My Boarding School Blog

After high school graduation and all the partying has subsided and the time comes for you to take on the next level you find yourself a bit lost on the path you are headed to. Most American students face the same feeling right after graduating from high school, well for those who didn’t prepare thoroughly at least, finding the right college or university can be difficult when you are unprepared.

In the United States there are a lot of colleges and universities to choose from but not everyone can gain easy admission especially for the most prestigious ones like Harvard University, Yale and Princeton University. These top notch educational institutions are very selective and only highly qualified students are admitted.

It would be best to list a number of choices to be able to have a back up if in case you don’t get to the first few ones on top of your list. Prepare this list way before you graduate preferably a year from your graduation because the usual processing time for college applications take around 10 to 15 months.

The most important thing to assess before going through the process of selecting the right college or university for you is to choose what career or type of degree you want to take. Higher education is the key principle that will most likely determine what you are going to be as an independent adult. Higher education or a college degree is very useful in landing a job that can pay for the lifestyle you want to achieve in the future whether you plan on becoming a successful entrepreneur or a family man capable of providing for a family. A college degree will also add to your market value when you decide to become employed and join top ranking companies worldwide. Knowing your desired course or degree will be helpful in choosing the right school for you that can offer the best learning experience in the subject matter that you would want.

The next steps would be to assess the different factors that can contribute to your school selection like costs, location, environment, housing arrangements and school curriculum. These are all important factors to evaluate in choosing the right college or university. Are you thinking of living in a dorm? Are you comfortable in a sub urban community or do you want hustle and bustle of the city? Try to narrow your list down to those colleges and universities that best suits your needs and most of your wants because once you’ve made a decision you’ll be spending almost 4 to 5 years of your life there. It would be nice to have pleasant memories of your college experience to tell to your kids when you grow old.

Gather resources and inquire among friends regarding their experiences in their own college and university to gain enough knowledge on what it will feel like. You can go online and check out websites like Petersons, National Center for Education Statistics and University of North Texas.

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Formal education is an important part of every person’s personal achievement, social formation, growth, and development. This doesn’t only include primary level of education. More importantly, it also includes the tertiary level in college or university.

According to Higher Education in the Unites States – An Encyclopedia, a college or university education, also known as tertiary education, is chiefly designed to develop the technical skills of the student in preparation for the professional or working life, with the hope that it is in line with the degree earned.

Colleges and universities offer comprehensive body of knowledge from many disciplines. These can be acquired by taking up degree or non-degree courses. Degree courses entail a longer period of studying. These courses are mostly concentrated on theories in their contents and instructions.

Theories and different schools of thoughts included in their respective curriculums are taught to ensure the knowledge and the skills necessary in the real practice of the field are acquired.

On the other hand, non-degree courses mostly involve a shorter period of studying. These include direct teaching of practical and actual trainings from vocational and technical courses.
Actual trainings and on-the-job applications of theories are usually performed under these types of courses. The schools that offer these courses are equipped with the real tools and machineries the students are most likely to utilize in the real job scenario.

Not all colleges and universities offer these courses. Actually, colleges have more specific types of degrees offered while universities have broader and wider choices of courses.

Vocational courses are exclusively offered by vocational and technical schools. However, these schools may also be part of a university. College, on the other hand, is specific in its category of courses offered such as College of Law or College of Medicine, such as the American College of Physicians. It is immediately implicated that the courses offered are related to medicine or law only.

As defined in the New World encyclopedia, a university consists of different schools or colleges. A university may have school of arts and sciences, college of education, or school of business. Thus, the university offers more courses while a college has a particular category or group of disciplines offered.

In realizing one’s dreams and aspirations, it is critical that the person has a specific path chosen to achieve such goals. These paths are through training and education. Without this, the person can only rely on either just instinct or trial and error methods. These methods are not only ineffective and unscientific; they are also costly and may prove harmful to one’s future. Therefore, it is imperative that every person decides on which type of course to enroll from a specific college or university that he or she considers as the one that can provide the necessary tools in achieving their dream.

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The US is perceived to be the ideal destination for students from other countries to pursue their education. World class institutions like Harvard, Princeton and Yale are the emblem of excellence among the world’s best universities and colleges. These prestigious schools offer competitive curriculum and advanced technology combined with the best teachers highly specialized in different fields and courses. Professors in these institutions lead in advanced and cutting edge research published in respective journals.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010 showed Harvard University at the top. The rankings were powered by a reliable information provider, Thomson Reuters, which gathered data from extensive research in more 15 countries all over the world. Seven of the top 10 universities ranked showed educational institutions from the US namely, Harvard University (1), California Institute of Technology (2), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3), Stanford University (4), Princeton University (5), University of California Berkeley (8), and Yale University (10).

The United States has a rich diverse culture that welcomes international students to easily adapt and fit in. Universities in the US offer various courses on an infinite array of study in different fields. Specialized courses are even offered only in the US. Accreditation is also an advantage of studying in America as most of the academic courses are accredited by international organizing bodies. Application of academic concepts is best practiced in training and these schools often provide affiliations with respective specialized institutions in the medical, science, political and education fields. Since higher education in the US is very prominent worldwide the US government gives a substantial financial budget to maintain its high quality of education. An estimated annual budget of US$71 billion was allocated for the US Department of Education for 2011.

Advanced technology and modern methods of teaching is practiced in colleges and universities in the US. Media and libraries are utilized to give students access to information they need in their studies. Libraries in these universities provide a vast resource for information and are made conducive to a learning environment. Campuses are situated in spacious grounds with facilities for recreation, social events and relaxation. Dormitories in universities foster the chance to interact with students from all over the world, build friendships that could last a lifetime and provide an all around learning experience of different cultures and ideology. Ideal academic curriculum, high quality teaching and advanced facilities don’t come cheap. Surely enrolling in these prestigious universities and colleges are expensive but good thing that there are many student loans available to help and aid these potential students to experience premiere education at its best.

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