FIND BEST COLLEGE IN USA
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| Best College In USA |
Much of the
discussion for American high school students looking to college focuses on the
right fit. It is a prominent theme in the advertising and marketing material
produced by the school. For American’s looking for schools, rankings come
secondary, as rankings don’t tell the whole story. Parents certainly want their
students to attend prestigious and competitive colleges, but with so many
colleges across the United States, American students often segment the schools
into categories and then focus on finding the best match.
First, it is
important to recognize the way American’s refer to the term “college” is very
different than in other countries. In the United States, college is a
post-secondary institution of higher education. University is defined as the
same, but depending on the regulations of the state in which the school is
located, the term may have a technical difference. For the most part,
universities are bigger than colleges. For the most part, colleges focus on
undergraduate education while universities have strong graduate schools along
with undergraduate education. Dartmouth, Amherst, Carleton, Pomona and
Wellesley all have college in their name and among the most elite institutions
in the world. In everyday use, the term “college” is a generic term use for
“colleges and universities.” An American would go to college the same way an
Australia would go to university.
Categories
themselves are not universally recognized or widely understood so let’s look at
some background. US News, producer of the most popular ranking of American
colleges has divided institutions into multiple categories with the following
descriptions:
National Universities –
offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master’s, and
doctoral degrees. These colleges also are committed to producing ground
breaking research.
National Liberal Arts Colleges –
emphasize undergraduate education and award at least
half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study.
Regional Universities –
offer a full range of undergrad programs and some master’s
programs but few doctoral programs.
Regional Colleges –
focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than half their
degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
Beyond this list,
there are community colleges and special focus institutions like Art Schools,
Engineering Schools, and Medical Schools. One big difference between National
and Regional is the geographic diversity of American students at the school.
Regional schools have a higher percentage of local students and thus the
listings are broken down into geographic regions (North, South, Midwest and
West). National colleges and universities draw strongly from all over the
country. Many regional institutions are very popular with foreign students.
Going beyond
these categories there are other designations put on a school. They are either
public or private, the difference being tied to the governance of the school. A
unit of government, usually the state, controls public schools. Private schools
are independent, regulated by government, but not controlled by them. The
quality of an institution cannot be determined by this designation. Public
schools will charge a higher tuition for students from outside their area
(state). Schools may further define themselves in a category such as Women’s
Colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s), other
categories of minority serving or aphilosophy of teaching like Liberal Arts.
Religion plays a
big part in the history of nearly every private U.S. college or university as
just about every private college in America was founded by a religious
organization. As they have grown, many of these institutions have shifted from
their original orientation and become welcoming to all students and educators
of many subjects and philosophies. There are only a very few private schools
that require students to pledge their faith and these are generally referred to
as evangelical schools. For most private schools, even those labeled as
religious, students are usually required to take a few religion courses and
these courses are often more oriented toward history or philosophy as much as
religious study (doctrine). Catholic schools are often cited as examples of
religious schools and they themselves are categorized by their founding orders:
Jesuit, Christian Brothers, LaSallian, Franciscan, etc.
Another way
colleges are categorized is by athletics. Athletic competition is an important
part of the social fabric of most colleges. Colleges field teams in many sports
and the games/matches are popular activities for students to watch and ways
schools compete with each other. The colleges are organized into leagues and
these leagues are often an easy way to band similar schools together. These
leagues are also referred to as conferences. The most widely known sports
league is the Ivy League where 8 of the most elite compete. Teams are divided
into Division I, II and III, designations that reflect the amount of financial
support schools put into athletic scholarships. Division 1 is the most
competitive; Division III does not allow scholarships determined by
athleticability alone.
Of the 25 schools
with large international student population, nine are in the Big 10 athletic
conference, four in the Ivy League and three in the Pac 12 conference. Nineteen
of the 25play Division 1 football, 24 of 25 play Division I basketball. Other
well-known Division 1 conferences are the Big 12, Southeast Conference, Big
East and Atlantic Coast Conference. For smaller schools, Athletic conferences
are still a good place to find similar schools. The Patriot League has American
University, Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette and
Lehigh – schools that match well academically as well as on the field. The
Midwest conference has Beloit, Carroll, Grinnell, Illinois College, Knox, Lake
Forest, Lawrence, Monmouth, Ripon and St. Norbert – schools that rival each
other academically as well as on the field.
Students,
guidebook authors and others will add further labels to schools. Some are very
thought provoking like the “Colleges that Change Lives” others verge on being
silly like “America’s Top Party Schools.” The 2010 Kaplan Guides introduced new
categories like “Most Service-Minded Schools”and “Most Desirable Suburban
Schools” and “Best Schools for Future Power Brokers” and “The New Ivies: 25 Hot
Schools.”
For the foreign
student, this issue of fit is more complicated. You speak a different native
language and you come from a different culture so it is natural that you would
think that you are not like the others, and you won’t fit, but you really can.
The American population comes from all nations and the country takes great
pride in its diversity and you should look for schools where you might fit.
Step aside from the rankings,take an assessment of your personality and then
take a deeper look at schools and the concept of fit. It is likely that the
best friends you will make in your life will be found at college, often you
will find a spouse in college so you can see
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