CollegeReflections.com

As an editor here at College Reflections (CR), my sole job is not to just read articles and tell the original author when there is a mistake that needs to be corrected, but to also voice my opinion when I feel an article is a little too biased or needs to take another approach to the subject matter in an attempt properly represent and address the diverse demographic that is our readership. Well, a few months back one of our main contributing authors penned what I believe was a slightly biased piece on factors to consider when choosing a college. But instead of rewriting the article to be more bipartisan, the original author suggested I just write a rebuttal to his article – so here we are.

Getting involved in high school is important for so many reasons. I know that many people can’t see the point of joining the Honor Society, the band, or a dozen other activities. Today I’m going to give you the perspective of someone who is 4 years out of any high school organization.

Why Join?

I was an organization whore in high school. I played basketball and baseball. I was in the Honors Society, Beta Club (VP), Science Honors Society (Treasurer), FBLA, and there are probably several others I can’t remember anymore. Let me be honest. I did not care about a single thing I was in besides sports. As far as I know, neither did anyone else. You join these clubs for one reasons: college applications.

In a previous article I talked about some of the advantages of schools that are not considered top-tier. One of the major advantages I cited was the ability to graduate debt free or very close to it. After a few recent emails, I now stand corrected.

Stanford has recently announced that for families with an income of under $100,000 students would not pay tuition. For families with an income of under $60,000 students would not be required to pay either tuition or room and board. This is only the latest in a number of Ivy League and top-tier universities sweetening their financial aid packages for lower and middle class kids who might otherwise apply to and choose quality state universities. Many major papers and magazines have been covering this trend as you can read here in the New York Times and Newsweek.

I’ve had a few questions sent to me about finding, applying for, and receiving scholarships, so I thought I would give a very simple introduction to scholarships today. When I was in my senior year of high school I spent a large amount of time applying for scholarships and was able to receive enough financial aid to cover the entire cost of my undergraduate degree as well as extra spending money. Here are my initial thoughts on the issue.

After thinking about all the reasons to choose a college, I decided I should also mention some of the factors that are important NOT to use in choosing a college. These factors are things that I thought about when I tried to decide where to go to school. Luckily I had people around me who helped me put things in perspective and I avoided choosing my college based upon number #2 (best decision of my life). I have many friends who did use these factors to choose their college and every single one of them regrets it. Here are my 4 reasons NOT to choose a college or university.