There are many factors you need to consider when selecting your college. Once you have narrowed down the schools, give extra consideration to the schools where you would need to live away from home (on campus).
If you can afford it, you should live on campus. It is a large part of the college experience. It is a large part of the maturation process… Living with people. Relationships. Doing laundry. Budgeting time .Parties. Managing money. Social life. Parties. Study groups. Parties. Girls. Parties. And More… It’s the best memories of school…
Living away from home is not always easy and you have to grow up quickly. The benefits and memories are endless.
Of course it is much better living on campus not at a “commuter school”. You will see that more often than not, the people you live with in college will be some of your best life-long friends.
Let’s preface this post… For any school you are considering you need to do your homework. Check with all resources: the school, students, blogs/online, anything you can think of… be creative. We also realize a private school is typically more expensive that attending an in-state private school.
Before selecting a school, you need to know who you are. Are you ambitious? A go-getter? Would you prefer things handed to you? A part of the selection process should be for the student to take a self inventory… know who you are… and then match to the characteristics of the school.
I have a friend who had twins graduate from 2 different universities. One graduated from Boston College (private) and the other from University of Delaware (public). Both are great schools. Both kids got good educations and had fun college experiences.
The difference in the schools was how the services worked for the students. A few examples…
• At Boston College, the career planning department followed up and prep’d students and made sure they were ready for interviews. There was more “spoon feeding” going on.
• At The University of Delaware, they got you interviews but you (the student) needed to be more independent getting ready for the interview.
• At Boston College it is easy to get a tutor.
• At The University of Delaware, it took our student 7 weeks to get his tutor.
This is just an example and may greatly vary from school-to-school and department-to-department. Of course it also varies on the personality of the student.
So, when selecting a school, look into services such as extra help and career guidance. Get some detailed information and speak to some students about it. It can make your school education and your job-search experiences much easier and productive.
These days it’s easy to apply to 10, 15, or even 20 schools. If you have the money, the Common Application makes it pretty simple. As a result of the increase in applications, there is a corresponding increase in the number of acceptances.
So, now I have been accepted to 7 schools, how do I decide which school to attend?
Do your homework. Take a look at the standard sources of data such as US News And World Reports college ratings. What will you study (major)? How much school can you afford? Are you going to graduate school? Etc…
It is important to take into consideration the name of the school and the strength of the alumni.
When you are applying for jobs, the school alumni can be an incredible help. Certain schools have strong presences at major companies. (I can personally give you examples. When I worked at American Express, my division had an inordinate number of Columbia University graduates. True, Columbia is a good school, but it was because of a VP who attended Columbia.)
Another example is Notre Dame. They have an incredibly strong alumni that does everything in its power to assist it brothers.
Certain schools are stronger in certain regions. Ask around and surf to find out. You should also research some of the interesting companies in your area. Quite often companies have reputations as “[blank] shops” ( as in “Columbia shops”)
Keep it in mind when you make this important decision.
Judge Upholds Lawsuit Involving the Use of Names and Images in Social Networks
NEW YORK (Assimilated Prcss) ―
(Since this is a pending case, the names have been changed.)
A judge on Wednesday upheld a lawsuit involving a person’s rights with regards to the use of a person’s image and name being used on a Social Network.
“Sally Smith” had labeled a photograph of her friend “John Doe” in her online portfolio of college photographs.The image involved “John Doe” being passed out on a couch in a messy dorm room.He appeared to be unconscious in the middle of a pile of empty beer cans.The image had been posted 4 years ago.
“Johnny Doe” had recently been interviewing with a prestigious, conservative, Wall Street Investment Bank. He had gone through 3 interviews and had been told he would receive an offer pending his background check comes back acceptable.
The company doing his background check, “google’d” him and found the photograph that had been posted by “Sally Smith”. He did not get the job offer as a direct result of the photograph in the portfolio of “Sally Smith”.
“Johnny Doe” is suing “Sally Smith” for unspecified damages for the use of his name and image without his permission.
The U.S. Direct Judge said there’s adequate evidence to take the case to trial. The case is scheduled to be heard in U.S. Direct Court in Manhattan in January.Experts are concerned with precedents that may arise from the case and how they may affect FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, Ning, Friendster, YouTube, and other Social Networking type platforms.
Lawyers for “Johnny Doe” and “Sally Jones” did not return telephone messages for comment.
OK. Ok. This is not a true lawsuit but think about it. With all the video and photo postings that are going on, we should not be surprised to see a lawsuit similar to the one described above.
One of my favorite quotes is from the movie Other People’s Money. It relates to institutions making rules and the targeted parties working around the new rules….
Kate Sullivan: Someday, we’ll smarten up, change some laws, and put you OUT OF BUSINESS. Lawrence Garfield (Danny Devito): You can change all the laws you want. You can’t stop the game. I’ll still be here. I adapt.
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According to the NY Times (6.23.08, Sports Section) Brandon Jennings, a great high school basketball player, may work around the NBA’s minimum age rule by heading to Europe to play professional basketball.
To prevent high school players from jumping to the NBA, the NBA instituted a rule requiring a player to be at least 19 years of age and one year removed from high school.
So, the NBA, NCAA, and the NBA Players Association get together and require individuals to play at least one year in college, knowing (a) he has no desire to get a college education, (b) the schools benefit financially through tournament money, and (c) the coaches get additional recognition.
How does the player benefit from the deal? Hmmm….. He doesn’t…
Brandon Jennings adapted, worked around the rule, and found the loophole.
Head to Europe. Sign a short term contract to play professional basketball. Earn good money. Work on and improve skills. Get solid basketball experience against better talent than in college. Live like a rock star.
He may enjoy living and playing ball in Europe and choose NOT to head to the NBA!
************************ For years there has been a group of people screaming that the SAT and ACT exams are biased and do not predict the educational performance of an individual.
How else can we objectively compare students during the admissions process?
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200 students apply to the University of TopOfTheThread (a very competitive school).
Each student has a 90 – 92 average, is in all Honors classes, and has made the Honor Roll every semester.
Each student has one school activity (school newspaper, or student council, or school yearbook)
Each student is involved with their house of worship.
So now what?
Let’s have all 200 kids come in for interviews? No way. Too much time. Too much expense.
Let’s look at their schools or school districts. (Is that fair?)
A 92 average in one school district is not the same as a 92 average in another school district. And if the SATs and ACTs get de-emphasized, no telling what unscrupulous school administrators will do! Can you imagine the pressure an administrator could get from the local politicians? Or businesses such as real estate companies? (Residential real estate tends to cost more in better school districts.)
If there is no objective 3rd party entrance exam, a school district can (1) show tremendous improvement in grades, as well as (2) show improvement in their students acceptances to better schools, by simply having the teachers give better grades. <Hopefully it wouldn’tt be that easy.>
And let’s not forget the ever increasing number of overseas students applying to U.S. Colleges? How do you compare the 92 average in China and India with the 92 in the U.S.?
Eliminating the standardized exams is a bad idea. Changing or having improved standardized tests is a better solution.
It is now between the 1st and 2nd quarter. Search out to see Virginia’s Will Barrow’s 1st quarter goal. Unbelievable. May be the goal of the year. Barrow, a Long Island kid, takes on the entire Orange defense…
To Boston Red Sox and NY Mets fans who feel Derek Jeter is overrated…
For years Boston Red Sox fans hate and scream obscenities at Derek Jeter. My favorite is a saying on a t-shirt that is sold around the corner from Fenway… “Jeter Swa????s”. Kudos. Funny. Creative.
The Mets fans whining that Jeter is overrated. That’s simply the green-eyed monster in Flushing. (Great finish last year boys.)
Jeter will be a 1st ballot Hall Of Famer…lifetime .310+ hitter… 3-time Gold Glove Winner…. 4-time World Series winner… 8-time All Star…
In addition to Jeter’s World Series rings, All Star trophies, Gold Gloves, money, etc… he has dated, or been connected with, 6 of the top 100 models on Maxim’s Top Model List.
We never again want to hear that Derek Jeter is overrated! All the stats, trophies and now the women!!! Case Closed.
People have their own political and business agendas. How do we prevent what happened to the Duke Lacrosse team from happening again. In this instance a “dirty” politician happened to have gotten caught. The kids involved are still effected by the whole event. They lost out on a year of their life. They were forced to go through a traumatic event. The 3 accused had their names in the press and will undoubtedly be known for that event forever. Look, they are not alter boys, but typical college kids. Did they do anything wrong? Depending upon your morales, yes and no. Did they deserve what they went through… absolutley not.
home (on campus).
We also realize a private school is typically more expensive that attending an in-state private school.
increase in the number of acceptances.
