Making the Choice on What School to Attend


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It's that time of year again when students will start hearing back from the places they've applied early decision or early action. I know I applied early to a few schools, and I was so excited to hear back from all of them. After going through a long search and application process finally getting the acceptance (or denial) letters made the prospect of going to college more real for me. Getting an acceptance letter from Lewis & Clark over winter break was an amazing Christmas present. But I also applied to other schools and I had to make the tough choice about where I wanted to go to school. I thought I would share a little bit about how I made the decision, and hopefully this might help someone make the decision themselves. I'll give some general advice and some specifics on why I chose LC and why I'm happy with my choice.

Firstly, congratulations if you've been accepted to LC early decision! I'm sure you'll love it here, and I know the time will fly by and before you know it you'll be on campus settling into your new home.

For those of you who applied early action or regular decision though, you might still be debating where to attend. I won't pretend to be an expert, but I'll tell you what my experience was. At this point in your search process, I'll assume that you've decided some of the specifics of what you want: what size school, what programs you're interested in, what location in the country. One of my pieces of advice is to stick with what you really want. If you applied to a broad range of schools but in your gut, you know your leaning towards a certain size or program or location, stick with that. Most importantly, you should prioritize the factors that are most important to you. Sometimes when you start comparing and overanalyzing schools you might lose sight of the factors you should be weighing more heavily. If you know for sure you want to play on the soccer team at a small school but you don't care where the school is or whether or not there's a graduate school attached to the college, focus on the things you know you want.

For a while in my college search, I was totally focused on the academics and extracurricular activities, and possible opportunities at different schools. Those are all super important things to consider, but I had to remind myself that the defining thing that really makes a school a school are the people. At one point while I was envisioning my life in college I realized that I might meet my future spouse there, or I a best friend who makes my life better, or a professor who helps you decide on a career path. Those connections could wind up being much more important than whether or not your college has a specific club or the most amazing dorms. So my advice is the imagine whether or not you want to be friends with the student body, imagine the personal connections you might make at a school.

And lastly, if at all possible, visit the campus. I'll be honest, before I visited LC I liked the school a lot but I wasn't sure it was at the top of my list, and there were other schools I visited that were at the top of my list. Visiting the schools I was interested in really influenced what I thought of them. Being on a campus lets you get a better sense of the student body and the culture of the school. I don't know exactly what it is about visiting a school, but it's an important step in deciding where is going to be best for you.

Now, aside from the general advice about how to choose a school, I am of course biased towards Lewis & Clark, and if you're reading this you probably are too, so I'll give you some of the reasons why I chose LC and why I love it here.

I talked about how important the people and the student body are to your college experience. I'm very happy here because I've found a great group of people to be friends with. Not only that but all of my professors are amicable and easy to approach, all of the other staff I interact with are helpful and nice, and the general atmosphere of the campus and the people is supportive and welcoming. I really like that about being here.

It's hard to overstate the beauty of campus. Some days when the fog is just right and the lights are on at the frank manor house it really feels like I'm wandering through the setting of a fairytale. The academic buildings are stunning and everyone I know loves their dorms.

For me, I also love how small the school feels. after just a few months of being here, there are always familiar faces around to smile at and say hi to. I'm excited about my classes next semester because I already know some people taking the same classes and it'll be great. To me, knowing people all around making living and working and studying here feel homier and happier.

This is a very subjective guide to some of the factors that played a role in my college decision. I hope they can help you even a small bit to make the choice that's right for you.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me at quentingaul@lclark.edu