full range of colleges to apply to. Go4College.com can help by providing you with an early estimate of your chances of admission to see if you are ‘fishing in the right water.’
To choose an initial pool of colleges, you need to decide what aspects of a college are important to you. Below are 10 factors that will help you select colleges that match your preferences. You should weigh the importance of each of these factors to you. Try not to be too rigid in your preferences as they may change as you learn more about colleges in your college search.
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Geographic Location
For many students, location is an important criterion for selecting colleges. Many decide to go to college in a different region of the country from where they grew up. Others want to stay near their home town or at least within driving distance. A strict adherence to a specific geographic location can severely limit your college choices. It may be advisable to select colleges beyond the geographic location you currently favor because preferences can change, especially once you start visiting colleges. Make sure that geographic location does not prevent you from getting an initial pool of 20 to 25 colleges for consideration. For example, if you want to go to college in New England, you may wish to consider colleges in Upstate New York, as well. Some of thee Upstate colleges are less than a one hour drive from the New England colleges.
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Enrollment
The undergraduate enrollment at the colleges and universities listed on our web site range from 700 students to over 35,000 students. In determining what size school you wish to attend, consider a range of school sizes around what you currently believe is the ideal size. For example, if you currently believe that you want to attend a small, intimate college of fewer than 1,000 students, your initial pool of colleges should focus on colleges in the range from 1,000-5,000 students with one or two colleges in the 5,000 to 15,000 student range. Upon visiting colleges and learning more about them, you may discover that you prefer a larger college than you previously thought. It is unlikely that you will switch your preference to colleges in the 20,000-35,000 student range; however, it is not unusual for students to slightly modify their preferences.
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Campus Setting
Another factor that is important for many students is the campus environment. On one side of the spectrum is a college like Dartmouth in a bucolic setting in New Hampshire, surrounded by forests and mountains on the banks of a river. On the other side of the spectrum, is New York University in the center of New York City with a campus indistinguishable from businesses and with many busy streets going between the college buildings and dormitories. In case your preferences change as you learn more about the colleges, you may wish to select colleges a few colleges outside the setting you currently prefer.
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Campus Safety
The best way to find out about college safety and what a college does to ensure the safety and security of its students is to talk to current students or recent alumni. In addition, you may wish to call the office of the dean of students or the campus security office to ask about the presence of campus security officers, the availability of transportation around campus, escort services at night, the presence of outdoor lighting and emergency phones on campus, dorm entrance security, and campus and surrounding neighborhood crime rates. To put the crime rates in perspective, you may want to obtain the crime rates for your home neighborhood and/or those of your high school. If you are visiting the college, ask your tour guide and other students about safety concerns on and off-campus.
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Public vs. Private
Academic institutions in the United States are either publicly or privately funded. Public colleges are supported and operated by individual states and the colleges in the state are partially funded by state tax dollars. Public schools receive about 40% of their funding from the state government. Since public colleges are partially funded by tax dollars and the state’s government, they generally cost less than private colleges. If you are interested in attending a public college, another factor to consider is whether you want to attend a college located in your state or attend one in another state or one in your current state of residence. Attending a public college in another state usually costs more than attending a public college in your home state. A 2002 study by the College Board found that, on average, it costs $6347 more to attend a public, four-year institution in another state. Another factor to consider is that enrollments and class sizes at public colleges tends to be large. Public colleges tend to have enrollments over 5,000 students and can have as many as 35,000 students. Many classes are taught by a teacher’s assistant (T.A.), so there is less personal interaction with the professors.Private colleges comprise about half of the accredited college and universities in the U.S. They are located in all 50 states, except Wyoming. Private colleges are not funded by the state government or taxpayers but instead depend on tuition, fees, private gifts, corporate contributions and endowments. This means that private colleges are typically more expensive than public colleges. However, private colleges tend to offer more scholarships and grants. Enrollment and class sizes at private colleges tend to be small. Many private colleges have an enrollment of fewer than 3,500 students. Therefore, it is easier to get to know your professors and there are often more opportunities for tutoring or mentoring programs.
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Religious vs. Non-Denominational
Religion plays a variety of different roles at colleges and universities in the U.S. Most private colleges and all public colleges are secular; religion and religious organizations neither influence the operation of the college nor impact the college’s course requirements. Some colleges are operated by a religious organization and require religious activities and courses. Some colleges fall in between these two extremes and, though they may be associated with a particular religion, students of varying religions often attend these colleges and practice their own religions. These colleges often provide places of worship on campus which usually serve a number of religions. In addition, religion has varying influence on the curriculum at these colleges — courses in religion may or may not be required.Colleges that are operated by religious organizations vary in their “secularity.” Secularity can be gauged by the percentage of lay (non-clergy) faculty and the percentage of students of other faiths attending the college. For example, Georgetown University is a Catholic university but of its 971 faculty members 948 are lay faculty and 44% of the student body is non-Catholic. On the other hand, Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut has no lay faculty and 100% of its students are Catholic.
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Single-sex vs. Coed
The vast majority of U.S. colleges and universities are coeducational. Although most women choose to attend coed colleges, women have a choice of eighty-two all-women colleges. Research shows that women who attend women’s colleges participate more in class, develop much higher self-esteem, and score higher in aptitude tests versus women in coed colleges. Some of the factors that promote these advantages include small classes taught by professors dedicated to teaching, a higher percentage of female faculty and administrators than coed colleges, and female students in all leadership roles on campus. In addition, a higher percentage of women’s college attendees versus women in coed colleges are represented in important positions such as Congress, high-ranking/higher paying corporate positions. On the other hand, advocates of coed colleges argue that women who attend all women’s colleges isolate themselves from the “real world” and miss out on the intellectual and social diversity that men provide.Aside from seminaries and rabbinical colleges, only a handful of men’s colleges exist today: Hampden-Sydney, Morehouse, Wabash, Deep Springs and St. John’s University.
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Academic Focus
Most colleges in the U.S. have multiple areas of academic focus. A good way to assess the academic focus of a college or university is to consider the most popular majors and the percentages of students in these majors. Some colleges have only one academic focus. For example, California Institute of Technology specializes in engineering and science. Specialized colleges usually have a more in-depth selection of courses and more research opportunities than non-specialized colleges, though those opportunities are limited to a particular area. One perceived benefit of specialized colleges is that all students tend to have equally demanding and time-consuming curricula. Some students who attend specialized colleges claim that students in other majors who have less time-consuming curricula can be distracting. However, the uniformity of interest at specialized colleges can also be perceived as a disadvantage in that the student body has fewer diversified interests and the colleges generally offer fewer liberal arts courses.
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Structured vs. Free Environment
Colleges differ from each other with respect to their curricula and course requirements for each major. For example, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has strict requirements for courses that engineering majors must take and allows relatively few electives. On the other hand, Brown University has few course requirements and allows students to take courses that are of interest to them to work toward a “focus” of their degree rather than a recognized “major.” Between these two extremes, there are colleges with varying numbers of course requirements.
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Sports: Division I, II, or III
If you are a high school athlete and would like to play a varsity sport in college, you need to make a realistic evaluation of your chances of being recruited at the Division I, II, or III level. Based on your athletic performance, size, achievements, etc., you should be able to estimate your chances of playing on a particular level. You should talk to your high school coach and establish communications with college coaches to help you assess at which level you may be able to play. In making your decision, you should consider the reputation of the college, the rapport the coach has with the players, feedback from current players and/or recent alumni, and the quality of the athletic facilities. The earlier you start this process, the better.
Once you have selected a pool of colleges based on your preferences, get your percentage chances of admission for each of the colleges, so that you can determine whether you have chosen a sufficient number of safety, likely/ballpark, and reach schools. If you have a disproportionate number of likely, reach or safety schools you may consider redefining your pool of colleges so that you do not paint yourself into a corner later in the admission process.
College Admissions Services is the best source for obtaining your chances of admission to top colleges and universities, as well as information about colleges, college rankings, and financial aid.