The College Search

Chris, 17, Roxbury:

Over the past three months I have traveled across the Eastern Seaboard on my college searches. Each school visited preaches the differences they create academically and culturally over other schools; the programs they have are more fine tuned, the professors are of higher quality, the diversity of the school is broader. Yet many of the schools belong to the same divisions be it Ivy or NESCAC and offer the same sorts of opportunities, Liberal Arts Studies with each having its own refined touch. I could choose any of these schools in May and the academics would be of little difference. So then where lays the choice? Over the past several months I have learned that no matter what school I choose the academics will be similar, it is the experience that will make the difference. Each school is set in its own background, Columbia in New York City and Cornell in little Ithaca, New York. During info sessions I have come to ignore the statistical references the admissions officer gives the crowd, and have listened more intently of the setting of the school, be it in the city or the country, a school of 20,000 kids or 2,000. The lesson learned is similar schools have similar academics, Tufts will never be that much different from Bowdoin or Bates, BC never that much different from BU. But the setting of each school is what should attract a prospective student. Where do I want to live for the next four years is the most common question I ask myself, not what kind of education will I get or what programs does this school offer that the others do not. The biggest question is city or suburb, big or small, because I need to be comfortable, no matter the school, with the living experience I have for four years if not more. With any person looking at schools it should never be the name of the school that attracts, but the feel. This is the next four years of my life I am choosing, and a name only goes so far, the school I choose will not be based on how it is different academically from the others, but which environment in and around the school best fits me.