CollegeReflections.com

One of the most life changing decisions you will ever make is choosing where you will attend college. The university you attend will help mold your mind over your time there. It is the place you will hopefully find what you want to do with the rest of your life. In college you will probably make many of your life-long friendships and many will find their spouses at college. Below I try to go through some of the factors that I considered before making my final choice of colleges.

1. Money
While this should not be the deciding factor in what choosing a college, it is going to be the factor that sets the parameters for your search. Choosing how much you can spend and are willing to spend on your four (or more) years of college can knock out quite a few of the private institutions out there. And yes, if you are dead set on a school there is financial aid out there as well as loans. But, do you really want to come out of college with $160-200 thousand in loans? You especially want to be careful with this path, because yes, paying off Harvard loans won’t be a problem for the future lawyers, doctors, and investment bankers of the world, but if you get into college and decide your calling was to do something else such as fashion, or journalism, or God forbid teach, then those loans might cause some real problems. Since I personally have had to fully fund my entire education including, tuition, fees, rent and utilities, fraternity dues, and 2 study abroads, I can understand why money is such an important factor.

2. Location
Location can be a huge factor for many kids choosing a college. Of course, the bulk of people will end up gong to school close to where they are from. Let me tell you that I believe this is a bad idea. While I do go to school in the same state I’m from, I have put 3 hours between home and myself. If things had worked out perfectly this would have been a much larger number. I think that unless there are extenuating circumstances, you should not choose a school that allows you to stop by mom’s for a home cooked meal or to have your favorite shirt washed. Going to college is all about growing as a person. A huge part of that growth comes from getting out from under your parents and learning to be a self-reliant adult. If you can still depend on your parents in the same manner you did in high school, then you are going to struggle to reach your full potential. Below are some other questions you should might want to ask yourself.
Do you want to go to school near the ski slopes or a beach?
Are you a big fan of staying in your home region, or would a change of pace do you good?
Do you want to be able to drive home on the weekends, or is getting as far away from your home town as possible more important?
Is climate and temperature an issue?

3. Career and Major
If you happen to be one of those really lucky kids who already knows what you want to do or at least where your passion lies, then this is also something to consider. If you know you want to be an investment banker, well then you should be thinking of either top business schools such as UT or Tulane, or just a prestigious university such as Harvard or Penn to get you in the door. If you have a passion for agriculture, sociology, drama, or engineering, there will be multiple schools that are very strong in that area of study. One of these should fit your criteria. Another aspect of this is to also consider which careers require a pedigree and which do not. Since I am going into finance (hopefully investment banking) then I will use that as an example. Investment banking is one of those careers that Ivy League and other prestigious universities gain instant access to while most other students are forced to more drastic measures to attempt to get in the door. On the other hand a doctor from Arkansas is the exact same as a doctor from Yale, so why take out 200k in loans before med school even starts?

4. Prestige
Is a name important to you? After 2 study abroads and a summer internship I have found that there are highly intelligent, interesting students from every university. They also have similar gripes: bad food, boring professors, busy work. The main difference is going to be the percentage of smart, driven people at each university. Clearly Princeton is going to have quite a few more (along with rich kids) than Arkansas. Frankly I’m very happy with my decision, at least in terms of this. People who are intelligent, and (more importantly) driven will do well regardless of the school they attend.

5. Social Life
Is the general social life of a university important to you? Do you want a place with a great bar scene? Or do you love the thought of being a part of a fraternity and want a campus with a strong Greek life? Or if tailgating on a Saturday for the big game is important to you, Arkansas, Florida, or USC would be a good fit, compared to Tulane or other more academic schools. If the party scene isn’t really for you then maybe a university that is more serious would be your style or social life shouldn’t be considered.

Everyone is going to have different reasons and issues that are important to them when choosing a college. Each senior needs to find his fit and what the most important factors are to them. In this post I’ve just tried to lay out the a basic framework to work from, and some questions that you might not have considered. In my next post I will list some wrong reasons that many of my friends choose their college and why it did not work out.