CameronWould you define an individual’s success by how much money they have? Likewise, when it comes to college list, ranking isn’t the only factor that is taken into consideration. Without doubt, given its systematic algorithm and mechanics, ranking does tell something about one particular university, but certainly not all. To this end, building a balanced college list takes more than pulling up the ranking (e.g.: U.S. News ranking, QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings), it requires extensive research, planning, and consideration of the student’s interests and goals to assure the school aligns with the expectations.
Independent of ranking, here are some steps that students can follow to build a balanced college list:
- Academic Fit: Look for schools that offer programs and majors that best support the student’s academic interests and goals. Visit the department website, find the particular undergraduate program, peruse the courses being offered, browse professors’ research interest and possible publications. Often times, students will be surprised by their findings. For instance, while many must have heard of MIT and assumed its Computer Science major to be top-notch; nevertheless, it is until people visit the MIT website they will learn that there is indeed no such MIT CS department, rather, it is electrical engineering and computer science department, many programs are thus joint, blended majors.
- Location: Given the context of urban, suburban, or rural, the experience can be vastly different. On the other hand, considering the climate, distance from cities, opportunities in the surrounding area, students and their family often place safety as the first priority.
- Alumni Network and Career Opportunity: Look into the strength of the school's alumni network and the career services offered. For Chinese international students, the support available for internships, career fairs, job placements, and post-graduation opportunities is precious.
On top of that, the size of the school, class sizes matter. This is where students ask themselves about research university vs. liberal arts college. In general, the former tend to be larger, typically over 20,000 students including both undergrad and grad, whereas LAC student body often does not exceed 2,000 and they are primarily undergraduate.
Location sometimes can be as important as academic. When asked about which universities send the most number of graduates to Silicon Valley, many instantly claim Stanford and UC-Berkeley. In fact, two other less known institutes, San Jose State University and Santa Clara University, also contribute massive amount of their graduates to the San Francisco Bay area of high technology and innovation.
Northeastern University, for example, has been highly recognized by its cooperative education (co-op) program, where students are given the opportunities both domestically and internationally to work full-time in positions related to their academic and/or career interests. With such strong support, 93% of NU graduates are employed or enrolled in graduate school nine months after graduation (multi-year average).
Other than the three points mentioned above, affordability, campus culture, student body diversity, family expectation and many other factors also ascribe to a reasonable and strategic college list. Often times, the best way for a student to get started is to reach out to their assigned college counselor. Together, they go over the student’s background in-depth, thoroughly analyze the student’s strength and preference, and build a list that includes a mix of reach, target, and safety schools. Reach schools are those with higher admission standards, target schools are where student’s academic credentials match the average accepted student, and safety schools are where the student have a higher chance of gaining admission.
Lastly, the rule of thumb is about fitting, a school that fits the student academically, socially, and personally is the best place that facilitates their professional growth.