In choosing a school, the prospective collegian often has multiple “helpful” people in his or her ear: mother, father, best friend, sibling, high school counselor, teacher, outside education advisor, and, of course, oneself.
Assume the student’s final decision is among three colleges with different characteristics.
A way to put together the inputs from different sources is to assign scores for each of the voices in the student’s ear. In order words, the reflective student is analyzing how each of the voices would react to certain variables.
The scoring system goes from 5: which means maximum confidence in a positive outcome for the student if he attends the different schools listed, to 1: the least confidence in a positive outcome.
These scores are applied to a list of variables relevant to the student and each of the schools being seriously considered by the student. Here are a few factors, in alphabetical order:
Ability to make friends
Academic rigor
Availability of desired major
Distance from home
Extracurricular opportunities
Net cost of attendance
Networking reputation
Time management
When you go to a high quality restaurant and pay for an expensive meal, but it is great food, drink, and ambiance, the price fades from memory. While the financial impact will reappear on the next credit card statement, the overall experience remains positive.
If you go to a college which scores high on all the non-financial characteristics, it probably is worth it, even with the debt that will become totally evident when the monthly repayment schedule commences.
To state the obvious, the summary score on the inputs from various voices is not meant to be a conclusive “answer” for the student; it is more like a stimulus to the student doing methodical thinking about the selection of a college.