Carnegie Mellon University Top Questions

The best school for you coiuld be one that gives you a good feeling the minute you step on it. But don't rely solely on feeling! Unbiasedly scrutinize that school as you would others. If something makes you uncomfortable, don't rule it out but keep looking. You might find a school you like more. Once you've found schools you like, visit some classes. If the professors and facilities are lackluster, you'll probably have trouble learning as much as you could. Don't go for the name/money. A name doesn't always mean anything. Many schools guarantee financial aid so pick one you like. This is precious time to explore new experiences. At school, join fun-looking clubs. Don't be afraid of ones you are unfamiliar with. You might discover something great and can always drop the club if you don't like it. If you need help with your schoolwork, don't be afraid to ask your professors or classmates (unless expressly prohibitied). If you want to learn more about something, research it at the library. The librarian might have some good suggestions. If you're overloaded, you should cut back on classes/clubs.

The most important thing is to decide, as a student, what you want out of your life. Don't go into college expecting to meander your way through. Find what you want, and strive to get it with everything you have. Parents need to let the student get a feel for the college without putting in their own opinions. What the parent and the student want could be, and often are, completely different. The other important thing to do is to go to the college. Take a few hours away from the tour, away from the information sessions, away from all of the school's propoganda. Wander the halls, get lost, and see the school as it really is. If it is the school for you, you will feel as though you had always been there, as though you were meant to be at the school. If, as you wander the halls, you feel distracted, concerned, cramped or simply uncomfortable, then leave and do not go back. Overall, you simply need to find out for yourself. Ratings, surveys, and books are all well and good, but you have to decide what is it that you want out of college.

Finding the right college is all about the student. Parents need to take their students to their desired universities to get a feel for the setting and the people there. The best colleges seem to be the ones with the highest diversity of programs offered to help entice different people to attend that school. To make the most out of any college experience is to get involved and remember that college is not just about learning in the classroom, but learning life lessons. By being involved in clubs and organizations, you enjoy your time in college, build friendships, and learn lessons far beyond academic learnings. By building good relationships, not just with friends but with professors, one can create a network that will be extremely valuable in the future. After all, networking is one key to success, and college provides an excellent opportunity to do just that. The connections you make with professors, students, business professionals, whoever, will prove to assist you and help you assist others throughout your own careers. Even the networking skills you obtain in learning HOW to network are great lessons to learn. My advice: have fun, meet people, make good impressions, be successful!

When thinking about choosing the right school, actually, physically, do sit down and make a pros and cons list. This may sound silly, or it may sound like something you can do fairly well in your head-- but sitting down and committing to paper the benefits and negative attributes of all the schools you are considering can potentially give you clarity about your choices in a way simply being "blinded" by the flash of the schools' websites and/or college tours-- their way of marketing-- will not. Think of the school's ability to give you a valuable education vis-a-vis the dollar value the school would be demanding of you. But most importantly, consider what you are really looking to do in college. Would your best fit be a place where you can focus on training for a specific field, or ripening as a person, a citizen of earth? Could the community around the college be an important aspect of your time on and off campus? Give the facts a chance by seeing them unfold in front of you in an actual list. And choose with both your head and your heart!

Visit the schools you are applying to before you decide, and make sure you pick the school that's right for you. Remember that college is a great time and you can have a lot of fun in these four years, but your schoolwork is the reason that you're here. Make sure you get your work done before you have fun.

Choosing a college is a though process. This is a time where being a bit thin-earred can pay off. Get advice from people around you and do your research. If you do that, a college that you may not have even thought about may pop up into your list of potential colleges. Also, don't limit yourself to only the "name-brand" schools. There are hundreds of universities throughout the country and perhaps a less known one may be the perfect fit for you. Once you get into college, try and meet as many new people as possible. Not only can those relationships bloom into full friendships that can last a lifetime, it can also expand you views and perceptions of the world around you. And it never hurt to have more friends.

Do all of your homework before deciding on a school and make sure that your heart is really into going to that scool.

Make the best decision for you...not pigeon hole yourself my applying to very specific schools or programs. College is the best time in your life to grow and find out who you are so take advantage of that opportunity and choose the institution that best suits your needs.

Take them to go see a couple schools and have them talk to students at those schools, freshmen and seniors. That way they can get a younger perspective, closer to their own, and an older perspective of someone who has been through 3 years.

Most students who go into college feel like they know what their career choices will be. However, a lot of times the workload in college makes them re-think their career choices/majors. Therefore when choosing a college, prospective students should choose a school that excels in the general area of study that interests them - such as business, humanities, science, etc. - so should they choose to change their major, they are still getting a great education in something that they are interested in. Its also important to remember that having balance is key to succeeding. Make sure that you are able to access things that you enjoy, such as sports, video game clubs, volunteer organizations, sororities/fraternities, etc. I think it is also important to get a sense of how comfortable you are on your campus. You will be there for four years and most likely away from home, so it is absolutely necessary to be yourself because if you have to conform to what others want you to be, you will find yourself very unhappy. If you feel that you satisfy these criteria at a school that fits your budget, its probably the right fit for you. Good Luck!

Come visit!

School environment is an important thing to consider.

Look into the tuition of the college...that will determine where your future paychck goes.

There isn't necessarily a perfect fit for everyone. Make the best with what you find and make an effort to be social. Students have a tendency to stay cooped up in their dorm at Carnegie Mellon, but I would advise them to find a club or activity to branch out and find their niche. Most importantly, however, I would suggest that you work hard and make the best of your resources; professors are there for a reason and readily available to help anytime. Good luck.

Don't stop looking until you find a college that makes you feel excited about what you're doing, and allows you to become a valuable asset within your feild. College is a place where you learn about yourself, what you want, what makes you tick, what keeps you up all hours of the night in joyful anticipation. College is the place where you become the person you will be for the rest of your life-- choose wisely, but don't ignore that feeling that tells you "this is the place for me". When you get on campus, be an active advocate for your own growth-- when people realize you are serious, intelligent, and driven, innumerable doors will open. Most importantly, consciously evaluate what you want, and act on those ambitions. Those who succeed are those who know what they want and never stop until it's theirs.

Try to talk to students that are in the program you want to pursue candidly, not setup through a professor (that can be a skewed image of real student life). Try to do sleeping bag weekends and use them to get an actual feel for daily life, not just partying or what the campus looks like, etc.

Meet with professors, advisors, deans, and their sister. But also be sure to see what the students have to say about the school and its campus. I would STRONGLY recommend that the prospective student take a few days out of the school year and stay with a current student and attend a few freshmen level and upperlevel classes. I would STRONGLY recommend that the prospective student considers the various activities and social/academic clubs that are on campus. I would put together a list of survey questions and go around asking students walking by if they could give a little bit of their time to answer your questions. But most importantly, I would STRONGLY recommend that the prospective student eat the food first before deciding anything - and first impressions are everything. No joke. Without a meal plan that is healthy, delicious, convenient, and stable the prospective student can struggle to function as a student and as a member of society.

For finding the right school, make sure you pick one that when you visit you feel comfortable with. One where you can see yourself going. Don't go to school so close to home that it is easy to run home every weekend, but don't pick one so far away that it is difficult to spend holidays with the family. Make sure that the school is large enough that if you change your mind about what you want to major in you don't have to change schools in order to do so. And pick one in a good sized town, so that you don't spend all your time on campus. Take a class every semester simply becasue it sounds interesting and not becasue it is related to your major. Join a club or play sports, something that you enjoy and that isn't related to class work. Get an on-campus job, even if you don't need the money. Explore the town outside your campus. Make sure you leave campus and do something totally fun at least once a week. At least once a day, go outside and look at the sky and be a kid.

Choose a school that's good at more programs than just one. You never know what you get interested in once you actually get to the school

Pray. I don't care to whom, or what, but pray and decide who you want to prepare to be. At college you will have choices and choices and more choices, and sometimes all you can do is pray to find the right answer. Trust your gut on where feels right. Try to learn about rankings, scores and required courses early, then forget them. Try to be exited about your future--that's what college is about, your future. Enjoy your friends, keep them, ask them for help and kindness because if you work hard eventually you will fail and will need kindness. But most of all, pray.