Choosing the right school can feel really overwhelming
There are literally thousands of colleges and universities worldwide to choose from and many factors to consider, like location, cost of tuition, and school size, just to name a few.
So, when flooded with information and choice, how do you decide on a school for your degree?
If you’re looking for strategies to tackle this question, you’ve come to the right place.
Filter Your Options
The world is a big place. There are also hundreds of thousands of programs to choose from.
Naturally, you need to filter out some options.
Location:
One of the fastest and easiest ways to narrow down possible schools is by selecting a few countries or specific cities that you want to study in. Countries will have certain advantages over others depending on the factors that are important to you.
Here are some points many international students consider when choosing a location:
Ease of getting a visa
Opportunity for work permits after graduation
Language
Culture & customs
Weather
Average international student tuition
Think about the factors that are most important to you and start shortlisting your top countries!
Program:
It can feel pretty daunting to choose what you’re going to study for the next 3-4 years while you’re still in high school.
On the bright side, the beauty of a bachelor’s degree is getting to study what you’re genuinely interested in. So, think about the subjects you’ve really enjoyed and excelled at in high school, and see if there’s a career or program which compliments it.
Since you’ve already filtered your options to a handful of countries or cities, you can start looking up universities in these places that have the programs you might be interested in.
To simplify your browsing, you can use Athenik’s search platform, which lets you browse by country, university, and specific program.
What Do You Value?
Now that you’ve narrowed your search to a smaller shortlist of potential programs in your desired countries, you can start thinking about the kind of university experience you really want.
Every student will have a different university experience, and what makes that experience great will depend on what you want as a unique individual.
For example, student X may want to study in a big city whereas student Y may prefer living in a small town with a big campus community.
Take some time to think about the following factors. Which are the most important to your ideal university experience?
Number of undergraduate students at the school
Type of campus (e.g. rural, suburban, urban)
Campus feel (e.g. modern, historic, etc.)
Social life on campus
Class size
Extracurricular opportunities
Ranking
Reputation
Research funding
Cost of living
Student diversity
Quality of facilities
Weather
Now you can use these factors to further filter out your list of potential universities. Ideally, you’ll have multiple options that would be the right fit.
It’s best practice to apply to multiple schools to make sure you get accepted as admissions committees will be unique to every school.
If you’re looking for a simple way to send off your applications, you can apply to multiple universities with just one application when you use Athenik’s free platform!