What seniors look for in a college

When it comes to what seniors look for in a college, there is a lot of similar pros and cons they can agree on. It’s usually the taste of the seniors that affects their opinion on it. It can depend on location, climate, atmosphere and other subjects along those lines.

Firstly, the kind of feeling the campus has is what makes or breaks the college. While each person can prefer a certain size of college, or general area, it is often not the last thing they consider. They can narrow down their colleges based on size, majors and perks, but a lot of what they consider comes down to how the college feels and what kind of atmosphere they are looking for. It’s what they use to weed out the last few colleges.

“I really don’t like competition,” senior John-William Cordero said. “It makes me uncomfortable, and I don’t perform well in that environment. I’m looking for a school where it’s very community and cooperation focused, so I’ll look at schools that work more with people that may be working with people with other majors, or going down into the community and working with the people around you. That just makes me more comfortable and I think I’ll do better in that environment.”

When it comes to the first thing they look for, however, is if it works with their major. What they’re majoring in is very important, as they want a college that works well with what they want to study. Senior Anna Koppy, for example, has to take into account her major for everywhere she looks.

“The first thing I’m looking for is if the college has the program I’m interested in. I’m interested in studying linguistics, and it’s [a] pretty uncommon field to find for undergraduate students, so the first thing I did was look for colleges with a program for undergraduate linguistics,” Koppy said.

Even for people who have yet to decide on a major, it is still taken into consideration when making the choice, because it influences every part of the college. What kind of major you’re looking for changes your perspective, and if you don’t have one in mind, you want a lot of options. Senior John Capwell can attest to that.

“I’m undecided about my major, so it was important to find a school that could give me a lot of options,” Capwell said.

Distance definitely matters as well. While some people might want to go all around the world, others might want to stay close to family, or just like the area they’re in. Koppy personally missed the feeling of home.

“I don’t want to live anywhere that gets less snow than Arlington,” Koppy said. “I used to live in Michigan, and I really miss [the] snow. I [don’t] necessarily want to be in the middle of nowhere.”

Finally, something seniors thought about a lot was size. Senior John-William Cordero had a similar situation to Koppy, having to filter colleges out that didn’t work with his major, engineering. However, another big portion of what influenced his choices was location.

“For me personally, big colleges [are a dealbreaker]. I don’t like being in a sea of people that I probably won’t see very often,” Cordero said. “I don’t want to be too far from home, [either.]”

Capwell could agree with that sentiment, not wanting somewhere too big. He wanted something similar to home, that was a good middle ground.

“I want a place that’s closer to my home. [Nowhere] too big, too small, too urban.”