Where Should I Go to College TKG

Where Should I Go to College The “college prep” process usually starts with high school students asking themselves: “where should I go to college?” Or maybe someone asked you where you’re thinking about applying, and you realized that you have no idea. It’s the question that comes first, and it can be seriously overwhelming. If you’re beginning to think about the future, this blog post will tell you where to start. The first thing you need to consider is admissions viability. It’s imperative that you start here because we have been conditioned to believe that the Ivy League is best so that’s what we should all aim for. Students also convince themselves that they’ll be an outlier, the one person who will beat all odds and get into the University of Chicago with a C+ average. Both are false.You should start your college research process from a realistic standpoint. Let’s say you’re a sophomore. Look at the grades that you’ve gotten thus far and the extracurricular activities that you’re involved with. Look at your GPA. Be honest with yourself about how much time and effort you’re willing to put into maintaining (or improving) your grades. If you want to go to a competitive school, you need to have everything. By that, we mean grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities. Once you’ve taken stock, start looking at schools that you have a realistic chance of getting into. This is important because we all want what we can’t have, and if you tour Yale with a 2.9 GPA, you’re going to fall in love with the school and you won’t like any other school as much.  Once you’ve figured out where you’re within range, the fun starts! Generally speaking, there are a few factors that you’re going to want to consider. Each one is bolded below:  Academic programs: This aspect of the college search can be anxiety-inducing because, for most students, it’s hard to decide what you want to major in while you’re still in high school. It’s totally fine if you d on’t have the specifics of your career trajectory outlined at age 16. The good news is that you probably won’t be declaring a major until sophomore year of college, but you need to look at schools that offer majors and minors that you might be interested in pursuing. If you don’t take this into account you could end up trying to major in Dance at Carnegie Mellon, which is very much not a thing.  Ideally, you’ll find schools that offer a few majors that sound interesting. So how do you figure out what you might be leaning towards?  Think about classes that you’ve done well in, projects that you’ve worked on and actually enjoyed, and what you’re consuming during your free time. You should be able to identify areas of interest, and it’s okay if they are broad. Taking things a step further, you might also consider how much flexibility you’re looking for. Do you want to go to a school with a structure core curriculum? Do you want to dive right into your major, or are you looking for something more well-rounded? Do you want to attend a liberal arts school? While you’re still in the researching phase, take time to look into the structural differences in varying types of curriculum. And take note of what you find!  Location:Deciding where to go to college based exclusively on location is an extremely limiting approach that we do not suggest taking. We prefer to think of it like this: how far (and by what means) are you willing to travel to get to and from school? Would you rather be able to drive to campus (even if it’s a long drive of 3-4 hours,) or you okay with needing to fly? These are good limits to go by.  Size:To get a better idea of how college varying college sizes will feel to you, we suggest visiting one small school and one big school in your home state. Just pick the closest ones to you. If the idea of sitting in a lecture hall with hundreds of students doesn’t sound appealing, big schools might not be for you. Or maybe you’r e used to small and interactive classes from your high school experience and you’re looking for a change. If you’re torn between the two, consider visiting a medium-sized school. Culture:Every single college is different. And a lot of colleges get reputations for being party schools, boring schools, sports crazed schools, etc. Don’t get stuck on the stereotypesâ€"dig deeper and figure it out on your own. The best way to gauge what the culture of any given school is like is to talk to students who attend the school. This is actually possible to do without visiting, but we still suggest visiting if it’s within your means to do so. Ask students what they do for fun, what the classes are like, and their favorite and least favorite aspect of the school is. We’ve heard something like this from almost every student we’ve worked with: “I was going to apply to X school, but I’m not sure because someone from my high school went there and I wasn’t friends with them.” That i s 1) ridiculous and 2) a bad use of resources! If you know someone who goes to a school that you’re interested in, ask away! Your eventual goal is to find 8-15 schools to apply to. But for now, while you’re still researching, don’t limit yourself. Google is your friend here. Looking into colleges can actually be fun if you don’t leave everything for the last minute, so set aside some time each week and start adding names to your list.  We understanding how daunting the process of starting to create a college list is. Contact is here if you need help.