when deciding which college is best for me, what should I factor in?

Question

please include any web pages, articles, etc. you might know. What about tuition asst and scholarships?

Answer 1

US News and World Reports has a ranking system and has tution info as well as college websites which will give you tangilble information about colleges.

The basic stuff - major, reputation, cost... but the next few are things people don't really think about until they're at the university.

Distance from your family - Will you be okay going to a college far from your family? When I lived in the dorms, there were students that were terribly homesick which affected their grades. However, I don't know if they were doing poorly and became homesick or being homesick contributed to their poor grades.

Big city or small city.... Some people love big city life and the different actvities and some people like the small city/community feel.

Answer 2

Here is a good check list. (see link)

Major factors include cost of tuition, academic rigor, areas of study offered, size of school, location of school, national reputation, environment/atmosphere (i.e. big on football, most students live on campus), whether there is a Greek system, campus housing, percentage of freshman who graduate from the school.

Private colleges tend to offer more scholarships and grants than large public ones do. If you are academically gifted you may get a free ride to a small DIII or NAIA school whereas a major U might throw a few thousand your way.