Breaking down factors in making college choices
May 1 is the deadline that most high school students who plan to continue their education with scholarship support need to inform their colleges and universities of their decision.
This decision is not easy, particularly for students who have earned good grades, gotten high scores on admissions tests, and have multiple options.
As a Dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s Honors College, I have identified several key factors that most students with such options should consider. These factors include academic quality, one’s anticipated major or field of study, institutional size, proximity, setting, and affordability.
As a rule, Ivy League Colleges and small liberal colleges are better known, but that does not mean that students must enroll there to get a quality education. MTSU has been named by the Princeton Review as one of the top schools in the nation—and one of only four in the state—for the last three successive years.
Students attracted to a national research institution may find that graduate students teach most of their classes and that they don’t get the same interaction with full-time faculty as at more teaching-oriented institutions. They may also routinely encounter much larger classes.
Quality will vary by discipline
No institution will be equally good at everything. MTSU programs in aerospace, equine science, Japanese, concrete industry management, recording industry, and pre-professional programs, draw students from throughout the region and easily measure up to similar programs at better known schools.
The size of an institution can be important. Students often change majors. Comprehensive institutions like MTSU offer a greater number of majors and minors that allow students to make such changes without having to transfer. Moreover, students can mitigate the perceived impersonality of a larger university by finding subgroups, like our Honors College, to which they can belong.
Many students who are determined to leave home soon find themselves anxious to return, particularly if they have a health problem, their family has a reversal of fortune, or simply because the room, board, and transportation prove more expensive than anticipated. Local students with the means to do so can still gain some independence by living in campus housing.
College settings also affect student life
Many a country or suburban mouse has been allured by the big city before realizing that it had a lot of predatory cats! The best way to determine a proper fit is to visit several campuses and gain a view of the ambience and its relative safety.
In the real world, financial considerations are often very important. Publicly supported institutions are almost always less expensive than private ones. In-state tuition at public institutions is almost always cheaper than out-of-state tuition. A smaller scholarship at a less expensive school, may ultimately result in lower student costs.
Moreover, students who go out-of-state will likely find that they cannot use state Hope Scholarship moneys. Students who attend less expensive alternatives often use the money they save to study abroad and seek other opportunities they might otherwise be unable to afford.
A prospective high student recently asked why he should enroll in the MTSU Honors College rather than another unnamed institution. My response was that we wanted him here and had a lot to offer, but that he needed to make his own choice.
Noted philanthropist and Temple College founder Russell Conwell is famous for a speech describing a man who searched the world for wealth and returned to his own home to find that he was sitting on acres of diamonds.
I know many local students who visited campuses in multiple states only to find acres of educational diamonds near home. I encourage both students and parents not to overlook the hidden treasures around them.
John R. Vile is professor of political science and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.