[cinderbl0ck]

i'm a junior in high school but it's never too early to look! =D

When looking at colleges..what do you look for exactly? i know certain colleges specialize in something but what about the colleges that are just broad that have everything?

i'm not sure what to look. i looked at colleges and their websites but how do i kno what they specialize in? and what programs they offer?

i kno the factor of where do you want to go/location/money/majors and etc but most colleges offer a lot of different classes. how do you distinguish the between between a better college than a not so good college?

[chinese tears <3]

For me, I look at what students say about their professors and life on campus. Like I want professors who will know me as more than just another number in their class, so I applied to mostly private schools with population around 2,000 students. Then I look at the program for my major. I actually go to the program website and see what courses they offer, what their graduation/job offer/etc stats are, etc.

I mostly just find my major/location/etc. stuff from collegeboard.com then the list it gives me, I go through and find what the school's like to narrow it down. Most schools I picked, I know what they're good for because people tell me or it's their top majors. A lot of finding out what they specialize is based on their rankings for that program or what people will tell you. Big research schools will obviously be more focused on science, engineering, technology, medicine, etc. Smaller schools might focus more on humanities and some are liberal arts schools.

Finding a good school or not so good is really based on your own judgment to me. Like UCLA is considered a "good" school because of it's rankings or stats or research, but to me, since it's so large and the professors aren't very good I don't think it's a good fit for me. But if ranking and fame is what you're looking for... then there you go.

[DaAzNkIgGa627]

To me one of the most important things is majors and graduate school opportunities. That's why I want to go to a place like Georgetown, Harvard (whew... I need lots of luck), or Columbia due to their strength in International Relations and their graduate school opportunities from there.

Another important thing is location (I only want metropolitan locations... I'm not exactly too excited about being in the middle of nowhere...).

[cyberfruit]

I look for the majors they offer, the career services (gotta know that you can get a job after college!), and the student life. Testimonials from students can, and have, make or break a list for you. Location is also deinfitely key, and I actually don't have any college in the mid-west on my list because of tornados nor any in Florida because of the hurricanes. I also like to look at the types of clubs and sports a college offers, and the diversity (coed and race) percentages.

RPI has been on and off my list because of it's high Greek life, low women's percentage, and it's location in a place called Troy in New York, but I kept it because of the fact that it's known for its engineering and architecture programs. On the other hand, UMiami and UArizona were kicked off my list because of their reputation of being party schools and their locations.

[cinderbl0ck]

i went on school's website but where do they tell you the classes and majors they have? maybe i'm just dimwitted cause i cant find it. xD

[akenon]

Usually a college has a section called "Academics" where you can find the majors offered.
Princeton Review does a pretty good job of summing up the colleges as well.
You need a login name and stuff though.

[cyberfruit]

i went on school's website but where do they tell you the classes and majors they have? maybe i'm just dimwitted cause i cant find it. xD

Majors are usually found under "academics", "majors", or "courses".

[chinese tears <3]

You can find all of their classes in the course catalog too. Sometimes it's hard to find the course catalog though, if they even have it. Or it takes me a while to find it anyways. I don't know if your high school has it, but my career center has a lot of course catalogs from different schools that you can look at.

[cinderbl0ck]

ohhokay. thanks everybody! xD