The Confusing World of Colleges
It’s every high schooler’s dream to apply to college. But it’s a whole new world of conflicting information.
I spent most of my first semester senior year of high school isolated in a ball of stress, with about three university names that bounced in my head all day.
“I need to get in to one of them…I need to get in…”
Spoiler alert — I didn’t. In fact, I ended up getting rejected from more than half of the 25 schools I applied to.
Interestingly, I wasn’t alone in that feeling of rejection. 2018 marked one of the most competitive years for college admission, with nearly every university receiving a record number of applicants and many admission rates dropping into single digits. The result was thousands of students ending up at schools they may have never seriously considered attending.
But what comes next is even harder: choosing. In my opinion, school selection is one of the weakest points of the entire process. Students (and parents, counselors, etc.) all gravitate towards the same 5 websites for obsolete “rankings” or simply pick the school that “sounds” cooler.
Think about that. 18 years of education and prep, all for the best sounding name and a BS ranking.
To be fair, there is some validity when it comes to looking at these choices to screen for better schools. Undeniably, having Stanford on a resume shows talent and success in high school, but it should not be the determining factor. College is about growth, gaining connections, and finding your place in the world. Since my initiation at Purdue, I’ve noticed so many subtle traits that students should be looking for:
- Standing out in your class (being a high performer compared to your peers)
- Availability/openness of professors to spend time with you 1-on-1
- How well funded the school is and where the money is going
- Strong career counseling offices/advice + career fairs
- My personal favorite: search for the school on LinkedIn and hit “View Alumni” — it shows you where grads are working and what they’re doing
- Strength of other majors besides yours. Especially for engineering and CS, having a strong business school at your university diversifies your connections and opens up more clubs/opportunities in other fields.
- What you can contribute to the school
That last point is the most important — if you’re school is saturated with clubs/orgs and students fighting to lead them, the chances that you will earn those limited spots and lead on campus is pretty small. On the other hand, being at a school where the opportunities are limited gives you the chance to lead them.
For example, one of the initiatives I’ve committed myself to at Purdue is improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus. It’s a new initiative started by our president in the last few years, but there’s tremendous room for growth. Just as a second-semester freshman, I’ve already been put in contact with multiple faculty advisors, the president of multiple entrepreneur clubs on campus, and even scheduled a meeting with the head of the entrepreneurship initiative.
My point is, look beyond the thin layer of the name. Search for what gels with you, how you can lead, and what you can learn. At the end of the day, you’ll learn the same class material wherever you go, but how you learn to grow?
That’s up to you.
