Now that the holidays are over and students are in their second semester of classes, it’s time for high school juniors to really focus on the college search. But before you start getting out the maps and making reservations though, it’s important to make sure that your college search contains a list of schools that are truly a fit.
Living in an area that is home to some of the nation’s best universities, it can be difficult to look beyond your back door, especially when those schools happen to be amongst the best values in college educations nationwide. However, it is crucial to a student’s academic success to do your homework and really look at what you want in a college education, before you jump straight to choosing a college based on its perceived ranking.
Step 1: Size
In determining what size school you want to attend, it’s important to understand the difference between a college and university. A college typically focuses on undergraduate education, awarding only a bachelors or a four-year degree. A university, however, serves both undergraduates and awards graduate and professional degrees. A college tends to be smaller in population, such as Davidson College, while universities vary in size from small, such as Wake Forest and Duke, to very large, such as NC State.
Size, though, is not just about student population and acreage. Your physical environment plays a key role in your academic success. Think about what environment would be the most conducive to your learning. If you attended a small school with a graduating class of 30, will you be happy in a school of 30,000? Do you learn well in lecture classes, or do you prefer an intimate setting? Are you able to learn in a course where you may only be known by a number, or do you need that one-on-one connection with your professor? Do you want to be taught only by professors, or are you comfortable in a class that may be taught by a Teaching Assistant?
Size is also a key component to your social life. Are you comfortable in large masses of people you don’t know, or do you need that daily connection with familiar faces? Are you looking for a school that offers an innumerable amount of activities or do you prefer being part of a close knit group and having less options, but knowing everyone that is in the group? Do you want to be a big fish in a little pond and get to know everyone at school, or are you looking for an adventure and want to blend in with the crowd and meet thousands of new people?
These are critical questions to ask when determining the size of the schools you are putting on your list. Too many students wind up transferring out of their first choice school because they didn’t take the time to look at what their life would be like. So, make sure you ask yourself the following questions: is it too big, too small, or just right!