Choosing the Right College

Most students, and their parents, agonize over which college is best for them. Their sense of anxiety comes from their belief that choosing the right college, from the beginning, will shape the quality of their lives for the rest of their lives. Such could not be farther from the truth, and for a number of quite logical reasons.

First, colleges cannot exist without the tuition of students. If only students and their parents could see themselves as paying customers, much of the stress of this situation would not exist. If you are a student, or the parent of a student, hear this loud and clear: They need you more than you need them. That does not give you license to become arrogant about it. They still can turn you down, you know; but at the end of the day, they need those tuition dollars that you are free to choose to spend anywhere you want.

Second, students and their parents are looking at the wrong end of their educations when they are deciding where to first attend college. Somewhere in your future, you are guaranteed to be asked where you got your master's degree. You are also guaranteed never to be asked where you took freshman algebra. Never - ever! So, what you do is call the Graduate School you want to attend and ask where most of their graduate students got their undergraduate degrees. Those are your choices. Pick one.

Third, suppose the undergraduate school you choose does not choose you? Not a problem. Get a copy of their catalog and look to see what it takes to transfer in. Go somewhere else, even to a community college, take whatever you have to take to meet the requirements for transfer into the school of your choice and start applying the second you meet them.

Finally, you have one GPA. It belongs to you. Whatever you do to it prior to your freshman year in high school is immaterial. Whatever you do to it from 9^th grade onward counts; and what you do to it your junior and senior years in high school counts more than all the rest put together. If you add community service to even the most ordinary GPA, plus a few school clubs and organizational memberships, you've got a winning ticket to any school you choose.

Overall, when getting ready to choose a college, just remember that it will be your terminal degree that matters for the rest of your life, and certainly not where you took your freshman classes. Don't agonize about this at the age of 18. No matter what anybody tells you, your early undergraduate school will neither make nor break your future. Try to enjoy the experience of just going to school. This is a magical age that you only get to live through once, so try to think about the bigger picture and don't beat yourself and your parents' wallets up over something as silly as getting into some school that has convinced you that your life will be over if you don't go there. They do that stuff for money. Its called marketing. Keep your bucks and spend them somewhere that you will be happy and comfortable.