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What should I consider when applying for colleges?
I'm a senior in high school, and I have no clue what I want to do in the future, where I want to go for college, or what I should major in.
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4 answers
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Dean’s Answer
Hi Melody! First things first I would look in to colleges and get a part time job. The part time job can help you learn valuable experience of what you like and do not like. As Tyler stated, look in to colleges and the courses they offer as well as the resources they provide. Once you find a college that seems to be a good fit you can start as an undecided major. This allows you to choose from different elective and general education courses to help you learn which courses you like best. Once you find a major that seems like a good fit you can specialize or concentrate on courses in those topics. Good luck and have a great day Melody!
Thank you, Dean
Melody
Updated
Tyler’s Answer
Some things to consider when applying for colleges are the size of the school, the type of courses offered, and resources that are available to students. Once you narrow down some of your interest it helps applying for certain schools a lot easier. If you're uncertain what you want to do in the future that is completely ok as you learn what you like by taking various different courses in your first year at school. From there, you can use your resources offered to help guide you in what to major in and to set you up for success post college.
Thank you for the advice, Tyler
Melody
Updated
Steven’s Answer
Melody, you are already ahead of the game. You know you want to go to college and I would guess that you have the grades to have some choice in schools. As an aside, have you discussed this with your parents?
Pick a few schools that you would like to go to after reading about them on one of the websites on colleges or their websites. Make sure to include a safe school or two and a "reach" school. Visit as many as possible. Think about the weather, the size of the school both physically and in terms of the number of students, about whether it's in a city or in the outskirts, if it's in the city is it a campus or just buildings scattered throughout a section of the city (or the whole city), will you be comfortable going out at night if you eventually live off campus (or go off campus at night), and how/where are the freshman dorms (try to see them when visiting). Add anything that matters to you to the list. It may seem like a lot but you'll spend four years there and you want it to be a good experience. Once you've further narrowed down your list of school's apply to the ones you liked. Make sure to include several schools besides your first choice, again some should be in each category.
As for major what has been previously said is correct. Apply undecided or to the school of Arts and Sciences. That will let you take a variety of classes. You probably do not need to declare a major until either late in your sophomore or mid-junior year.
Do well this year (don't slack off because you're a senior!) to help your junior-senior GPA. Enjoy the fun parts of senior year. Much success in college and beyond!
Pick a few schools that you would like to go to after reading about them on one of the websites on colleges or their websites. Make sure to include a safe school or two and a "reach" school. Visit as many as possible. Think about the weather, the size of the school both physically and in terms of the number of students, about whether it's in a city or in the outskirts, if it's in the city is it a campus or just buildings scattered throughout a section of the city (or the whole city), will you be comfortable going out at night if you eventually live off campus (or go off campus at night), and how/where are the freshman dorms (try to see them when visiting). Add anything that matters to you to the list. It may seem like a lot but you'll spend four years there and you want it to be a good experience. Once you've further narrowed down your list of school's apply to the ones you liked. Make sure to include several schools besides your first choice, again some should be in each category.
As for major what has been previously said is correct. Apply undecided or to the school of Arts and Sciences. That will let you take a variety of classes. You probably do not need to declare a major until either late in your sophomore or mid-junior year.
Do well this year (don't slack off because you're a senior!) to help your junior-senior GPA. Enjoy the fun parts of senior year. Much success in college and beyond!
Thank you for being thorough. You have guessed correctly. As for the discussion with my parents, they have never attended college before, so they don't really know how to help me. They just want me to go to a "good" college. I really appreciate your advice on considering what college experience I want. Up until now, my only factor in choosing colleges was the classes they offered or the major they focus on.
Melody
You're welcome. I appreciate your nice reply and am glad I could help!
Steven Young
Updated
Baljit’s Answer
Hi Melody,
Trying to figure out what career you want to pursue depends all on what makes you happy and what you are good at. If you are analytical, accounting, law or research could be something to look into. If you want to help others the medical field might interest you. If you are independent, entrepreneurship might be something that you are interested in.
Also you can take career personality test surveys that describes what you could do for a career could be of value to you in deciding what field to go into. The test gives you a breakdown of which type of career you would be good at.
Doing some type of internship might help you too. This could be in business, medical or even administration. This would could also be an indicator of what you DON'T want to do for a career.
And lastly what subjects were you good at in high school and what do you want to pursue. This would be a good indicator of what would make you happy at work.
Trying to figure out what career you want to pursue depends all on what makes you happy and what you are good at. If you are analytical, accounting, law or research could be something to look into. If you want to help others the medical field might interest you. If you are independent, entrepreneurship might be something that you are interested in.
Also you can take career personality test surveys that describes what you could do for a career could be of value to you in deciding what field to go into. The test gives you a breakdown of which type of career you would be good at.
Doing some type of internship might help you too. This could be in business, medical or even administration. This would could also be an indicator of what you DON'T want to do for a career.
And lastly what subjects were you good at in high school and what do you want to pursue. This would be a good indicator of what would make you happy at work.