Choosing the Right College

As president of North Central College in Naperville, Ill., for the past 20 years and a 30-year veteran of higher education, I'm often asked by friends, neighbors and acquaintances to offer advice about picking a college—and
then getting admitted to it.

There is no perfect comparative device for higher education. Almost all the guides and comparison data don't measure individual value-added/cost, but rather, reflect the "quality" of the admission pool as a whole as it matriculates to graduation.

When I counsel a young woman who could go to the Ivy League or a top Midwestern liberal arts college or a regional comprehensive institution, I can provide anecdote after anecdote as to the road taken or not taken—the Nobel laureate who went to a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin, the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship winner who wanted to commute as an undergraduate from home, the lawyer who chose a merit scholarship at a non-brand-name school so he could get into—and pay for—Harvard Law School. But anecdotes can be as misleading as other forms of comparative data.

Which is why I usually end my counseling sessions with generalizations and advice that students—particularly those with ambitious, high-powered parents—need to hear, some of it from the guidebooks, some of it reflecting half-a-lifetime in higher education:

• You can get the best education in the world from a great public or private university, but you have to be a demanding consumer, fearless in seeking what you need. ("I was a high school valedictorian, but I was clueless; I needed a place where ‘everybody knows your name,' and where I couldn't get by sitting in the last row and getting A's on standardized tests.")

• Retention to graduation in four years is a useful measure, but it can easily be misinterpreted. An institution with a significant number of low income or commuter students, for example, may have a very different pattern of entry and exit than an elite, highly-selective college. The relevant question is whether you can get a great education and graduate in four years.

• Almost all institutions of higher education in America are regional, and less than one-in-10 colleges and universities are "selective" in the sense that most of us think of as selective. Don't get nervous. There are many schools that admit 70 percent or more of their applicants that can prepare you well to get into a top graduate or professional school, and you may save tens of thousands of dollars in the process. Some of these schools, virtually unknown in national media circles, may even be regional "brand names" that will be of more value to you in getting your first job or admission to a graduate/professional school in the region than elite colleges elsewhere.

• The fact that you have never heard of a college doesn't tell you anything. Most small colleges, even those ranked at the top in U.S. News & World Report, are unknown to all but a handful of sophisticated high school students in most regions of the country. How many schools without a Division I football or basketball program can any high school student name?

• Athletes, musicians, actors and artists who want to continue their high school "performances" in college usually prefer going to a school close to home. One reason seems to be a desire to continue to perform before family and friends, who have always been their audience.

• Never confuse the "sticker price" of an education with what you will actually pay. And don't dismiss a school just because of its high tuition. Get the numbers for you and your family, based on income, ACT scores, high school rank and other characteristics. The high-tuition private college may turn out to be less costly than the flagship state university, especially if they're looking for unique strengths you bring to their campus.

• Ask yourself whether you will want a job while you are going to college. A high proportion of today's students want or need to have outside work. Some schools have great opportunities on campus or nearby. Others do not. The difference can add up to thousands of dollars over a college career.

• Don't be afraid to kick the tires, starting with the website. Not the glitz, but the facts. Do they post their audited financial statements? What do they show? What are the credentials of their faculty? Do the listed faculty do the actual teaching, or is much of it done by visiting faculty, adjuncts or teaching assistants? What is the average class size for first-year students? What does the regional accrediting body say about them?

• The list could go on and on. But my last point is always the same. Spend time on the campus without the benefit of admission "handlers." If it's a residential college, stay overnight in a residence hall midweek. Sit in on some classes. Check out the library at night. Only you can understand how you will feel at the place for the next four years, and you need to experience it as it really is.

In the end, the most wonderful aspect of higher education in America is that there are so many choices—so many right choices—and so many opportunities to transfer when a student realizes he or she needs something different. Which is why, despite the many limitations of consumer information, I continue to value a higher educational "system" in which there are thousands of alternatives at all price ranges in a free and open market. And why I wish every student could have access to a knowledgeable counselor to help sort through it all and make a reasoned choice.

Editorial provided by Dr. Harold R. Wilde, President of North Central College.