Choosing a College
By Briana, age 19, Pennsylvania
Sweet Designs Staff Intern
Sweet Designs Featured Writer
The first thing you need to do is decide which aspects of the school are most important to you. Usually, these include major, campus size, class size, location, etc. Different things will be more important to different people. I'm going to give a general idea of what you should do for each aspect.
IMPORTANT! You must consider all of these aspects together in order to make the best decision for you. If you only consider one aspect, you may be unhappy with certain others. So make sure you know what's important to you!
MAJOR: Before you can really decide what your perfect school is, you should have some kind of idea what you want to major in. For me, the most important thing my ideal school needed was a major in Musical Theatre. Since my major was so specific, it really helped me to narrow down my options. If you're truly undecided, then think about what kind of job you might like to do. This will help you find a program suited for your needs.
LOCATION: Location is very important in making your decision. Whether you prefer to stay close to home or travel out-of-state, even across the country, will help you narrow down your choices.
TUITION: To some, tuition prices help make their decision. For others, it's only a slight inconvenience. Either way, what you or your parents are willing to pay will strongly affect your choices.
CAMPUS/CLASS SIZES: Depending on your learning methods, you may want to go to a smaller school with a small class size in order to get the most individual attention. Or maybe you really want to meet a lot of people and participate and a slew of clubs on a large campus. This, also, is up to you.
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Where you will be living can really affect your college experience, so you should take this into account when choosing a school. When visiting schools, dorms should be clean and not too uncomfortably small. But don't be too picky; most dorms are very small and cramped, so plan to work the space to your liking as much as you can.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I made a list of these things in order of importance. Now I feel that they all are quite important, but some are more imperative than others. For example, I ranked my major as my number one thing. This was important to me, because if a school didn't have the major I was looking for, I didn't need to take the time looking into it. This helped me narrow down my choices quickly. Then I ranked schools based on the other factors. Doing this really simplifies a somewhat tedious and difficult process.
