As the new academic year begins, you should set the stage now for
choosing and applying to colleges. For sophomores and juniors, you can
start the process now and by senior year, you should have plenty of
facts to help you make an informed decision. For seniors, you'll be
making your choices soon, so don't delay if you haven't begun the
process.
Click here to read what Student Council Member Annie Lewis told members
at our UCLA event in June about how she found her perfect college match:
Anne Lewis at UCLA.
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH
Do your homework; start researching the colleges that interest you.
There are well over 4,000 colleges and universities in the United
States, and also universities overseas are recruiting in the U.S. more
and more. You are probably receiving recruitment letters and material
from a number of colleges--look at the material carefully even if you
initially think you aren't interested in some of them--you may be
surprised. Sometimes a school you never heard of might be the perfect
place for you. For example, "U.S. News & World Report," has recently ranked Williams College in western
Massachusetts as the nation's top liberal arts school, one that may not
have even been on your radar.
Search free sites that match colleges to your interests--locations, costs,
financial aid, size, course offerings, such as
www.collegeboard.com
www.princetonreview.com
My College Guide
http://www.mycollegeguide.org/
You can search for a wide variety of
categories and come up with colleges that fit your criteria.
Next, research the websites of the colleges you are interested in very
carefully. Most colleges now view their websites as important
recruiting tools and keep them up to date and organized. Read through
these thoroughly, examining the admissions sections, financial aid and
scholarship areas, the different departments, faculty, and course
offerings. University websites provide information on the local
community, college visits and tours (most provide a virtual tour
online), and often the college newspaper is online. You can see what
kind of social activities are available, including clubs and
organizations, what visiting lecturers come to the school. You can
email questions to the admissions office as well.
Visits--most agree that an actual college visit is very important
if possible. Check into that on the college website, with your college
counselor, and websites that help set up tours, such as
http://www.college-visits.com/. Also visit college fairs in your area
and at your school. If you school has college information night, make
sure to attend with your parents. Here is a site to help you find
college fairs in your area:
http://www.schoolguides.com/calendar.asp
Rankings--Consider rankings with caution. "U.S. News & World
Report," "Newsweek-Kaplan College Guide," and the "Princeton Review,"
all rank schools each fall according to a variety of methods. Check
those out, but be sure to read the methods they use for arriving at
their rankings, which may not be pertinent to you. Princeton Review
surveys college students to rank schools in all kinds of area: dorms,
food, parties, and professors, and lots more. Determine which criteria
are most important to you and keep in mind that these numbers don't
really equal the college experience--you need to visit the school,
review its website, communicate with students there, and examine the
course offerings and faculty credentials before deciding. The lists can
help you decide whether a school is right for you, but you should never
select a school based solely on these ratings. Use them as a guide
only. For more information on rankings and selecting colleges, visit
www.usnews.com;
http://www.collegeboard.com/; and
www.princetonreview.com.
"The U.S. News & World Report" rankings often hold the most weight with
the colleges and the public. This ranking is a formula based on peer
assessment, freshman retention rates, graduation rates, faculty
resources, student selectivity, SAT/ACT scores, student/faculty ratio,
financial resources, and alumni giving. The editors assign a weight and
ranking to each of the categories in selecting the top colleges. Some
say the results are inherently skewed in favor of private colleges
because these typically are better funded. For example, the 2006 list
of "Best National Universities" includes in the top 10:
1) Princeton
2) Harvard
3) Yale
4) Cal Tech; MIT; Stanford
(3-way tie)
7) Stanford University
8) Duke
9) Columbia; Dartmouth; University of Chicago
(3-way tie)
12) Cornell; Washington University in St. Louis
(tie)
Their top ranked public universities are the University of California,
Berkeley (21); the University of Virginia and the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor (24
tie); and the University of California, Los
Angeles (26).
A note on the "Ivies": The
Ivy League is technically an athletic
conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education
located in the Northeastern United States. However, the term is used
more widely to refer to those eight schools as highly prestigious
academic institutions. All of the Ivy League colleges share some general
characteristics: they consistently place within the top twenty in the
"U.S. News & World Report" college and university rankings; they rank
within the top one percent of the world's academic institutions in terms
of financial endowment; they attract top-tier students and faculty.
These schools include:
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Columbia, New York City
Cornell, Ithaca, New York
Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire
Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Yale, New Haven, Connecticut
However, "Newsweek-Kaplan College Guide" has recently announced its 25
"New Ivies,"--colleges that have risen in prestige and quality, such as
the University of Virginia, Emory University, UCLA, Washington
University in St. Louis, among others.
Just remember, though, that a college is more than the sum of its
rankings, and go for the school that best suits your own needs.
Also, don't forget to email our student council members for questions about college:
www.nshss.org/council
FINANCIAL AID
Next month look for information about financial aid in our October Monthly Update.