10 THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A COLLEGE

Information Provided by Petersons.com

Sure, you know that the best schools enroll students with the best grades and the highest test scores. You also know that there are some college names that impress more on a sweatshirt. But how can you figure out which school is right for you? There are some important things to consider when you decide where to apply for and enroll in college. Many people don't spend much time thinking about them, though, and sometimes end up unhappy as a result, even at so-called great schools. By taking the time to think about these things now, you'll be able to home on in what really matters to you and find the fit that's right.

1. Size

Colleges come in all sizes, from a school in California that enrolls only 26 students to schools like Pennsylvania State, which can enroll 30,000 or more. Which one is better? Well, that depends on you and what you're comfortable with. Did you go to a small high school or a large one? Did you like the size of your high school? Did you grow up in a city or a rural area? Do you like being places where everybody knows you, or do you like the anonymity of a crowd?

2. Type

All colleges are not the same. Some have large graduate programs and devote much of their time and resources to research. Others enroll only undergraduates and focus their attention on teaching and learning. Some schools have a specialty in one specific area, like engineering or writing, while others are best known for giving their students a broad education. Other differences include whether schools are single sex or coed, if they have a religious affiliation, and whether they are public or private.

There are also historically black colleges, schools with co-op programs where you earn money while going to school, and schools with large evening and part-time programs. The options really are almost limitless.

3. Location

There are colleges in every living environment you can imagine, from tiny towns in Minnesota to the middle of New York City. If you have always lived in the suburbs, choosing an urban campus can be an adventure. But after a week of urban noise, dirt, and rude people, will you long for a grassy campus and open space? On the other hand, if you are used to the suburbs and mall life and choose a college in a rural area, will you run screaming into the Student Center some night looking for noise, lights, and people? Think about where you grew up and how much of a change you want from that when you go to college.

4. Distance from Home

Closely tied to location is the issue of how far from home you want to be. For some people, going to college is a chance to explore a totally different part of the country. For others, they want to make sure they can have dinner with their family once a week, or go home to do their laundry. When you decide how far you want to be from home, think about how likely you are to get homesick, and how much money you can afford to spend in travel. The farther you are from home, the less often you'll be able to visit. On the other hand, with email and cell phones, you can still feel close to home even if you're in California and your sister is in New Jersey.

5. Cost/Scholarships & Financial Aid

Cost is one thing that most parents think about when the topic of college comes up, but did you know that not all colleges cost the same amount? Or that there are different types of financial aid at different schools? Or that if your grades — or musical talent or athletic ability — are good enough you could earn a scholarship?

Public universities often offer much lower tuition rates to in-state students, but their fees to out-of-state residents are usually pretty similar to private schools. Private institutions charge everyone the same high tuition, but they often have privately-funded scholarship monies available, so it's worth applying to them even if the price tag seems too high.

7. Majors and Requirements

If you know what field you want to go into after college, it's important to make sure you go to college somewhere that will prepare you for your chosen profession. Some schools are particularly well-known for a specific major, like pre-med or architecture. Going to one of these schools will put you in a great position to get a job in that area when you graduate. If, however, like many entering freshman, you're not so sure what you want to do, you should choose a school that will give you plenty of options.

Some schools require students to take classes in a wide range of areas during their first year or two. These schools are great for students who either want a well-rounded education or are trying to figure out what area to focus on. Other schools let students just dive in to their chosen majors without a lot of other requirements. These schools are great for focused students who know what they want to do and don't want to spend their time in classes that won't help them in their major.

8. Athletics and Events

Are you a sports nut, or does the sound of a marching band and the sight of a football uniform make you cringe? At some schools, sports are the order of the day, the main social activity on most students' calendars. Other schools may not have a football team at all, or may not pay much attention to it if they do.

Maybe you're really into going to live concerts, or you love nothing better than to go hiking in the woods. If you like to spend your free time going to shows at clubs, you probably won't be happy at a small school in the countryside where few musical acts stop on tour. However, if you love to be outdoors, a campus in a natural setting can give you just the kind of balance you need to feel your best.

9. Activities and Special Programs

Have you always wanted to try living in another country? Some colleges have special programs to help you do just that, for a semester or even a whole school year. You'll usually get full credit for your work overseas, plus have the chance to learn a new language, make some new friends, and try some new food.

Or maybe you're a dancer or a journalist. You'll want to make sure you go to a school that not only fulfills your academic goals, but your personal ones, too. Some schools have great arts and theater programs, or excellent newspapers, giving students a chance to be involved in extra-curricular activities outside their majors. Other schools focus all their attention on great classes, but not much else.

10. Your Gut Feeling

Trust your instincts. If a place feels right, that's important. Similarly, if it just feels wrong, no matter who wants you to go there or how good it looks on paper, it probably is. College is a very personal choice, and after considering all the other objective factors, the fact of the matter is that it comes down to you. Visit colleges you're interested in, and see how you feel walking around their campuses. Could you imagine yourself going to school there? Once you find a few places that you like, you'll be well on your way to finding the college that's right for you.

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Good luck, and happy hunting!

By Michelle McFarland-McDaniels

If you're a high school junior or senior and you have taken either the PSAT, SAT or ACT, chances are you've already seen the first trickle of the flood of letters, postcards, catalogs, phone calls, invitations and other solicitations you'll be bombarded with from colleges, universities and trade schools over the next months. They're going to send you sweet, inviting letters, glamorous videos and glossy booklets that get you all excited about attending this school or that. The problem is they all look so good that making a decision about which college to go to can be overwhelming.

Help! I'm SO Confused

Having been heavily recruited during my pre-college days, I can relate to the confusion and panic that you experience as you sift through the barrage of materials that steadily arrive in the mail. The pressure can be nerve wracking, but sooner or later you have to face the inevitable and start narrowing down the options and deciding which schools you'll be applying to before the application deadlines start sneaking up on you. But before you begin requesting transcripts and soliciting letters of recommendation you need to decide what you want in a college.

Things to Consider

Does the school have the academic program you are interested in pursuing? This is usually not a problem in most cases since, with a few exceptions, most colleges in the United States have very similar academic offerings. Also, most students have no idea what they want to study when they enter college, and even some students who believe they are certain they know what they want to major in when they enter college end up graduating with a degree in a totally different area than the one they've been planning on pursuing since kindergarten. Still, if you are interested in a specialized program like screenwriting or ethnomusicology you'd better do your homework and make sure that the schools you're applying to offer those programs.

What are your post-college goals? You should choose a school where you can make contacts that will help you find a job when you graduate. Or, if you're leaning toward graduate or professional school, you should make sure that your school and your field of study are accredited by an accrediting organization that is acceptable to graduate and professional schools you are considering.

How difficult is it to get accepted? How selective a school is should definitely be a consideration. Although you shouldn't freak out if you don't have straight A's and 1600 SATs, you should take a good long look at your credentials and be realistic before you decide that you're only applying to three schools: Harvard, Yale and Princeton. In any event, apply to several schools--I recommend ten--that you would really like to attend: choose three or four "sure admits," three "pretty good bets," and three "dream schools." Then, go for it!

Where is it located? You may want to go to a college that's close to home or clear across the country. Either way there are both advantages and disadvantages. For instance, if you choose to go to college far away from home you may grow tremendously from having to be independent and gain new friends in the process. On the other hand, you may not be able to afford to come home on short breaks when your friends choose to head home instead of to the beach or the slopes. Also, you want to find out what the climate and living conditions are like if you choose an area that is very different from your home environment. I knew that Ithaca (New York, where I earned a master's degree from Cornell University) had cold winters; what I didn't know was that annual snowfall in Ithaca is measured in feet, not inches.

How much does it cost? With the current average annual cost of college attendance, according to StudentLoanNetwork.com, ranging from $18,452 at a state university to $44,592 at an Ivy League school, money is certainly not the least consideration. However, don't rule out applying to schools you really want to go to solely because of cost considerations. There are billions of dollars in scholarships, grants, loans and work study awards available from federal and state governments, corporations, civic organizations, professional and trade organizations, private philanthropies and schools themselves. Check with your guidance counselor for information about these.

What is the campus culture like? Do most of the students live on- or off-campus? Are there lots of things to do around campus or do students mostly seek their entertainment elsewhere? To determine if the campus culture is to your liking, you should definitely visit as many of the campuses you are considering as you can. When you visit, try to take in a few classes that you think you'd be interested in enrolling in and arrange to stay overnight with a current student--many admissions departments will match you up with a host. If you can't visit a campus for some reason, ask the admissions department to send you a video and arrange to have a couple of students call you.

What do your parents think? Although you're the one who has to go to college, face it, your parents will have an opinion and, yes, you will hear about it. Your parents are probably just as excited as you are about you going to college, but sometimes their idea of the perfect college for you is vastly different from your idea of the perfect college for you. You could choose to ignore them if they don't tell you what you want to hear and you're totally self-supporting. But, if you disagree with your parents and you are not self-supporting, be prepared to either pay for college or spend some time sulking. Whatever you do, make sure it's a decision you can live with.

After all factors have been considered, compare your notes, carefully weigh your options and select a college home that will meet your needs, prepare you to meet your future goals and fit your lifestyle. Good luck!

More resources

http://www.studentloannetwork.com/financial-aid-101/costs.php

by Dr. Fritz H. Grupe, President of MyMajors.com

You will be surprised at the answer you get if you ask most college graduates, "Do you remember how you decided on a major when you were in college?" They might have been among that small number of students, some say as few as 20 percent, who knew what they planned to major in. Or they may have been among, some say, the 80 percent who were undecided when they arrived on campus. They might also have been among the estimated 50 percent of students that changed majors more than once. My own decision was made, I must admit, rather cavalierly at the end of my first year when I got my second semester transcript. I looked at grades I had gotten in history and biology, which were my best, thought for a second, and said, "biology!" Not much thought there. But that was a few years back. There are consequences for not having a clear thought about a major.

You would think that picking a major would be simple, but it's not for most students. High school students may be scoring higher on standardized tests, but they are no more likely to know what to major in than did their parents. To some extent, this indecisiveness is understandable. There are lots of factors that keep students from an accurate decision on majors they should consider. Among these are:

• Many counselors and many self-assessment instruments focus on careers or personality types, which typically do not suggest clearly which majors to take. One can become a lawyer or a physician, for example, by having taken a variety of undergraduate majors, and knowing that you are a certain personality type, scientific and introspective, for example, leaves one at sea with respect to picking a major.

• Counselors, especially new counselors, may not be well versed in what it takes to succeed in the variety of majors available to students. Virtually all of them have a sense for what makes a student a candidate for education, but for engineering? Geography? Anthropology?

• With a current ratio of 450 students to each high school counselor, many counselors are too busy to spend as much time with students as they would like. Some small schools don't even have a high school counselor.

• In high school, students only see a limited number of disciplines. In small schools, in particular, the choices of electives are limited.

• Students spend lots of time applying and getting admitted to the college of their choice, but they spend little time researching majors or thinking about what should go into their decision. They may even attend a college or university that doesn't offer a major that would be best for them.

This problem is easily, but, to my mind, incorrectly, disposed of by parents, as well as by counselors, who say, "Don't worry. Just start taking courses and ask around. You'll find a major that you'll like." There are lots of problem with this perspective in spite of its prevalence. The biggest problem is the cost of delay. Many, if not most, majors are planned by college faculty around sequences of required courses that take 3 1/2 to 4 years to complete, if you stay on track. If students decide that they want to be a business, engineering or a computer science major, for instance, they'll see that at most schools, they should have started on the initial courses in the first year or even the first semester.

What happens if students don't? Unless students are really lucky or they can go to summer school, they end up in college, not for the four years they budgeted for, but for five years. At a private college, the College Board says, tuition alone for a fifth year at 2006-2007 rates can cost students, on average, $22,218, and at a public institution, $5,836. This cost is increased in some states that are beginning to charge higher tuition rates for students who exceed maximum levels without having obtained a degree. Throw in the cost of books, living expenses and, shudder, the lost income of a year in which students could be making a professional salary, and soon the cost adds up to a $75,000 penalty. An average graduating student already has a debt level approaching $25,000. The worst-case scenario, perhaps, is that a student, unmotivated by the presence of an appropriate major, drops out with two or three years of debt and no degree.

What should students do when they are willing to spend more time trying to decide on a major before they have wasted time unnecessarily? Here are some ideas:

1. Assess why students are having trouble selecting a major and find a strategy to deal with it. "I just don't know" isn't a reason. Are students not aware of the options? Review college catalogs. Do they have trouble making decisions in all areas of your life? Maybe a counselor is needed to help them analyze why they delay on decisions. Do students have too many good possibilities? Start narrowing down the field, perhaps by starting on the major that has the most prescriptive course sequence requirements.

• Several web sites provide information on university majors. www.MyMajors.com interviews students, assesses their values, grades, test scores and which courses they enjoyed or did not enjoy. It then recommends majors for them to consider.

• College Board, Princeton Review, MyMajors, and a number of university sites (try a search on "Find a major" with a search engine) provide information pages on a variety of majors. Are your students interested in a particular career? Have the students talk to some professionals in the field and find out how they got where they are today.

2. If students are thinking about a career, i.e., a specific profession, they need to find out what majors most lend themselves to successful employment in that field. Sometimes the majors are very limited (e.g., to be a civil engineer, you have to major in civil engineering), while others accept students from a variety of majors. For example, if a student wants to be a lawyer, the student can come from almost any major and still get into law school.

3. There are several types of advisors on the college campus to assist students.

• First, have students discuss their thoughts and issues with a university-level advisor. They have a broad perspective. They are educated to help students understand their capabilities and interests and to help you identify productive routes to pursue. Advise students not to wait until they arrive on campus in the fall to meet with an advisor, however. They are so busy helping students register that they don't always have time to offer broader goal-setting assistance to new students.

• If the student has selected a general area of interest, say business, health sciences or liberal arts, typically that student can meet with an advisor in that college..

• If the student has narrowed down the search to a particular department, by all means, advise the student to talk to some faculty and students in that department to see if the student really understands what it takes to succeed in the major, if the courses seem interesting, and to determine what the initial courses are that the student should consider enrolling in.

4. High school counselors are a definite resource, and if the student wants intensive support, there are many independent, fee-based counselors who will work with the student on lots of aspects of picking a school, preparing an application for acceptance, and choosing a major. They specialize in helping students find the right path.

5. Attend the orientation sessions presented for incoming students. These sessions usually include discussions related to choosing a major.

6. Many schools offer for-credit, first-year experience seminars that are designed to help students adjust to college life. They generally include components that deal with major selection.

If you desire your students to graduate college, you will have to help your students find a major that they enjoy and can be successful in. The sooner the student commits to finding the right major, the less anxious the student will be.

Teenagers, Know Your Talents and Hobbies and Use Them to Your Educational and Career Advantage

By Mayene de Leon

When I was two years old, I took up coloring constantly, loving crayons, markers, pens, and anything that would make marks at my discretion. I got in trouble for drawing in the dark corners on my bedroom walls in permanent orange marker and dipping my fingers in paint, but what's a spank or two for creating art?

Maybe my early interest in art decided the rest of my life from there on out, whether I knew it or not. Or perhaps I was directly influenced by my father, an artist. Whatever made me do what I'm doing now, I don't care. The fact is that I'm in college majoring in design and music, the two things I love and the two things I can see myself doing for the rest of my life.

But sometimes you don't realize what is right in the palm of your hands, and that might cause a problem, especially for maturing teenagers, getting ready to further their education and dreaming of a career and a successful life.

My interest in drawing never ceased from the day I started using pens and pencils and any other utensil capable of drawing, but as a kid I knew it was a fun thing, and adults don't have fun, do they? My biggest dream when I was a kid all throughout elementary school was to become a doctor. It sounded good. It looked good on television. And hey, I inherited the smart genes, so studying to be a doctor didn't seem so complex at my young age. When I was four years old, I told my oldest brother's history teacher that I wanted to be an astrophysicist. When I had her as my history teacher twelve years later, she shared that memory with the whole class. Boy, how embarrassing.

Drawing became more frequent and more exciting for me when Japanese animation made its debut in America with the magical girl anime series Sailor Moon. I rushed home everyday during middle school to watch it and memorize the lines and faces of the sailor soldiers and made several attempts to recreate the beautiful lines and curves. But being pre-teen, I had no formal knowledge about drawing in proportion and figure outlining. All I knew was that my drawings looked funny, but it was the best I could do at the time. Yet, when I would sketch during class, my classmates would always oogle over my drawings, and I'd occasionally get a request or a small "commission" -- a five-minute pencil sketch for 50 cents? Sure, just give me five minutes!

I had only one rivaling hobby: music. In third grade, my mom made me take up the violin. I received a hand-me-down violin from one of my brothers and started playing in the small school groups in 4th grade. I naturally rose to the top of the class, and all throughout my years of public education from the day I started taking music classes in elementary school all the way to my high school graduation, I was at the top musically. The only problem was that I never took practicing violin seriously, and that was only going to have consequences after high school.

It wasn't until my junior year in high school that I told my orchestra teacher that I wanted to major in music performance. All these years I kept saying I wanted to major in art, art, art (the want to be a doctor phase ceased once I entered middle school), and all of a sudden I had this outburst of violin performance? Yet, the big problem persisted. I didn't do what it took to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. I only did what I consider "cram-practicing" -- practicing for hours on end during the week if a competition was approaching. Still, I never put enough effort into it, because I felt I was so natural at it, that everything would just fall into place. This revelation of choosing this major was mainly because the newly hired orchestra teacher at my high school my sophomore year was such a mean jerk to me that I felt like proving that I could play the violin.

But if I really wanted to, why didn't I practice?

My senior year I ended up getting a job at the local newspaper company as a graphic artist at the young age of 16, getting hired over, more or less, a dozen Silicon Valley College design students. All of my co-workers were old enough to be either my parents or grandparents. Despite being young and being the object of attention in the work-environment, I did my job naturally, and didn't experience much of the stress people complain about in the office-type work environments especially during deadline days. At the same time, I taught beginning and intermediate violin lessons locally to those who asked.

When high school ended, I received several music awards, but didn't even have the pleasure of claiming a piece of artwork in any of the art classrooms. I never took an art class all throughout high school, yet here I was working professionally as a graphic artist.

I entered college as a declared music performance major. Unfortunately, I failed my violin performance jury and was rejected by the music performance department because I "didn't have the technique" and playing catch-up would be close to impossible. If I had really wanted to become a violin major, I would have practiced my butt off every day from that moment on. Yet, being rejected as a violin, something that had never happened to me before, cut my ego more than half and I shied away from practicing even more.

I had to sit down and reflect. I never picked up the violin on my own, it was placed on my shoulder by my mother. I never took violin lessons. I had to admit I had no real discipline for practicing. Ok, I had to stop blaming the music department for ill-advising me. I couldn't blame anyone but myself for being rejected by the music performance program. I like playing the violin, and I will continue it, but I know becoming a concert violinist is out of my reach. Think realistically, now.

Just recently did I pick up a second major, graphic design, in addition to music theory (which I inevitably switched over to, because there is no question that I like music, and there is no way I was going to major in math, physics, engineering, business, or all those other non-artsy fields). Taking art classes is pure joy. I don't even consider them classes -- why did I wait until now to do such a thing? Art comes naturally to me; I'm an artist at heart and rise to the top effortlessly. I don't have problems laying out black strips of paper to make an interesting composition within a restricted boundary, but trying to harmonize four-part writing in music theory is dreadful.

Why did I ever cease to say "I'm going to major in art" in high school?

By simply being me and taking the chances I feel are right, I can achieve more than I expect, like landing a job at the school magazine as Assistant Design Editor and becoming the highest ranked sophomore/rising junior on the whole design staff. I think it's obvious that you do better effortlessly when you're presented with work you don't mind doing. When you're working with something you love, it's less working and more enjoying.

I did hesitate in picking up a second major, because I wanted to drop music altogether and focus mainly on art. But being at such a pricey university, my mother told me, "Is majoring in just design really worth all that money?" I hesitated because of that guilt. Maybe there was a hint of disappointment in her voice, but I took into consideration that I am me and she is a different person. I'm 18 years old, and I'm a legal adult. I should be able to make these decisions on my own. My parents were almost unwilling to send me to art school straight out of high school; my dream college was the San Francisco Art Academy before I made that outburst about majoring in music near the end of high school. If I was denied that joy once, why should I have to go through it again?

My compromise with myself on keeping music theory as a major and just picking up graphic design is a balance in work. I love art so much that taking the required classes to receive a Bachelor's of Arts in design is not a burden at all, even though I have to overload my schedule my remaining semesters to play catch-up with the art requirements. When I had music theory as a sole major, I didn't think much about graduate school, because I loathed at the idea of writing a long thesis on something related to music theory. However, being in a degree program such as design, the idea of going to graduate school for design is much more appealing and something to look forward to.

My advice is as follows: distinguish the line between a hobby and a talent. If you can't, don't be in denial if you're clearly better in one field than another or just simply prefer one over the other. Don't choose a major just to prove something. Choose a major you love, because it will come easier, and if you disregard future salaries, just think before employing yourself: can I seriously do this for the rest of my life? Or will I get tired of collecting waste samples in a work field and testing them for contamination, all the while having to recording accurate data in charts and presenting them creatively under the pressure of a loud, quick-tempered boss and having to dress in expensive attire often?

If that's what you really enjoy, then do it. If you love math and you love patterns, then by all means major in it as long as you understand the numbers and complexities and experience happiness when working with formulas. Don't major in math because your parents told you that if you don't they won't pay for your higher education. That is a lame excuse. When you really want something, go for it. Become a doctor because you're interested in anatomy or want to help people, not because it will showcase your intelligence and provide you with more wealth than a teacher. We may not all get to Carnegie Hall, but we can definitely get somewhere in life as long as you strive, strive, strive. Don't settle for less.

I wouldn't be happy if I was majoring in pre-med at the moment even if I did dream of being a doctor once (and I do still think it's a very good profession). I know I could do it, get through school as long as I study hard, but why not reach for something more fit for my personality that's within my grasp.

Everyone has something they're good at and they love. If you don't know what it is, then maybe you need to take a step back and look at yourself. Slow down, list your strengths, and enjoy life.

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