Now is the time high school juniors and seniors are frantically touring colleges, trying to figure out which one is perfect for them. I know this because two years ago that was me. I had a short list of requirements that potential colleges had to fulfill, but other than that, I went into the search process blind. I knew my school had to be far away from home, and it had to have good sports teams.
After my search process was complete, my list had become about 100 times longer and I had found my dream school. Now that I am here, I realize that there were a lot of things that I should have thought more about, like how much I would miss my dog.
1. Am I willing to walk up hills?
When its 100 degrees or there is 6 inches of snow, walking sucks. But walking up hills in that weather sucks even more. If the campus is really hill, consider the climate in that area.
2. Do I really want to go this far away from home?
Because I live so far away from my school my parents can’t always come down for mom’s/dad’s/parent’s weekend. It sucks when you see all of your friends with their families, but it was something I was willing to give up for my dream school. Also, I knew I would miss my dog, but I never knew how much I would miss them. I would do anything right now to even pet one of them.
3. Do I want to have to rely on a bus to get to class on time?
This all depends on the size of the school. At my school, I can anywhere on campus in about 15 minutes. Some of my friends who go to huge state schools have to catch a bus to get to their classes and if they miss the bus, they're screwed. This was something that was not on my original list, but now that I have the walking luxury, I'm so glad I chose the sized campus I did.
4. Do they have good sports teams?
This was a huge priority when I was looking at schools because I am a huge sports fan. If you're not, this might not be as important. But if you chose a school that doesn't have a football team or sports aren't a huge deal, you're going to accept that your Instagram timeline will be full of pictures from tailgates.
5. What are the class sizes?
This was also another thing that wasn't a priority for me. But since I go to a smaller school, my largest class is 130 kids and that is probably the largest class I will ever have. Many of my friends who go to state schools are in multiple classes with 200-300 kids and they miss their classes with 30 kids, where they could ask as many questions as they wanted.
6. What are their post-graduation job placement statistics?
This was one of the main things that I was looking for when considering colleges. No matter the reason you choose a specific school, the end goal of college is to find a job at the end. There are some schools that I visited that clearly had more focus on athletics rather than on academics. This was very apparent when you looked at their job placement statistic, which they often tried to hide. Be careful and do your research.
7. How much do you want to be involved in Greek life?
Whether you are pro Greek life or not, this is something most people consider when choosing a college. If you're not interested in Greek life, you might want to consider a school where it isn't as big of a deal. Even if you are interested, should face reality that rush may not work out in your favor. If this happens, you want to make sure you will still be happy at your school without being involved in Greek life.
