Education Questions: Choosing a University

Decisions. Decisions!
In the United States around this time of year (spring), many high school seniors are making their final decisions when it comes to what college they decide to go to. But, many of you have asked something like, "How do the students make a decision about college/university when their schooling isn't designed for a certain track? How did you make your decision?" Well, I can tell you that there are many different ways to make these sorts of decisions. I cannot, however, tell you how everyone comes to make these decisions. What I will do in this post though is tell you how I went about choosing my University and College.

As I have already said in a previous post High School: My Experience (Part 1), students here in the states get to pick their scholastic paths much more than students in other countries (or at least that's what I've been told). Consequently, choosing a college and career path can prove to be much more difficult. The nice thing is that we have the freedom to choose; the bad thing is that we have to live with the consequences of our choices for the rest of our lives. Many students even go off to college for 1-2 years to see what really interests them before making such an important decision as picking their major (like Dillon). Other people already have a good idea of what they want to do so they choose a college within a university and go into their freshman year with major declared (like me). The students who do not quite know what they want to major in just yet most often choose their university because of cost, location, facilities, and student life. However, those students who already wish to declare a major search for universities which offer a degree in the major they want. Other things these students look for also include the prestige of the university, cost, location, facilities, student life, and so on.

I knew, going into my senior year of high school, what I wanted to major in - Korean language and Business. I also knew that due to cost and other family issues I needed to attend a university located East of the Mississippi River. These two main factors helped narrow my choices greatly. In fact, my research showed that there are only two schools East of the Mississippi which offer Korean as a major. There were a few other schools which offered minors in Korean, but only The Ohio State University and Indiana University Bloomington offered majors in this subject area. Tuition and fees for these schools were about the same for out of state students so I decided that I would attend the university which offered me the most scholarship money. Well, that's not totally true. - My eyes were already set on The Ohio State University because it is in the top ten business schools in the country and is known as a great overall school for getting the most out of the education for the price ("getting the most bang for your buck" as they put it - an OSU pun since their mascot is the buckeye), plus I really liked the campus when I toured it (and my mother may have graduated from their as well). Let's just say that, overall, I really like OSU. But, they did happen to offer me the most in scholarships and opportunities, so I did decide to go to The Ohio State University. GO BUCKS! ... Did I mention that they have a great football team? - not that I keep up with those sorts of things. No, really - I don't know much about football; I just know that OSU is good at winning at it.

I shall write another post that includes more info about how/why/concerns about choosing my college, but I think this is enough to give an introduction for now. You may notice that my writing tone changes as well in the next post I make about this topic, but, since it will be more personal, I will write it from a more personal angle.

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Thanks!
- Vic