Student story: Prioritizing size, campus, major, and selectivity in the college search
About this video
A student explains the factors she weighed when choosing colleges: school size, campus, and strong programs in the field she wants to study. She also shares her mentor's advice to push herself by applying to some reach schools alongside schools she knew she could get into.
You'll be able to
- name several factors students weigh when choosing a college, such as size, campus and programs.
- explain why a student might prefer a smaller school.
- describe how to balance likely schools with reach schools on a college list.
Key words
- Reach school
- A college that is hard to get into for you, so admission is not likely but possible.
- Major
- The main subject you choose to study in college, like engineering.
Transcript
- Definitely a lot of factors you have to take into consideration. I personally wanted a smaller school mainly because I like that one-on-one connection with the professor where they know you by your first name. And definitely the campus... What they're known for.
If you want to major in engineering you might want to look for a school that has good programs in that field. Lastly, my mentor told me "If you're not getting rejected from your colleges that you apply to, you're not pushing yourself far enough", and that kinda just encouraged me to go from the school that I knew I would get into...
Say I have a group of five schools that I know I'm gonna get into, probably just apply to three of those, and then go for two reaches.
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