Things I Wish I Knew When Choosing College

In the spirit of college application deadlines, I thought I'd share some wisdom I learned about researching colleges through four years of college.

1. If you plan on studying abroad, where you go matters. Some schools require it, and others strongly support it. Some may encourage it but do little to help you acheive it. If you go to the last kind, you will find it very difficult to raise the necesary funds or even graduating on time.
2. There is such a thing as "free college." An article on Fastweb has a list of schools where you can get the tuition waived. Of course, you still have to pay other fees, but it gets rid of one big cost. While all of the options are fairly competitive, I wished I had tried for one of these.
3. Travel can be a huge expense. Although I live and go to school within the same state, traveling can be difficult and expensive. Going to a closer school could have saved my family a lot of time and money.
4. Look for scholarships early. I did the majority of my scholarship search while I was in school, and as a result did not get as much of a chance to apply for scholarships with large prizes.
5. Start visiting schools early. I know that two years seems like a long time, but most of senior year will be spent applying. I did not want to go to any school that I hadn't visited, so I did not apply to several schools merely because I didn't have the time to visit.
6. You will have to take the SAT/ACT more than once. I only took the ACT once, and was not completely satisfied with my score, but I had not chance to take it again.

I hope this helps everyone who is planning to go to college. Do any of my readers have any tips to add?

Related articles

• College Scholarships for Juniors in High School to Pursue (brighthub.com)
• Compare 5 Top Scholarship Search Engines (usnews.com)
• 4 Do's and 1 Don't for Finding Scholarships (usnews.com)
• Full Tuition Scholarships for International Students (brighthub.com)
• Roadmap to College: Glossary (education.com)
• Tips for Senior Learners: Your Options for Returning to School (distance-education.org)
• Five mistakes to avoid on your college application (csmonitor.com)
• Most College Students Want Tuition Money For Christmas (huffingtonpost.com)
• Getting Your College Application Done: The Art of Following Up (distance-education.org)

Religious Colleges and Univeristies

Students choose to attend religious colleges or universities for a variety of reasons. Some want to pursue a career relating to religion such as clergy. Others prefer a more conservative environment. Some want a private school and the one they choose such so happens to have a religious affiliation.

Here in the United States, most religious colleges and universities are Christian. Jewish colleges include The American Jewish University, United Talmudical Seminary, and Yeshiva University. I found this article about a Muslim University opening back in 2010.

So readers, I am asking for your help on this one since I go to a public school. Why did you choose to go to a religious school? Do you have the same religious background as the school? Did you look specifically for a religious school? What religion or domination is the school? How would you say it differs from a public school or non-affiliated private school? Who would you recomend your school for? And, finally, do you feel you made the right choice? Feel free to also answer these questions if you are planning on attending a religious university.

For those students who do not attend a religious university, would you ever consider it?