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Location: 

  • Do you want to stay near home or travel several times a year? (Consider how much travel expenses will cost, especially during holidays)

  • Do you want the fast-paced life of a metropolitan campus or easygoing serenity of a small town college town?

  • Is it import for you to be nearby mountains for skiing or oceans for swimming, etc?

  • What kind of weather do you like?

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Characteristics to Consider in a College Environment

Student Body:

  • Is a single sex or coed school more your liking?

  • Are you looking for a student body drawn from across the nation or from a smaller geographic area?

  • Do you want to be surrounded by thousands of classmates or only a few hundred?

Academic Requirements:

  • How do you realistically view yourself as a student?

  • Do you want an academically demanding college program or would you prefer a school where you can make respectable grades without knocking yourself out?

  • Do you expect to be aiming for graduate school?

  • Do they have the major you are interested in?

Academic Structure:

  • Do you feel attracted to a larger university encompassing many schools and colleges or to a small single-purpose institution?

  • Are you looking for a specific major?

  • Do you need a highly structured academics framework in order to work effectively or can you work with a curriculum that allows for independent projects or has no requirements at all?

  • Do you need the incentive of grades or would you work equally well under a pass/fail or comment grading system?

Campus Life:

  • Do you want to live in a dormitory or off campus? How much are the dorms? What is the availability of off campus housing?

  • Is it important to you that there be something happening on campus every minute or would you be happiest in a more leisurely setting?

  • Are you interested in fraternity or sorority life?

  • Are you in a inveterate joiner who is looking for a school with a wide assortment of extracurricular activities?

  • Do you want an extensive athletic program?

Costs:

  • Is your family able to pay the generally higher tuition of a private college (or can you get a scholarship) or does a public college seem more feasible?

  • Are you interested in work-study programs, in which the college officially combines or alternates periods or employment with periods of study? (cooperative education)

  • If you are sure you won’t quality for scholarship assistance, would you be willing to work part-time and/or take loans to pay for your education?

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