Choosing a College

May 1 is the national deadline for choosing a college, although there often is some give. Here are some factors to validate your choice:

Prestige. Yes, a degree from a brand-name school ups employment prospects, and it feels good to tell family and friends, but the advantage is not so great as to always outweigh other factors such as those below.

Community colleges lack prestige, but even A students might consider one. Not only is the cost dramatically lower, instruction on average is better because community college faculty is hired mainly on how well they teach. University faculty, especially at prestigious institutions, are hired and promoted mainly on their research. And it’s a canard that good researchers make good teachers. The skillset, interests, and knowledge of the researcher are different from the good undergraduate teacher’s. Another plus for a local community college is that most of its students don’t live in a dorm— Dorm living is overrated. Too often, it’s less developmental and more a hothouse for bad behavior. A common worry is that community colleges won’t be rigorous enough and not have enough bright students. That’s usually incorrect. By choosing challenging instructors, perhaps be in an honors program or get involved in demanding extracurriculars such as student government or its TV station, lack of rigor is usually not a problem.

Level of difficulty: Dropping out from Harvard is usually worse than graduating from a less demanding school. Sure, you could then try another college, but the toll on self-esteem is often serious. Besides, if you’re in too tough a school, the stress and need to study a lot can be so great that there’s insufficient time for extracurriculars and social life, which are both fun and may be more important in your development, career, and life success.

Proximity to home: A common error is to choose a college far from home. The reason given is to have a new experience and/or get away from parents. Usually, it’s wiser to attend a college within laundry distance: so your child can come home for a weekend and the parent can easily visit. Also, at public colleges, that would mean in-state tuition, which is dramatically lower.

Weather. This is an underrated factor. The website’s photos and a spring visit may make New England winters seem romantic but freezing your ass off and being stuck inside for half the school year isn’t. Weather may affect student happiness more than any other.

Size. Size matters less than you might think. No one attends an entire institution. Even at the largest university, you find your subsets. Examples: a themed dorm (e.g., honors, art, business), compatible friends from the dorm or classes, a faculty member(s), an extracurricular such as intramural sports or a club for students with your career goal or political beliefs.

More important than any of these, it matters less where you go and more whether you make the most of it. A student who makes the most of a local community college can gain more, even have better career prospects than a Harvard graduate who went through the motions.

I read this aloud on YouTube.

Marty Nemko has counseled many families on college choice, holds a Ph.D. specializing in the evaluation of education from U.C. Berkeley, and is the author of 35 books including You’re Going to Love This College Guide. You can reach him at mnemko@gmail.com