It's College Season!

Usagimaru

Well for me it is any way. I got 5 letters from several colleges today alone! (Drexel has a sweet dragon)
It's time that I need to start looking at colleges, and I don't really know where to start. I know that I want to go into something computer related (either Computer Science, IT, or Engineering), but I have time to choose that after I decide. The schools I'm looking at are Case Western, Cincinnati U, and RIT. I'm really starting to like RIT from the way Scrym describe it and I'll hopefully be able to play varsity tennis for them, but I'm not really sure that's the school for me. I don't wanna be unhappy there, especially since it costs so much.

So what did all you guys look for in a college before going to it?

kage_rod

Ooh, I hope someone offers up lotsa advice - I go to a college either next January, or the September following. I am -so- lost.

I did narrow it down, though. ^_^

Good luck otherwise, man.

onewild

If I have got this right, going to college in America is the same as going to university over here in Britain. If that is right, then here are some things you may want to think about in choosing the place you are going to go to. (Other than the course)
1. Location - Do you want to move miles away from home or stay within in touching distance of your friends and family? Somewhere thats in the heart of a city or in a more quiet area?
2.Size - Will you be comfortable studying for a number of years in a huge college with thousands of over students around all the time or are you the type that prefers a smaller environment?
3.Cost - Be realistic, work out how much you are willing to pay to live somewhere and also how much time are you willing to put into working for money if you live somewhere more expansive.
4.Your interests outside of your course. If you want to do a certain thing (like joining an anime club) or want to play a certain sport, look at what the place offers.

Personally I choose to go to a university that was 60miles away from my home city. This meant that I felt I was far enough away to feel like I was doing something by myself but still only an hours train travel or coach ride away, which was hugely important to be as I follow rugby league and go to all the matches so getting home for them was easy.
The university I went to was also one of the few to offer the course I wanted to do. (Military History, although I just wanted to do history until I found out about the course) and the only one in the M62 Corridor, which I wanted to stay within.

Rym

1. Location - Do you want to move miles away from home or stay within in touching distance of your friends and family?

Generally, staying too close to family is a bad idea.

Usagimaru

1. Location - Do you want to move miles away from home or stay within in touching distance of your friends and family?

Generally, staying too close to family is a bad idea.

Yeah, I won't want the fact that I can go home fairly easy be a factor. Thats another reason why I like RIT; it's fairly far away, but not too far.

2.Size - Will you be comfortable studying for a number of years in a huge college with thousands of over students around all the time or are you the type that prefers a smaller environment?

As far as size goes, I know I want a medium sized school; not too large or small.

3.Cost - Be realistic, work out how much you are willing to pay to live somewhere and also how much time are you willing to put into working for money if you live somewhere more expansive.

Any school over $40k would be too much, but with scholarships I'm going to get and manageable student loans, I think I'll be alright.

4.Your interests outside of your course. If you want to do a certain thing (like joining an anime club) or want to play a certain sport, look at what the place offers.

Yeah I'm definitely going to be joining the anime club and some for of school tennis. Maybe something like boardgaming club if I'm not too busy.

YoshoKatana

I'm going to RIT this fall, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm thinking I might try Kendo as well as Anime, RWAG, etc. Also, badminton.

Cost isn't to bad with scholarships and loans. In fact, my parents' calculated contribution was zero. Haha.

The only thing I'm worried about is the weather. I haven't lived on the east coast in four years, and I've gotten used to California weather. I hope it won't take too long to adapt again.

Apreche

The only thing I'm worried about is the weather. I haven't lived on the east coast in four years, and I've gotten used to California weather. I hope it won't take too long to adapt again.

Rochester is not typical Northeast weather. It's fuckin' winter of doom.

Kiey

I maybe going to RIT this fall for grad school... or DePaul. Depends on how things go in the class I'm taking right now.

onewild

1. Location - Do you want to move miles away from home or stay within in touching distance of your friends and family?

Generally, staying too close to family is a bad idea.

Some people are really family orientated though and may not have thought about how moving away from them is going to affect them so it is something that needs to be considered.
That said though, I never had the option to move a huge distance away from family unless I went aboard or something, not by American standards anyway, where you can move a whole time zone away if you wanted to so I cannot really comment on the affect of moving really far away from my family, hell during the rugby season I was back at home most weekends to go to the game.
Also over here people normally move back home during the major holidays (Easter, Summer and Christmas)

Apreche

Some people are really family orientated though and may not have thought about how moving away from them is going to affect them so it is something that needs to be considered.

If you can't handle being away from your family, I would suggest just going to community college, or state school at most. Otherwise you are going to have a very hard time. If you didn't learn it before college, the most important thing you have to learn in college is how to live as an independent human being in our society. If you can't handle that, then don't even bother learning the academic stuff in college. Even if you graduate, you won't be able to handle a real job.

Rym

Some people are really family orientated though and may not have thought about how moving away from them is going to affect them so it is something that needs to be considered.

There certainly are exceptions, both in people and circumstance, but the vast majority of my life experience has been that people who had trouble moving away from family during college had equal trouble getting jobs or living on their own, and never really went anywhere.

Again, there are real, honest exceptions, but I feel that the majority of people should break away from home, at least during college itself.

onewild

Some people are really family orientated though and may not have thought about how moving away from them is going to affect them so it is something that needs to be considered.

There certainly are exceptions, both in people and circumstance, but the vast majority of my life experience has been that people who had trouble moving away from family during college had equal trouble getting jobs or living on their own, and never really went anywhere.

Again, there are real, honest exceptions, but I feel that the majority of people should break away from home, at least during college itself.

Oh yeah I agree with that. I have a mate who stayed at home with her parents while she went to university and in truth she really didn't seem to have as good of a time as me or everybody else who moved away. She just went to university for her lectures and to hand in her assignments, didn't bother to join any clubs and didn't make any mates as far as I know of. Where as I joined a couple of clubs, had mates from my course and those that I lived with in the first year, hell I almost spent a year in Finland but decided not to go at the last minute, something which I kind of regret, all of which I wouldn't have done without moving away from my home.
On the other side through she didn't need a large student loan as a result is isn't as in much student debt as the rest of us but even then I wouldn't have traded my experience in for hers for anything. Anyway student loans aren't like real loans, they don't start taking money back until you earn over £15,000 a year and the interest rate is lower than normal rates but thats a whole different issue.