Monmouth College Top Questions

I would only tell myself to listen to my gut and go with what I was feeling because it was right.

The best advice I could give would be to find a place that feels like home. The instant I stepped on the campus of the college I attend, I was at home there. As far as making the most of college experience, get involved, not just on campus, but in the community as well. I have found that giving back to the community in which my college is located has been the most rewarding experience of my time there.

Make a college visit! You cannot tell if you like a school just by the internet. Get as much information as you can about all of the services provided by the school.

When advising on choosing the right college, parents should encourage their children to step outside their comfort zones and aim for a school that will help them formulate a fresh adult identity, separate from their childhood ties. Essentially, this entails seeking an educational environment that will become a unique ?home away from home,? instead of an exact replication of home; higher learning, after all, is about the pursuit of new enriching opportunities, as one?s eyes and mind are opened to different lifestyles and ways of thought. For example, if the student comes from a more rural area, s/he might consider attending an institution in an urban or affluent suburban community. Also, if the student?s hometown population tends to be homogenous or lacking in variety, s/he could find a university that prides itself on its diversity. These, along with numerous other factors, can be imperative in selecting a college that will offer the best prospects for overall growth, enlightenment, and achievement. From making a fitting decision for himself/herself, the student will inevitably interact with peers from other backgrounds and they will interdependently broaden and influence each other?s insights and awareness of the world at large.

Choose a place that you are comfortable.

You need to visit as many colleges as you can untill you find the one that just seems to fit and feel right.

Visit the school and spend time looking around and asking questions away from your tour guide. This is necessary to get the full experience of the school. The quide wants you to attend this school and they will tell you eveerything that you want to hear to get your attendence. Talk to faculty and staff in your department and begin to look at your specific focus to find out if you can get exactly what you are looking for from the school. Talk to the students that you see walking around campus. See how they feel about this school and ask for their complete honesty. And finally, eat a meal or two at the school and see what their diffferent food options are.

Make sure you find out what really happens during the weekends and week nights at the campus you choose. Most of the time the academics will be fine, but its the other extra-curricular activities that will really make the difference between the colleges, especially at smaller schools.

Visit as many colleges as you can. You will know when you pick the right one because it will feel right.

I would say that students should develop strong relationships with peers who share interests and should also spend time getting to know their professors. Some of my most important relationships were with professors... and they helped me get a much clearer idea of my direction in life.

For the students, I think the most important thing about finding a college is look at several differnet options. If you look several different places you will know where you belong. When I went to visit Monmouth it was like a home to me and I knew it was the place for me. College is a time in ones life that will be unfogettable, finding the best college or university is challenging. However, if you feel home, I can guarentee you will succeed. I would also suggest, that as soon as you enter in college join something that will get you involved. The more involved, the more expierence you will have at school. This also leads to a memory's with the friends that you will have. For the parents, I would say let your child pick where he or she wants to go then worry about finicial situations. Many schools have scholarships and financial help if needed. My family was very worried about money but Monmouth was willing to give loans. College is an amazing time and I would suggest that every child should go through this expierence because it is a once and a life time opportunity.

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Visit, ask questions about academic requirements, at this school there are many requirements that i found out after i already enrolled. ask what there is to do on weekends. make sure there are movie theaters, malls, mini golfing places or whatever. academics isn't the only thing to do. Also, see if it is a party school. Small schools are generally centered around drinking.

College could be the best or worst years of your life. It is your job to make the best of it. Finding the right college for you is huge, and parents remember that it is not you who will be living there for the next four years so make sure your son/daughter has the majority of the choice. To the student, don't be afraid to leave home and the friends there. Making new friends in college is quite the experience. You will go out of your comfort zone, you will cry, you will laugh, and you will find people who will become some of the best friends that you will ever find. College will help you discover who you are. You will take the journey from a teenager to an adult. By the end of college, you will be ready to live on your own and appreciate as well. Don't let college fly by you, enjoy every second of it.

Look at as many schools as possible, both large and small, to find the best one for you.

I would strongly advise that students spend the night at a college they are looking at to make sure that they are comfortable on campus. Find out what kind of extracurricular activities are available on campus, and see if you would want to be active in any of those activities. Also, make sure the college has the department you want to study in, and ask to speak to some of the professors in that department. Finally, make sure that you get all of your questions answered before saying yes to a college. Know exactly what you want in a college, and pick the one that you feel fits you the best!

This is a hard question for me since I definitely did not choose my school conventinally. I went with a feeling more than a real logical reason. I think it is important to understand what you want to experiance and what you are comfortable with. If you grew up in the city, you may feel out of place in a small rural college, but you may also find it refreshing after the speed of the city. The reverse way is a student living in a small country town may be dieing to get to the big city, but it is easy to get overwhelmed. Be sure you have really thought about your temperment and what you wnat to experiance besides learning, because college is so much more than academic learning, it is life learning. After you have really looked into yourself and decided what kind of atmosphere is best for you, it is time to think academically. do you want a liberal arts school to get a well rounded education full of different experiances, or do you just want to focus soley on your major. Niether is bad or good, just different, and it depends on what you want.

My advice would be to go with you heart. Choose a college that feels right not what college you think you should attend. Going away to college is more than learning acedemically, you also learn so much about youself on a personal level.

I believe that you should choose a college based on what you would like to pursue in the future. For example, I want to be a teacher, so I chose a school that specializes in education. If you do not know what you want to pursue I recommend choosing a liberal arts school in order to get the largest variety of options available to you on one campus.

It is important that you visit the colleges you want to attend! Getting on campus during the school year when students are around will be helpful in seeing if the atmosphere is right for you. Also it is important that you do not count out small schools that you have never heard of. It is not the name of the institution that determines the value of your education, it is the work you put in. I go to a small private liberal arts college that is not at all well known and does not have the reputation of being a "good school" like for example University of Illinois in Champagne Urbana. What people think and reputations should be irrelevant in the decision-making process. Pick the school that feels right, put in the effort, and you will get the best education around no matter where you go. When you do pick a school and arrive on campus for your first term, take risks and step outside your comfort zone. The best way to succeed in higher education is with an open mind. Good luck!!