Do you want to go to a good college, or send your child to a good college? everyone hopes for this. That's not the problem. The problem comes in knowing what a good college surely looks like, and knowing what makes one college "good" and an additional one one not so good. There are some things to look for in determining a good college, so think these things before you send off those applications.
Colleges offer worlds of palpate and opportunities, and what might be defined as good for one pupil will not be good for another. The first step is to determine what you need in a college. Put aside the mascot, the surely cool traditions, or your great-grandfather's long-standing tradition that all house members attend a certain college. These factors may not fit your needs. Ask yourself what you surely need, and prioritize that list. You might need it to be in a large city with communal transportation, or you might need it to offer a particular degree, or possibly you need it to fit a certain budget, have on-campus housing, work-study programs, etc. What you need may or may not be what you think it is if you allow yourself to be distracted by mascots, traditions, and school colors. Needs come first!
Food And Dessert
Needs and wants are not the same thing, though. You need food to live, but you don't need dessert. Sweetmeat is nice, when you can have it. After your needs are prioritized, make a isolate wish list. What "desserts" would be nice? Do you want a college that has an intramural basketball or softball league? Do you want to have a variety of communal clubs to consider? These are wants, not needs, and creating your list of desired options is the second part of finding a good college. These will be looked at as options, never as choosing factors. For instance, if your needs can be met by several separate colleges, then you can eliminate those who don't also have your wants covered. Never, never, never select a college because it has all of the items on your wish list if it doesn't also meet your needs list.
The next step is to take benefit of college hunt services. get ready your lists first, and then seek out websites such as College Board or Peterson's College Search. Fill out the hunt options, based on your needs, and see what comes up. You might be surprised to find some colleges that you didn't even consider. Invite catalogs from each of these colleges, and collate as best you can, their attention to detail in the literature that they send, the way in which they address you, etc. If they just send you the catalog, that's fine, but if they go the extra mile and call you, then you know they care about the habitancy who are coming to their school, not just the dollars. First impressions count in this step.
Next, ask for alumni palpate data from the schools that meet all of your needs, and some or all of your wants. Send letters to those alumni and ask them to criticism on their experiences and recommendations. You may have to go straight through an alumni association, which will put you in touch with the most enthusiastic of the school's supporters, but that's okay. If you are working with the alumni groups in each case, you will be able to collate one group to an additional one in terms of what they have gotten from that college out of their post-college experiences with them.
Finally, know that the biggest factor in finding a good college is in making the most out of the time that you are in college, no matter where it is. Any college can be good for you if you are seeking to learn all that you can learn, taking benefit of the expertise offered to you by your professors, and applying yourself diligently to your studies and connections in connected fields. In some respects, this is the extreme test of a good college!
How Do I Know a Good College When I See One?
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