Beginning to look into Colleges

mr. k

mr. k

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Here I am, midway through my junior year in High School. I pull good grades, take advanced classes, and need to start looking for a college to attend. I really have no idea what I want to look for - be it big, small, east coast or west coast, public or private.
This is a really big choice that I am going to have to start looking in to, and I really have no idea at all what I'm looking for. I was just looking for some insight from the people who have gone through this process before - how did you go about it? What would you recommend, the local university? An Ivy League Institution?
Right now I'm thinking about a mid sized private academy in some kind of urban setting, but then I've visited a few big colleges down in Iowa and they seemed really appealing.
If anyone could throw in their experiences or some advice that they think would have been real helpful for them to know before they began to pick colleges and move on to applying to them, that would be so incredible. I really just need starting block and a little push to get me in the water and swimming.
 
Well, at one point I entertained fantasies of attending Cal Tech, but I don't think they have what I want.

You need to decide what career track you want to reach for. Do you want to be a graphic or web designer? Do you want to be a compute technician? Do you want to be something non-electronic like a surgeon or a lawyer? Once you've decided what track you want to take, look online for resources that suggest good schools for that area.

Personally, I chose to go the junior college > state school route. I'm currently attending Modesto Junior College and taking general ed/transfer courses, after which I plan to go to Cal State Uni Monterey Bay for their TMAC major. You may want someting different; you might prefer going to a private university over a state school. I can tell you, though, that you'll get a plenty good education at a good state or junior college instead of paying much more for an Ivy League school.

Or you might want to go to a vocational school. You could get certified in a field of your choosing and work in there. However, you might decide later to go back and get a real diploma... and that's fine.

Another thing to consider is physical aspects of the school. Do you want a smaller school, where there are fewer people, smaller classes, and more intimate teaching styles, or would you rather have the anonymity of large lecture halls filled with 200 pupils? How far away do you want to go to school? I chose to go to school within driving distance of my home, but I know people who chose to get as far away from their families as possible (without leaving the country).

Take some tours. Find schools that offer what you're interested in, and travel to those schools and see them in person. And don't just look at a couple, take tours of a variety of schools, large and small, rural and urban, public and private. Get a feel for the kind of setting you'd be comfortable with.

Oh, and here is a listing of all the 4-year universities in the US and its territories.
 
I'm i the UK, so can't help you with specifics, but...

I seriously recommend touring (as arden says) anywhere you are considering. You don't have to wait for open days, i'm sure most places will have someone show you round if you ask.

Try and get in touch with a current student, and ideally go visit them. In the uk you can do this through student unions, not sure what you equivalent over there is.

When you visit- try to get some time on your own and go sit in the cafeteria/bar whatever, sit have a drink, look around. I learnt a lot about the atmosphere of places that way.

As alternative- come over here! There are a lot of US students on uk courses these days. I went to Imperial College London, a specialist science-technology university with a lot of good courses (not sure what you wanna study- but very good computer science courses there).

Lastly- choose somewhere you think you will enjoy and a course you are interested in. If you don't like the place/course, you won't put the work in and it will be a waste of time.

Good luck
 
Wherever you decide to go to school, make sure the college is ACCREDITED!!! There are some colleges out there that are not accredited. This is very important and the unaccredited colleges will fail to mention that. Plus, big name school degrees are a little more accepted in employer circles than from a no-name small school.

Also, make sure you choose a major that your interested in and can use in life. College is perhaps one of your biggest decisions because it will affect the rest of your life! However, just don't take one person's advise on your decision, take Arden's advice and visit a school and ask around from the students who are already there. Plus, try to find that school's alumni and ask about there education and experiences at the school your interested in. Arden also was correct about if your planing a bachelor's or master's degree, taking your first two years at a junior or community college might be a money saving option. Just make sure those course credits are transferable to the school you want to get the bachelor's degree from.

Lastly, start applying to the schools you want to go to as soon as possible. I say this because colleges get thousands of applications so the earlier the better. Plus, make sure all your prep exams and work are done right the first time when applying. Like they say, first impressions are the best impressions.
 
Go to a school that is in a college town, and live in the dorms for the first year or two. There is nothing like the experience of going to school and living in a college town. Everything there revolves around the university, it's a great experience. Live in a big city after you graduate. I'd also look at the large public universities, I'm a bit partial to the Big 10 schools. Ivy League is great if you have the money and want to major in things they excel at, they are also great for graduate school. Same goes for MIT/CalTech, their are other schools that are cheaper, and easier to get into, that have just as good of undergrad programs, ofcourse, they can't touch the graduate programs.

Also, pick something that is far enough away from your parents that they can't easily drop by unexpectedly (say, go atleast 5 hours via car away), but close enough that you can go home for the holidays, especially the smaller ones. Nothing worse then being one of like 15 people in your dorm who didn't go home for a smaller holiday because it was too far away.

Brian
 
Personally I would recommend a large public university especially if you don't know what you want to do yet. They offer thousands of courses and hundreds of majors, if you can't find something that suites you, you must be crazy. They offer hundreds possibly thousands of student groups to get involved in and to meet people. Public universities are generally cheaper with the same level of education. I attend The Ohio State University (we have the most majors of any school in the US if I remember correctly). I love OSU, while my general ed classes (entry level chem, calc, english, etc.) are big, we have classes that meet twice a week of about 15-20 students with a TA where you can ask questions and clarify anything you want about the material the professor went over. I love OSU.

I thought about going to Case-Western Reserve, but the huge cost, and lack of majors and classes, lead me to OSU.
 
I'm still in juinor high (weeeeeeee! moving up the ladder! :D ) but some things to look at when applying for a college.

What does the college specilize in? I'm a kansas boy myself, so I'll use KU and KSU for an example. If you want to be a vet, KSU has a very stronge animal care part of the school. KU doesn't.

Where do you live? Some states have colleges that cost less if you are living in the state to begin with. So, (using my self as an example) Going to UNT (two states over) would cost much more then going to KU (I can see the campuse from my house)

Housing is also fairly important (got to have a place to keep the imac! :) ) Some places have rent alot cheaper then others. Or you can swallow your ego, and live with your folks (asumming they'll let you)
 
Another track, of course, is the military. The pros: good benefits (health, dental, though not so much anymore with Herr Bush :rolleyes:), good salary, get disciplined. The cons: It's the freakin' military!

Just thought I'd add that.
 
Thanks everyone, all fairly helpful posts. Right now I really want to go to school in a giant town on the east coast. Boston or New York have always appealed to me, I think it would just be real cool to have a university with it's campus downtown and right in the middle of things. I also have been looking for a private college, not because of private versus public as much because the private schools almost always have nicer looking financial aid packages - often offering to fill all of a students needs (as verified by the FASFA forms which my family should get a fairly low score on).
But I recently visited a few colleges down in Iowa - Luther and Wartburg. They are both college towns (in the case of Luther there really is hardly even a town) and both looked enticing. And btonelli's 5 hours makes lot's of sense, I had never thought of being the only one left on campus, but having to fly back and forth so often would most likely be out of my budget.
I am getting lots of mail from college's all over (I think it's because of my psat scores), but so far not too many of them have piqued my interest. I am looking real hard at majoring in some type of physical design - architecture is something I am real interested right now.
So let's say I choose a small school - any advice for what I do then? I need to take all those bull standardized tests this spring. Any advice for how to study for them? Brush up basic math and get some real good vocab? Read a lot? Pick up one of those study books?
How about how to go about getting scholarships? The way my family makes money it looks like we are dirt poor because neither of my parents has a true job, and on the FASFA it *should* look like my parents are raising three kids on peanuts, so how could they afford to contribute to my college education?
Just to wrap up, this is about where I am right now - I want an appealing private school within driving distance of my family, one where I could major in architecture, or at least take a few courses in it to see if I want to major in it. And I want nice dorms with a great cafeteria to boot. Maybe staying closer to home then I originally thought wouldn't be such a bad idea? And if I decide down the road to go to a big renowned university and get a degree in architecture I should just get the grades to allow me to do that. I don't know if big school for me right now would be the best, because I go to a 2100 person high school and absolutely hate it - although maybe not because it's big, but it just sucks in general. My k-8 school had about 500 kids in nine grades, and I loved the place. Maybe I do want small. Again, thanks for all the advice.
And what do you guys think about this - basically cutting my senior year at high school down to a class or two and the sports I play to earn a few college credits per semester and save some money on the basic courses I would have to take as a freshman?
 
Easier to reply like this than in bulk. Anyway...
mr. k said:
I also have been looking for a private college, not because of private versus public as much because the private schools almost always have nicer looking financial aid packages.
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That's because private schools cost much more than public schools. You have to pay more, so you need more help.
I am getting lots of mail from college's all over (I think it's because of my psat scores), but so far not too many of them have piqued my interest. I am looking real hard at majoring in some type of physical design - architecture is something I am real interested right now.
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You should see the stack of college-related info I got from my PSAT scores... oh wait, you can! :) See the attachment... And, naturally, I ended up choosing none of them to attend. :rolleyes:
So let's say I choose a small school - any advice for what I do then? I need to take all those bull standardized tests this spring. Any advice for how to study for them? Brush up basic math and get some real good vocab? Read a lot? Pick up one of those study books?
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Those books are mostly about how to take the test. There's no real way to study for the material on tests like the SAT because it's more of what you know than material... does that make sense? The questions always change, and there are no gray areas where it could be this or that, so it's pretty pointless to get those books IMO.

I'd recommend taking Advanced Placement classes. Many schools let you use your AP exam scores to waive certain classes. I've been able to get out of 5 different classes with the 6 AP classes and tests I took over the years in high school (I don't need introductory psychology in college, so that score doesn't help me a lot).
How about how to go about getting scholarships? The way my family makes money it looks like we are dirt poor because neither of my parents has a true job, and on the FASFA it *should* look like my parents are raising three kids on peanuts, so how could they afford to contribute to my college education?
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Yes, definitely. Look for scholarships, grants, and yes, even loans. You'll definitely need it if your parents aren't executives at medium- to large-scale businesses. There are a wide variety of scholarships out there; many are for niche students (Portuguese immigrants with less than 2 years of English, Hispanics working in agriculture, or other BS like that), but there are a number that would be perfect for you.
Just to wrap up, this is about where I am right now - I want an appealing private school within driving distance of my family, one where I could major in architecture, or at least take a few courses in it to see if I want to major in it. And I want nice dorms with a great cafeteria to boot.
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So are you going to build this perfect school yourself? ;)
Maybe staying closer to home then I originally thought wouldn't be such a bad idea?
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It depends on how cool you are with your family. If you hate each other, get as far away from there as possible... if you have a good relationship, you wouldn't suffer from staying close to home (you might even benefit: I'm getting free room & board because I'm going to school in-town right now).
And what do you guys think about this - basically cutting my senior year at high school down to a class or two and the sports I play to earn a few college credits per semester and save some money on the basic courses I would have to take as a freshman?
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I wouldn't recommend cutting your senior year too short. I know lots of people who only took 4 or 5 classes last year, but if you have your graduation requirements filled you should take either fun electives or challenging courses like AP to get you out of classes later. Whatever you do, you should let your schoolwork keep you busy so you don't get lazy; you'll have a tough time going from simple 2 no-brainer classes in high school to 4 or 5 tough college courses.

And schools like smart students. If you can do well in AP classes, that will make you look smarter than you might be... or make you look as smart as you are. And whatever you do, good luck.
 
Watch those colleges on the East coast. They are pretty damn expensive.

I think that you would be better off getting your undergrad from a state school and then get your masters from one of the big boys.
Why: Boston University's tuition is greater than $14000/semester. Your share of the rent in Boston (assuming you are sharing a 2 bedroom apt. in Allston/Brighton with 3 other roommates) will run you a min of $500/month before heat and other utilities.
Have a car. Just forget about it. Parking in the BU area of Boston is impossible. Scratch that, parking in Boston is impossible.
Heck I lived in Roslindale (a part of Boston) and had to drive to Allston for work. A grand total of 9 miles was a min 40 minute drive and at times took as long as 2 hours.
BTW: The "T" (subway) sucks. The line for BU, BC and Suffolk is very slow. My ride from Brighton (part of Boston near BU) to Suffolk on the "B" line took at least 1 hour each morning. I could bike it 20 minutes.
Go ahead and substiture Northeastern, Suffolk, Harvard, Boston College and MIT for BU. They are all about the same.
I lived in Boston for 8 years. Its painfully expensive to live there. I attended Suffolk University for a while. I have a piece of paper from BU. My wife has paper from Northeastern. We will be paying for those pieces of paper for the next 15 years. The debt load is quite high.

I also have a degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UAF).
I saw no difference in academic quality between UAF and BU. What I did see was a tuition bill that was almost 4 times more at BU.


So, I would suggest that you attend a state school for your BS. It will save you lots of money in the long run. Only go for the Big Names if you can afford it, get a good deal (fin. aid) OR if you really think you need to have a diploma from a Big Name to throw around.

One more warning from one whose been there and done that: you do have to repay all those school loans. The total might not sound like much on a per semester basis, but when you graduate get a job for $35k and you find out that you can't afford a new car, can't afford a nice apt. and you can't afford to "have fun" all because a large chunk of your salary will be going to pay off school loans for the next 20 years you will be sick.
 
Thanks for all the responses - and now to shift the focus of this thread a little bit does anyone know of a college that is very mac based? I am hoping to be able to at least bring this old iMac to school with me if I can't raise the money to get my hands on a nice new laptop, but it would be nice for the campus to be real mac friendly. There would be other peoples iTunes and iPhoto libraries avaliable to me via rendezvous, rendezvous iChat, and plus people with mac's just rock. Most colleges I have seen have at least one mac lab, and they really should, but I couldn't stand a school with nothing but windows 98 and mac os 9.
 
When I toured colleges (I actually only went to CSU's Monterey Bay and Channel Islands), both had a lab full of Macs. CSUMB had an iMac lab and CSUCI had a lab of G4's dedicated to art type of stuff (this was pre-G5). I don't know about predominantly-Mac schools, though; I mean, I'm sure there's a couple out there, but you might not like it at those schools. Then again, you may love it.

I hear Virginia Tech has a lot of Macs... ;)
 
So far, you have gotten a lot of good advice.
1) Do not take additional AP classes in your senior year. You will not have a life.
2) When you go for your test, read carefully, think, take your time. You should be use to taking tests and since you did well on your PSAT, the next one will not be bad. Just remember when you do your essay to follow the rules of writing.
3) There are many scholarships out there. Some have requirements such as career choices. Most want an essay and you must follow their rules and guidelines. Some make you jump through hoops (extra letters from others, copy of parents IRS forms, etc) and then you never hear from them. All that work and not even a thanks but no thanks. FASFA will want the name of the institution you are going to. You will need to make your decision before filing those forms.
4) Since you are not sure of your career choice, go to the community college near home. Take the General ED courses. this will get you use to the requirements of college professors and the work that is required. Most community colleges also offer an aptitude test/workshop for career choice. This will help you decide on what you want to do major and minor. Once you make your career choice, you then can do your research on the 4 year institutions.
5) While it sounds great to say you are attending a college that is on the coast, think about coming home for holiday breaks and the summer. If you live in a dorm, everything must go home with you for summer break. If you live in a shared apartment, you must pay rent for those summer months (and utilities) and do a temporary mail forwarding to get your bills.
6) your expenses will include not only your tuition and room, but also books (no breaks here - you are looking at $120 for just one book times four or five classes times two or three books per class), food - you have to eat, utilities - you need a phone, fun $$$ - you will want to go out, supplies - pens, paper and anything extra that the professor demands.
While you may think that a scholarship should come to you, do not depend on it. Think very hard about the financial aspect. You may be better off finding a state university that is close to home your best bet.
 
On the book end, you might look at some local university stores to pick up some used books. They might have writing in them, and they may not look to good, but they are CHEAPER. ;)
 
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