Whether you leave the "nest" or choose to stay at home and commute to school, your life will soon revolve around your new college family. You will be with your classmates day and night, both inside the classroom and beyond. The students set the tone for your school—they provide its unique personality.

Academic Personality

The school's academic personality is one factor. At an academically challenging college you may no longer be the brightest student in class. This can either scare you or spark you to rise to a new, competitive level. On the other hand, you might end up enrolling at one of your 'safety' schools because your 'first choice' did not accept you and you feel you had to settle for second best.

You can see how important it is to feel in-step with the students who attend any college you're interested in. You may not relate to them at first but many students report that those feelings of "not belonging" often fade away as they make more friends and find comfort in both their commonalities and their differences.

Diverse Campuses

The diversity of the student body is another important factor. Some colleges are the United Nations of academia, offering a large cross section of students of different ethnicities and cultures, and from across the social and economic spectrum. Being exposed to students from other countries or religions can be an important learning experience that might even influence your field of study.

But you might have a strong ethnic or cultural identity and would prefer an environment that highlights that both academically and socially. America's historically black colleges and universities are a prime example.

Click here for more information.

Some students use religious affiliation as the criteria. Some examples are Catholic University, Yeshiva University, Brigham Young University (BYU), or even Oral Roberts University. These colleges are also open to students of all religious beliefs and their academics offer nonsectarian teachings and intellectual openness.

Extracurricular Activities

Most students search for schools that provide a variety of extracurricular and social activities; a strong athletic presence with a big-name football program or diverse student organizations that include everything from political groups to gay and lesbian activists. The best balance of activities offers a bit of everything to suit a wide variety of needs.

Some colleges offer an active fraternity and sorority structure that helps students form social groups from among classmates who share their interests. The "Greek" life can be a powerful support group that can lead to life-long friendships.

Your parents may not like this choice but if a so-called 'party' school offers the kind of social environment you want, ask yourself how motivated you will be to make the grade there. Look up the latest college rankings to see how your college choices compare.

Female Power

Though Single-gender colleges are not the choice of the average college student, research shows some benefits of studying with the same sex. All-female colleges outnumber all-male schools and researchers report that the same-sex colleges typically have a far lower rate of drug and alcohol abuse. Coincidentally, statistics show women are outnumbering men on today's co-ed college campuses. Research shows almost 70 percent of colleges receive more applications from women than from men.

---