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College Fit

The impartial college

03/02/2012 by jlittleton1 Leave a Comment

How do you know you’re seeing the “college” and not just the “marketing”? How do you get to the true heart of a college experience?

Showalter

This week, NPR released new standards for its journalists. For an organization as big and respected as NPR, this is a pretty big deal. It’s like the Seattle Seahawks writing a new playbook, or Daft Punk deciding they’re going to start playing the type of music Nickelback plays. (Scary, right?) In the just-published standards, NPR introduces an entirely new concept: “being fair to the truth.” It definitely has a nice ring to it, and it marks a major departure for journalism in contemporary America. Right now, most news organizations adopt a “balanced reporting norm” approach: both sides get the same amount of air time to create a sense of fairness. Anybody who’s ever been in trouble knows how the balanced approach works in real life: you get called into the principal’s office and tell your side of the story, the other guy gets called into the principal’s office and tells their side, and in the end the principal decides who’s right. In the news world, the audience is supposed to play the role of the principal. Sometimes called the “he said, she said” approach, this approach forces the reader to figure out what’s actually true and accurate. It works great in theory … except there’s always “spin” on the story. If you’ve followed politics at all this election year, you know that someone is always trying to “spin” the story … and sometimes the facts, too. That makes it much, much harder to decide what’s actually true. Something similar happens with colleges. You can read their viewbooks, go online to their websites and open all their emails, but you might never get to heart of the matter. So what can you do?

  • Turn to students already on campus. If you know somebody at Eastern, you should reach out and see what they say.
  • Read the common data set. This is a loooooooooooong list of numbers and checkboxes, but nearly every school has one.. That makes it easy for you to compare schools on things such as cost, average debt load, and financial aid packages. Fair warning, though: some schools don’t give you all the information. You can find Eastern’s common data sets via this page.
  • Visit campus. While many visit activities are planned, you get a chance to see the university without editing, photoshopping or someone’s “spin.” Students are doing what students do on campus. You get to try the food. You can explore the neighborhood or nearby city.A full 71 percent of students say that a visit to campus is the absolute best way to get a feel for the college without the “spin.”

We agree, which is why a college visit, either as part of a tour or as part of an event like goEastern, is such an important part of finding the college that’s the right fit for you. We know that Eastern is the state’s best value and a phenomenal school … but we want you to discover it for yourself without the spin.

Filed Under: College Fit Tagged With: campus, Eastern, Eastern Washington University, EWU, goEastern, visits

College fit: it's about you

01/25/2012 by jlittleton1 Leave a Comment

If you’re in the middle of your college search, you probably have one huge question: “Out of all the thousands of colleges in the world, which one is the best fit for me?”

Boxcar races at EWU

Traditionally, our society emphasizes two approaches to answering this question. One is the “true love” approach: there’s one school out there that’s going to be perfect for you. All you have to do is find that one school, and suddenly you’ll know that’s where you’re supposed to be. Stars will streak across the sky and purple glitter will rain from giant glitter clouds, and perhaps a choir will burst into song. You can’t miss the signs.

Of course, some of you probably have experience with the second approach, which is a bit like an arranged marriage: 15 years ago, before you’d even had your first nap time in kindergarten, someone picked your college for you. Sweatshirts. Water bottles. Maybe even a tattoo. Even if your situation isn’t this extreme, chances are you know someone who wants you to attend a particular school.

Both approaches have flaws. For instance, the “true love” approach is just like true love in romantic comedies: if you want to be happy in the long term, your true love needs to last. Consider this: that school that has you infatuated right now? It costs twice as much as another school you like, and that could mean a lifetime of debt. That school that seems too good to be true? Students there take classes taught by assistants, not by professors. Will you still be in love when the hard part of the relationship begins?

The arranged marriage approach has a serious flaw, too: it might not be your choice. After all, you’re the one who has to take the classes, live in the residence hall and talk to the professors. You’re the one who will spend four years or more in the college community. So is your college making you happy, or is it making the people you know happy?

All this comes down to one big point that should be your first step in any discussion about college fit: you need to decide who you are and what makes you tick before you decide which school is best for you.

  1. What makes you truly happy?
  2. What’s your learning style?
  3. What classes do you love? What classes do you hate?
  4. Your favorite teacher: what makes that teacher special?
  5. What activities and hobbies define you?
  6. What does “value” mean to you?

Because here’s the truth: you can have fun at almost any college. You’ll meet amazing, brilliant people everywhere in the world. But if you’re choosing a school that emphasizes research when you really want close mentorships with your professors, you’re setting yourself up for heartache. If you need an internship to help land your dream job but you choose a school that isn’t close to a large city, you’re making your dream harder to achieve.

In the end, choosing a college isn’t always about the college. It’s about discovering who you are, determining what you want to do after college and finding a place that helps you make it happen.

Filed Under: College Fit Tagged With: admissions, advice, college, college decision, college fit, decisions, fit

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