Michelle Kretzschmar (This is part 6 of Comparison of Top 11 College Search Engines)
The fifth college criteria for our fictional student is that it must be located in or near a major city. There are plenty of good reasons for this requirement including transportation access, cultural and recreational attractions, part-time employment opportunities, and availability of internships.
(This is part 5 of Comparison of Top 11 College Search Engines)
The fourth element for our fictional high school student’s college search is school size. Without ever having attended college, many high school students have some very definitive ideas about what size school they want to attend. “Big” is associated with endless academic options, social opportunities, and alumni networking. “Small” is about personalized attention, small classes, dinners with professors, and tight-knit social groups.
Too often students limit their choices because of preconceived notions about what is “best” or “required.” If you want to do pre-med, you must be a major research university; if you’re interested in film, nothing less than a film school will do. And if you want to be an engineer, you must attend an engineering school.
(This is part 4 of Comparison of Top 11 College Search Engines)
Most college students attend a school within a four-hour drive of their home. Fifty percent are actually within 100 miles of their home. Location is usually one of the primary factors in the college search. It is the first option for five of the eleven college search websites and a near the top in three more. Seven of the websites offer the option to search by distance from a zip code.
(This is part 3 of Comparison of Top 11 College Search Engines)
In my original review of college search websites I had a list of seven requirements for a fictional high school student in her college search. The second factor I listed was that she didn’t care whether the school was public or private. Since she doesn’t care, you would think I would be skipping on to the next requirement.
(This is part 2 of Comparison of Top 11 College Search Engines)
In the original review of comparing college search? websites, I used a set of college preferences for a fictional high school student. At the time, I based them on the factors that seemed most frequently mentioned in the college search process-I know, not very scientific.
I don’t intend to become any more scientific this time around. I do want to discuss how the different search criteria can affect how much you pay for college.
After the Ivy League schools and their competition as ranked by US News, the next level of desirable institutions of higher education tends to be top research universities, usually state flagship institutions. While there are many different reasons why high school students want to go to research universities, for a certain group of students, the reason is the access to and influence of research.