Nicole
follow your heart. from experience, i feel that you learn better when you are learning about what your passionate about. without passion, your education won't be as meaningful and fulfilling as it could be. another thing is research. don't be shy when it comes to digging up information about the schools you want to go to. you want a school with good credibility with its students and companies. sometimes the best schools are the most expensive, but that doesn't mean that it's not accessible. take me for example. if it wasn't for financial aid, the school of my dreams would be out of the question. financial aid is there to help you pay for your education so money doesn't have to distract you from what is most important. i love the school i go to and i am confident that i will be fully equipped with the skills i need to get a job that i love once i get out of school. it is a scary thing, no doubt, but because of my choice to go for what i love, the real world seems a little bit less scary.
Tashif
The advice I would give is to make sure the student is picking he school and not the parents. In many cases parents tend to baby their child because they are in a delicate stage between being a teenager and a adult, but they have to realize that it is the students future that they are trying to create going to the college or university of thier choice. Also for the students, have a idea of what you want to do major in when you apply. Of course you will probably end up changing your major once or twice but it is natural because you are learning about yourself as a indiviual. Also for students, make sure you take care of responsbility and give everything one hundred and ten percent. As a student you are not taking out loans and recieving financial aid just to flunk out of school, make sure you that on the righ path to the future that you dream of.
Jennifer
Find something you are passionate about- dont think in terms of a career necessarily. If you find something you love- you'll be happy doing anything in that field. Choose something you simply enjoy or are inspired by. You will regret choosing a school for athletics or friends.
Hyo
follow your dream career that will help you to choose right college
also go for more scholarship
Jon
It is important to know the general field that you or your child would like to graduate into. Once you know this, you can then do research about what school would offer the best possible education you can recieve. Although it really just depends on if you want to be successful in college or just have fun. If you go to a fun school to party, then you are really just wasting your money in the long run. Its better to go to a college that will put you out in the job field in a competitive level because then you can pay off loans faster and get into making real money and following your dreams.
It might be tough if you go to a good school to watch your friends at the party school having lots of fun every day but after you graduate, you will be the one having fun every day because you will be in the field of your dreams and making lots of money.
Basically, it comes down to following your long term dreams vs. the short term experiences.
Gina
I would give parents and students the advice to visit the potential schools to find the right choice. It is very imporant to visit the schools, see the campus and surroundings, and see the students and teachers interact with each other. This can really help determine which school is right. To make the most of the college experience, i would recommend to parents, you have the rest of your life to spend with you children, let them have their free time to focus on school and to create new bonds with peers. I would recomend to students, you have the rest of your life to work and be tied down with relationships and family, focus on school, do the best work you can do, and most important have fun. Experience new activities, meet new people, and form bonds with friends that you will keep the rest of your life.
Kawun
Make the most of your resources when trying to find the right college to go to. I could have went to a thousand other shools but I chose the school that I am at because I know it will lead me in the right direction of the field that I am trying to go in. Choose the school that has the best succession rate of students becoming graduates, and getting acces to the best jobs on the market for your specific major. Also finding a school where the alumni are very involved would be a good idea also because I have found that many alumni at my school has shared experiences with me that showed me things about the art industry that i never thought about and that has helped me adjust my school experience to what the field will be like when I graduate.
Craig
Its is this instinctive journey to a higher knowledge, a higher understanding that one must undertake to find themselves in the maturity of their age. This journey, collectively a introspective one, is more or less a spiritual and emotional development and evolution. College is somewhat the landscape in which this journey winds its way through and theexperiences had in college reverberate throughout the remainder of one's life. Students seeking growth and a learning experience of any kind that will challenge them and their conscious find answers more or less in themselves, with guidance only had in college. For those in college already, the answers you seek aren't in the books you read or the lectures you hear but most importantly insider yourself. The answers in the end are whatever you wish to align yourself with, of course with a bit of guidance and research, the answers can be attained in yourself.
Emily
Above all else, I cannot stress enough how important it is to become involved with your school. It shows a certain pride you feel for your school, which is important, seeing as how it's a college that YOU chose for YOUR future; no one is forcing you to attend it. Why not become involved with an institution that is preparing you for the rest of your life? My teachers constantly stress talking with other teachers, or making friends with other students. Networking is fundamental to an Illustrator's life, which is what I am learning to become. Last year I made the decision to become a resident assistant against all my previous feelings towards such active involvement. In earlier years I would have sworn that such a job would restrict me even further from my friends or my school work, or worse, my free time. However, I've discovered many new extracurricular activities and friends, while at the same time becoming an active part of the school I love, and a positive role model for other students around me. Therefore, I would strongly encourage college student to do the same for their own personal enrichment.
Amber
Go to school for what you love. Visit college campus'. Review the schools job placing percentage. Pick somewhere that suits you as a person.