Keep your cool: consider all your options

Strang Webmaster — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:45:00 +0000

Looking at colleges is stressful, often more than it has to be. I've found that many people are more concerned about what other people think about the colleges they're considering than about finding a school that suits their own interests and abilities. Remember that there are a lot of colleges out there - you don't have to look at just the "top 15" schools, whether secular or Christian. Going to a smaller school will rarely hurt you later in life, unless you want to get a scholarship to an elite graduate school. It's easier to find a supportive Christian community at a small school, and the expense is often significantly less.

I only visited two colleges before graduating from high school, and I didn't seriously consider applying to any others. I made my college decision largely because of the positive things I'd heard about my chosen school from my friends at church. Word of mouth is often a much more reliable guide to what life at a particular college is like than the college's promotional materials are. Of course, one must bear in mind that people who aren't very much like you may have quite different reactions to a college than you would yourself. That's why others' stories must be supplemented by a personal visit. Try to avoid visiting, however, on a "campus preview weekend" or some other such time - you want to see what the college looks like on an average day, not on a day when they're trying to put their best face on for hundreds of high school students.

Remember that your choice of a college is perhaps even more about the intangibles than it is about the things that can be statistically measured and put in college guides. The community that you find at college will help to form you as a person during four of the most significant years of your life. You'll remember the people you met at college (and perhaps still keep in touch with them) long after the classes you took are forgotten.

Evan Donovan

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Keep your cool: consider all your options