No, I would not call it settling, I would call it a smart and practical decision. Expensive universities are sometimes not all that they are cracked up to be - your education depends largely on how much time and effort you are willing to invest and how well you connect with your professors, and those things can happen at any school.
If you are concerned with how it will look on a resume, people don't usually care where you got your undergraduate degree. They will care more about where you got your graduate degree, so I would save the expensive universities for then.College decision advice help please?
I think that it is a great idea. Public Universities get a bad name for no reason, but there are public Universities that are far better than private ones, I have attended both and the public ones are so much better in every way. So it really just depends on the schools that you are comparing. If you are going to a graduate school, that is what matters in the end!
Having been to community colleges, a private university (Northwestern) and having a degree from a public college, I have some firsthand knowledge of your dilemma.
One professor in a state school told me that professors at the better universities have fewer classes to teach which naturally results in being able to spend more time with students out of class. Another factor is smaller class sizes.
Some say that where you get your undergrad degree is meaningless if you're going on to grad school. But I ask you, if you got a BA from Harvard with great grades and MA from a ';lesser'; college with average grades (it happens) wouldn't you think your undergrad degree would carry some weight?
But the two critical things I think you mention are money and stress/workload. The money issue is very real for a lot of people, and if it is a big deal for you then public is the way to go, whether you think you're ';settling'; or not. If stress is the issue, you know yourself better than anyone, so you need to decide how much is too much. One thing I'll make an argument for is that since you're not in college yet, how do you know what the stress level will be in a private vs. public setting? It might not be as bad as you think, or as you've heard.
Added to the immediate issue of college is what you will be doing after you graduate and enter the workforce. Will the real world be more stressful than the academic process? If it is, then you need to think if more stress now will better prepare you for the future. Talking with someone who is currently practicing in the field you are going to be majoring in should give you some good information.
Whatever your decision, don't look back and think that you would be better off having made a different decision. Make the most of your situation and stay focused. Success can be attained in either school environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment