- Pictures lie! Colleges will show you the most beautiful spots of their campus on postcards, brochures and on their websites because they want you to go to their college. Always try to go see the college in person if you can. I can't tell you how many colleges disappointed me in person! Even Harvard was disappointing....
- Admissions rate in context of graduation rate: if a college has a high admissions rate (over 50%) but a low graduation rate (below 50%) that is an indicator that many people either leave the college by transferring to another college or that maybe there aren't that many resources for people to get help to graduate. Now if you are in love with a college DO NOT change it because of this just take into consideration you might have to find somewhere to go for help that is not the college. Another reason why this is important is because sometimes it is an indicator of if a college cares about their students. If students feel like they don't have the resources to succeed and graduate of course they will transfer out or drop out.
- Do not look at rankings! Rankings change every year and yes, it is nice to go to a top 3 or top 5 school but it means very little if you want to further your education beyond a bachelors degree. If you plan on getting a PhD like me that will be the first degree on your resume people will see. That is truly the only school that will matter because of course you want your PhD from a prestigious school! The school you get your bachelors degree at should be the school that makes you look best academically! If you go to an Ivy League school, but graduate with a 2.0 GPA that isn't as good as going to a state school and getting a 4.0 and maybe even graduating Valedictorian! It's not worth it to get hung up on rankings and worry about not getting in the top school when you can maybe go to a top 100 school, graduate debt-free and have a perfect GPA.
- Money, money, money,.... Of course, everyone wants scholarships, grants and financial aid, but some schools might not even offer them. Always check if and what kind of scholarships schools you are interested in have. Some schools might have a page like this: Trinity Scholarships or even a net price calculator like this: Net Price Calculator Trinity Also make sure that the tuition is worth it for you. If you go to a school that is $64,000 a year and you get $20,000 in scholarships is that affordable for you and is it worth it to you to maybe graduate with almost $200,000 in debt for a bachelors degree? If your family can easily do that and/or if that is your absolute dream college then do it! If not maybe you want to find a different option?
- Do not look at Faculty to Student ration rather look at average classroom size! Colleges like to advertise there 9:1 or 10:1 student to faculty ratio which can be veryyy misleading! I'm pretty sure that many other students like me see a student to faculty ratio and assume that your average class size should be 10 since there is one teacher for every then student right? Well, actually a lot of times when the ratio is 10:1 the classes can be in a range from 15-50 students in a classroom. Obviously a small student to faculty ratio is good, but a small average class size is better! Rice University average class sizes vs UTSA average class sizes
- Look at core requirement, major requirements and other requirements. If you already know what you want to major in look at your degree plan. Personally, I want to be a Biochemistry/ Biology with a concentration in Cell Biology and Spanish major. Since I want to be a double major I always try to see through the degree if it is manageable with the core requirements at a school to complete 2 majors. The more core requirements the less time you spend concentrating on your actual degree. If you are a science major and a school wants you to have 12 credit hours in English and 12 credit hours in Art (this is an over exaggeration of course) that school might not be a good fit for you. Some schools don't even have a core curriculum and if you know you want to focus on only your major that might be a good fit for you.
- Send me your location... Personally, the most important factor I consider when looking at colleges is located. Let's be honest, if you are the type of person to get homesick maybe it isn't the best idea to move from New York to LA for college. But if you don't like living in a small town you might have to look for a big city like San Antonio. Location is a important factor of every college not just because of your own feelings, but also think about the differences in opportunities. If you want to be a Journalist and go to NYC for college you can find internships at all the big newspapers. If you want to be a Physician you might want to go somewhere in Houston because they have the biggest medical facility in the world. If you want to be a geologist maybe a more rural area would allow you to do groundbreaking research.
- Demographics: Personally, one of the first things I look at when looking at a college is Demographics. If a school only admits 20% female students, would I feel comfortable going there? Or if a school disproportionately does not admit a certain Ethnicity, or Race do I feel comfortable supporting that? No! Because college is a place to diversify your opinions and without having people of other backgrounds and ethnicity how will you be exposed to those opinions? Even if a school doesn't admit certain income classes I normally tend to move away from considering them. Especially because it is 2019 no Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Religion or anybody should be disproportionately admitted so I don't want to continue supporting schools like that.
- Your gut feeling because it is more powerful than anything! I have looked at many schools that I wanted to be my perfect fit because they were prestigious or because they were less expensive than other schools, but none of them "felt right" to me. A month ago I actually went to visit a school that I never had seriously considered and when I walked on campus I didn't imagine myself there, I SAW myself there. My advice is don't force yourself into a school you don't love because of who knows what reason, go with your gut.
- Be realistic: With that I am not saying do not dream!!! I am saying be realistic with your options. For example, if you have a 2.5 GPA and a average ACT score you might not get into Harvard, Yale and Stanford, but maybe you will get into Dean College and Kentucky State! But always dream! If you want to go to Yale, but don't have the test scores and GPA then get amazing recommendations and make sure your essay is capturing! college acceptance calculator
I'll continue this post in a pt. 2 later on! Thank you for reading!
This is an example of Pictures lie!
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| Actual picture of registrar building
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| Picture used by schools website |
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