If you’ve got multiple potential schools on your college radar, it may be difficult to choose between one and the other. The decision can be daunting at the time, as a high school student your are committing four years of your life and also your college experience, to one institution. While you truly can’t go wrong in your choice as long as it suits you, we’ve developed some guidelines to make the process easier.
Don’t Go for the Wrong Reasons:
There are plenty of wrong reasons to choose a college. It could be the place all your friends are going, or you could choose it solely for the nightlife in the area. There are plenty of reasons to choose, or not choose, a college. What the most important aspect of the decision process entails is making sure your reasons are valid. Maybe it has been your dream to attend a tier one engineering institution but your math skills aren’t solid and it may not be the best fit. You don’t want to end up with remorse when you discover engineering isn’t your passion. Be realistic and practical in your decision-making, and you can’t go wrong.
Think with Your Head and Your Heart:
Oftentimes these two things are at odds, but try your best to make the decision with both. If you choose a school only on its practical applications for your education, you may be stuck living somewhere in where you don’t like the area. On the other hand if you pick an institution just because you have loved the idea of attending school there since childhood, you may need to rethink your plans. Using both your head and your heart will allow you to come to a decision that speaks to the best of your mind, and benefits how your college experience will unfold.
Weigh the Opportunities, and the Pitfalls:
Making a list of pros and cons never hurt anyone. The chances are that the institutions you have in mind will have more than one attribute that speaks to you, and that is where making the decision becomes most difficult. Weigh what you want in a school on a scale 1 to 10 and make sure to keep that ranking in mind when comparing schools and seeing what they offer. Remember, it is very difficult to make a “wrong” choice, wherever you go you will learn to love, but it will benefit you more if you go into your freshman year confident that where you are attending is the right place for you.