Choosing a College

When I began to look at colleges, my parents told me not to worry about the price (at least not at first) and tried not to push me toward one college or another. I appreciated the freedom I had (or thought I had), but was overwhelmed by the number of colleges I had to choose from. How did I narrow down the field? Were these purely decisions that originated with me? As I look back, I am surprised by how much “help” I received.

I started looking closer to home when my mother expressed how difficult travel would be to and from say California or Scotland. I started focusing on liberal arts schools when I was told how great it was to have an open curriculum and small class sizes. Even Hamilton was a suggestion from a friend who thought I might like it. Then there was my family’s academic history: Columbia, Brown, the University of Chicago, Middlebury, Vassar, and three at Harvard. Despite my parents’ best efforts to convince me that it did not matter where other people in my family attended, I could not keep them out of my head.

The most influential external force in my decision was probably the college ranking system. I wanted to go to a college that society deemed academically excellent. I cannot say that this was purely because I wanted the best education possible. I also wanted a school with a good reputation to feel I had proved myself in my society.

I would not say that these factors had a negative effect on my decision overall. I mean, I am certainly happy with where I ended up! Societal pressures are not necessarily bad. They helped me narrow my options and caused me to apply to some very good schools. However, is interesting to think about where I would have ended up had I not been guided in these ways. I think that when I am looking at graduate schools I will make sure to look at myself and my own ideas about what makes a good school before turning to the graduate school rankings.