How do I choose an university? How do I pick a college major? The sweet nightmares that plague most senior year high school students (congratulations for surviving this far btw!).
Well, as someone who got it VERY wrong and has many regrets (aka "opportunities to learn" 🙄), I'm here to add my few cents to the possible existential crisis you may be having of "WTF will I do with my life" (spoiler: it never ends).
A bit about me....My selection for university was quite a mess. My mother passed away, I just moved schools, and I had no interest in education. I was surprised I made it (almost) out of high school, and needless to say I wasn’t quite ready to go to university. Here are some things I wish I knew, much of it is from personal experience (so your situation may not be the same), but hopefully these points can still help you make a more informed decision about your applications:
Don’t base your decision on rankings. It’s easy to base our judgement on these QS World University Rankings and THE charts, because it paints a clear picture of which universities are better than others. But the metrics for rankings don’t always take into account things that we as students are interested in. Of course, getting into Harvard of Oxford seals you a pretty damn good fate. However, not everyone is privileged to go there, and that's when things get harder to distinguish. You might have never heard of this obscure polytechnic university before, but it has a good ranking right? Well, as someone attending a university ranked within top 50 in the world, after exploring and speaking to students internationally, I have come to learn that the teaching here is much more devoid than universities ranked 200+. Employment prospects, academic practicality and campus life are a few things that concerns most students, but the ranking is based mostly on the citations, number of international students, and some other superficial numbers. Furthermore, it’s very easy for universities to lie their way into ranking higher, with some surprisingly “reputable” universities doing so. To access information on the quality of education and employment opportunities, it’s best to contact someone from the universities you wish to go to before choosing to apply there. Also, make a list of things you care about most when you go to university (campus lifestyle, career prospects, academic enjoyment, etc). That way you can try to ensure to be as less miserable as possible for the next 4 years of your life.
Your university/college guidance counselor doesn’t necessarily care about the best fit for you. I had a horrible experience with my university (mis)guidance counselor. As a high school senior, you may rely a lot on this individual’s years worth of experience and trust their judgements along with your parents'. However, these people don’t necessarily care about the best fit of a university for you. Sometimes they only care about the university's ranking you get in, so they can promote your school better next year on their website ("We had 7 alumni study at Ivy Leagues! Everyone goes to the top schools of the state even if they're studying something that will only qualify them for minimum wage or makes them suicidal in 8 years!"). There are very few university counselors who will spend time with the students and suggest suitable advice depending on your personality and needs, and if you don’t have that sort of counselor, then it’s better to seek advice by your own means instead of trusting or relying on these people. Try to find external guidance counselors whom you can trust, otherwise, ask yourself a few questions to understand your needs better. A few to get you started:
- What environments do I thrive in? Consider the "Big-fish-little-pond" effect, and decide what environment you wish to be in.
- Why uni? Is it because I enjoy a subject and want to learn more, or just want to have more career prospects, or both?
- What do I care about in my line of work? Quick money to retire early, provide for my family consistently, making the world a better place for others, making sure I am covered, stable mental health, etc. This can help you narrow down industries that allow for these needs (but they may or may not fit with your personal enjoyment of a subject).
- What am I willing to sacrifice? After having all your needs mapped out, rank them and decide which ones you're willing to sacrifice, because like anything else in life, we can't get everything we want.
If it’s free, it’s for a good reason. Scholarships are amazing and majorly affect our decisions to attend a uni. However, even if it’s initially a joyous feeling to receive it and we feel like we deserved it, it’s always good to try to evaluate why the university is giving us the scholarship. Sometimes we meet certain result conditions, but sometimes universities have quotas for the number of region/race/class based students they’ll sponsor and despite meeting those grades many don’t get scholarships because of a damn quota. Having a diversified student body allows them to score higher on student metrics on ranking charts, so sometimes these scholarships are just ploys to attract these (particularly international or out of state) students. They don’t always have the best of intentions, and sometimes just want to use you as a statistic to show how great they are. Instead of seeing the cost saved on your education, it’s best to see it as a short term investment with long term profits (depending on the market value of your degree). Even if you pay more now, if you’re wise with your decisions, you can make up for it. However, you can choose to exploit this flaw in the system (be careful of the consequences), or if you're concerned about not having a scholarship, you may look into how universities judge for it (sometimes it's not what we're told it is!).
University is not for everyone. Just because most of society around us tells us to go to university doesn’t mean they’re right. Back in Boomer days university degrees were rarer and meant something. Nowadays they’re ubiquitous and have degraded in return value, where some alternatives like trade or vocational schools can be more profitable (check out the linked Jordan Peterson Podcast). Some professions lately don’t even require a degree, and instead of wasting your time on pursuing one, just spend time on projects and building a portfolio or seek an apprenticeship. This will give you a better taste of the field before you decide to possibly waste your money and 4 years of your life on something that might not even be useful for you. Once you make the commitment, you can do those on the side as an university student, and they will hold more merit than your classes and your degree. It’s ok to not want to go to university, and honestly the college life experience is overrated anyways. You don’t get laid or party as often, instead you suffer and suffer some more, day in day out. Ask yourself if the suffering is worth it (or even whether it is suffering to you). However, generally a university degree gives you leverage in certain fields to find a job (and it's no secret). But it might not be right now, or you may regret not exploring certain options before studying further.
Changing majors is hard and a possible waste of time. Better to take a gap year and pick your courses wisely. If you’re not in the US, you don’t have the fortune of applying undecidedly. Most universities want a generic idea at least of which faculty to admit you in, and picking this direction should be done carefully.Why are you picking a specific major? Are you good at it? Are there jobs available in this field at the places you want to live at? Can you tolerate studying this for 4 years? Do you have any experience with this kind of work that is encouraging, or even discouraging? Are you using reliable and up-to-date sources for finding this information? Ask yourself some of these questions before picking the right major. I just randomly picked something because it looked interesting at the time (I literally googled "cheap environmental engineering Asia"...please don't do that), but oh boy it was the worst possible choice I could have made. Many others feel that way and end up changing majors, but doing so can add additional yearly expenses at university. Instead, if you have to, take a gap year and try to explore the field you wish to work in, and determine whether it can be a good fit for you academically and professionally.
Your university doesn’t care if you can find a job or not. Those career centers are sponsored by the recruiters, for the recruiters; students are a secondary priority, another resource they can sell. They maintain employer reputation (basically how much does the company like our uni), not student employment rates (do our students manage to find jobs), which are possibly manufactured statistics to make their degrees look less useless. Many universities, specifically research universities, don’t even host networking events or career fairs - you will need to seek these opportunities out yourself if you’re in that situation. Just don’t expect your university to promise you a job or to be helpful in allowing you to network and develop professional connections, and if they do, then be grateful. I know, it sounds silly, but these days you have to be grateful if anyone does their job as promised.
Most professors are there for research, not to teach. A major ranking factor is the citations produced from the research at a university. These professors are hired mainly to produce these publications and research, whilst teaching is a secondary aspect of their job. This is where lower ranking universities fare better. They hire good teachers instead of just researchers (maybe not all such universities, but most). This however also depends on the nature of the field in question, for instance being a science professor comes with a side of research as usual. The issue is the number of universities prioritizing that need over quality of education is increasing, and has been on the rise for a while as more students seek higher education, and the stereotypes of the guy reading from a (possibly plagiarized) PowerPoint is true. Thus students need to be ready to either be independent learners to perform well academically, or compensate for a poorer GPAs with practical work experience.
If you're going as an international student, be prepared to face racism, visa sponsorship issues, and culture shock. It may not be in the first semester, maybe even first year; but at some point, when you’ll be looking for jobs or trying to work in group projects with non-internationals, you will see that people aren’t as nice as we wish they were. Many people find it easier to judge others on the color of their skin or the things they eat because that's all they know about you with their tunnel vision eyes. Oftentimes, you may feel the same way towards them because of the way you’re being treated or because you’ve never experienced a culture like this. Furthermore, the official systems will seem biased against you. Whether it's a deposit hungry landlord or border control officers, they may stop you for unduly questioning (which is alright as they're simply doing their job), or rarely you may experience harassment. Make sure to do your homework on documentation procedures as visa sponsorship for employment are extremely expensive in some countries. (You might want to ask your parents or other adults about such things). Either way, be mentally shielded to deal with the challenges your identity, which you didn’t choose, will bring. Because even though your university promotes the student culture as “diverse and inclusive”, that’s not always the case. Find a way to assimilate, or develop a strong support group, and it may be particularly challenging in some cases (if you don't speak the local language, etc).
It will be harder to find job experience if you don’t speak the native language of the place. If the native language of the place is not English, then more than likely as an international it will be harder for you to find employment (duh). If you intend to immigrate to the country you’re studying at, maybe take a gap year or make plans to study that language prior, because it will affect your employability to even gain basic internship experiences, which are essential for securing employment when you graduate. Otherwise, keep tabs of your native country and what requirements they have in your field so you can tap into that market more easily (some qualifications are region specific, so make sure you're covered to overcome those barriers).
Choose the people you trust wisely. Education is a business, and we can’t always trust the people we should be able to the most. Many counselors or university representatives are trying to sell you a product, a promise for your future, even if it’s a bit embellished. As young people we can be naive, but we must make the decision to choose better and be smarter with whom we decide to trust. Even me and this blog post. Trust it at your own judgement.
Am I telling you “university very bad never go”? Of course not. It can be useful for many, if not most. But making a mistake in your university choices can be a huge financial and/or mental health risk, and considering all these points can prevent a lot of hassles. Even if it’s hard and you’re indecisive, pick your priorities smartly, even if it takes a lot of time to do so. University can be a rewarding and memorable experience as well, and there is no ideal place for us; we just need to make informed decisions so we don’t regret this stepping stone of life. As someone who made all these mistakes, I wished I got this advice before I chose my university. Be smarter than me.
