Choosing Colleges: Top Schools Students Can Consider
Choosing a college is as big a deal as starting this new chapter in life, which means there is a litany of things to consider and even more questions to answer.
While there is no formula on finding the perfect college, there is a recipe — and the ingredients will be what matters to the students the most as they envision the kind of college experience they want to have.
To some, college is a venue to learn a bit about everything while others choose to see it as a passageway to go through to land a good job.
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There is so much that goes into selecting the top college and it is not just the academics. Since it practically will be the students' second home, the location of the college is of great importance because it will basically be what the life one will have in this part of their journey will look like.
Some might want to bask in wide landscapes on their way to the classroom or perhaps see and experience something new and unique every day in the cosmopolitan. Perhaps there are those who would want to be in a college located at the heart of a town that has everything they need to get through close by.
This is an aspect that Forbes took into account in their college matchmaker quiz, along with the emphasis on the prestige of a school and the kind of people students look up to or aspire to be. Students who value these the most can click on the link and take the quiz to find out which top college is the right one for them.
While college rankings do not tell the whole story, they give students a pretty good idea of what these schools have to offer. For those who want all the leeway of programs from minor to majors, master's and Ph.D., a ranking by US News by US News reveals that the national universities to consider are Princeton, Harvard, University of Chicago, and Yale.
For Liberal arts education, the same website ranks Williams College and Amherst College as the top schools to consider. Bowdoin College, Swarthmore College, and Wellesley College should be good choices as well.
These are the same colleges that can cater to those who put affordability as the priority, in addition to Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Columbia University for the national universities and Pomona College for Liberal arts education.
Grades will also be a major contributing factor in choosing and getting into a college, but as Big Future noted, "admission offices look for well-rounded students with unique things to offer."
The website offers a more comprehensive tool to search for the best college for any kind of student so those who care about the learning environment, housing and campus, diversity, and sports can use it to narrow down their choices.
