Fairview High School

Counseling and Post-Grad Center

(last revised 12/1/2007)

Choosing a College – Going Beyond the Most Famous 50

Beyond the Name: How to Compare Colleges by Quality of Academic Majors

Scene: Senior Balcony, Fairview High School

Date: March or April, any year

Setting: Arrival of college acceptance letters

Senior 1: “Hey, I know you applied to Princeton, University of Chicago, and Stanford. So, where did you get in?”

Senior 2: “Oh. Well. Uh. Well, I am still waiting to hear from some. Uh, I was wait-listed at some. Uh, I have heard this was a really tough year. Uh, actually, I didn’t get into any of those.” (Slumps against the lockers and wants to be invisible.)

OR

Senior 2: “You’re not going to believe it! I was just accepted to one of the best journalism programs in the whole country at U. Missouri, Columbia, and I also got into the Barrett Honors Program at ASU, which will include a whole year in Germany at the leadership institute. I don’t know which one I am going to choose!”

There are many factors that impact college selection, but among them, there is no way to deny the importance that many students and families place on choosing a college with a recognizable name. In fact, there are 50 such names that are repeated continually as students recite their list of hopeful destinations: Swarthmore, Stanford, Oberlin, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Wellesley, Berkeley, Northwestern (and you can probably fill in the rest).

It often seems that just getting admitted to a college with one of these names is an end in itself; that somehow the association of the name will be a ticket to graduate school or a connection to the right job, or the right pathway for life. Because of the energy that a student must invest just to be accepted into one of these institutions, students often show a startling lack of knowledge about a choice of subject areas that they wish to study and especially about the particular qualities of the departments in which they will be spending the majority of their academic hours. They know the name of their intended campus but do not know what their life on that campus would be like, or whether the college is strong in subjects that are likely to interest them. The focus is on the college name itself.

As a result, families and students often overlook the other 1700 four-year colleges in the United States and the quality and range of opportunities that are available. It is easy to compare campuses based on cost, location, size, and sports or arts programs, but what about the quality and breadth of the academic major? This raises several questions. How can a young person be expected to know enough about the subject matter and career implications of college majors to be able to choose one or more before applying to college? How is it possible to compare programs of study from one campus to another? Can readers really believe commentaries about the strength of specific majors at specific campuses?

In another article from this series, “Search for Self,” a procedure is described that introduces students to the variety of subject areas that can be studied, and the way in which interests and personalities can help determine an eventual career that is connected to the subject of interest. If, for example, a student is interested in biology, he or she might become a teacher, a researcher, a journalistic writer, a naturalist, an artist, a film producer, an expert witness, or any number of occupations connected to the subject of biology. Students who read the list of possible subject areas of study make a list of those that sound interesting and colleges are initially chosen for having as many of those choices as possible.

Then, college major subject areas can be compared for quality based on several parameters, some of which may be revealed on a college website. Others may need to be explored on campus.

The four major aspects to consider when gauging the strength of a program are:

The courses -- What is the breadth of course offering in a given subject area? How many classes are offered? Do the classes that are offered show a certain choice of emphasis or personality to the department?
The professors -- Who is teaching these classes? What do the professors’ biographical descriptions reveal about their expertise and experience? Why were they hired? What were/are their areas of research? What are their current courses? How large are the classes? How easy or hard is it to be able to talk to professors?
The energy and excitement -- What is the personality and life of the department? The website may tell about grants and awards that have been given. Who has come to speak recently or is scheduled in the future? Does the department hold particular seminars or events of interest? When talking with students, is there a sense of support and enthusiasm about the department?
Participation -- If there are graduate students in the department, what research projects have been approved? Can undergraduates participate? Is there an emphasis on graduates or undergraduates?

If a high school student is aware of a few different subject areas of personal interest, this method of comparing academic programs at different campuses can be very helpful. In addition, there are some authors who attempt to rate majors on various campuses. Although the information and suggestions they make are sometimes disputable, their lists can be useful as students begin to compare the quality of majors from campus to campus.

The following pages contain some examples of not-quite-so-famous colleges that are reputed to be very strong in certain majors. There is also a list of the most recognized (approximately) 50 colleges for reference. Students can avoid undue stress during spring of their senior year if they include some of the colleges that are not as well known in their collection of colleges to which they apply.

Please keep in mind that the college lists provided herein are just a sampling of the many fine colleges and programs available. These lists are not meant to be all-inclusive, but are merely an attempt to highlight some of the great programs at colleges whose names we do not hear as often. If you would like to see the full lists from which these were drawn, please visit the Post-Grad center and ask to see the reference books.

A Menu of Highly Recommended Colleges, by Major

Agriculture, Agronomy

Architecture

Biological Sciences

Business Administration and Entrepreneurship

Chemistry

Communications, Journalism

Computer & Information Sciences

Economics

Engineering

English Language & Literature; Writing

Environmental Studies

Hotel & Restaurant Management

International Relations

Mathematics

Psychology

Visual & Performing Arts:

The Most-Recognized 50+ College Names

Amherst C (MA)

Barnard College

Bates C (ME)

Boston C (MA)

Boston U. (MA)

Bowdoin C (ME)

Brown U (RI)

Bucknell U (PA)

California Institute of Technology

California, U of Berkeley

California, U of, Los Angeles

California, U of, San Diego

Carleton C (MN)

Carnegie-Mellon U (PA)

Chicago U of (IL)

Claremont McKenna C (CA)

Colby C (ME)

Colgate U (NY)

College of the Holy Cross (MA)

Colorado College

Columbia U (NY)

Connecticut C

Cornell U (NY)

Davidson C (NC)

Dartmouth C (NH)

Duke U (NC)

Emory U (GA)

Georgetown U (DC)

Grinnell (IA)

Harvard U (MA)

Harvey Mudd C (CA)

Haverford C (PA)

Johns Hopkins U (MD)

Juilliard School (NY)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Michigan, U of, Ann Arbor

Middlebury C (VT)

New York U.

North Carolina, U of, Chapel Hill

Northwestern U (IL)

Notre Dame, U of (IN)

Oberlin C (OH)

Pennsylvania, U of

Pomona C (CA)

Princeton U (NJ)

Reed C (OR)

Rice U (TX)

Richmond, U of (VA)

Southern California, U. Of (USC)

Stanford U (CA)

Swarthmore C (PA)

Tufts U (MA)

Vanderbilt U (TN)

Vassar C (NY)

Virginia, U of

Wake Forest U (NC)

Washington and Lee U (VA)

Washington U. at St. Louis (MO)

Wellesley C (MA)

Wesleyan U (CT)

William and Mary, C of (VA)

Williams C (MA)

Yale U (CT)

Back to menu of college lists

The not-quite-so-famous colleges:

College or University Name	State	Major (abbrev.)

Agriculture/ Agronomy		agri
Arkansas State	AR	agri
Arkansas, U. of	AR	agri
Cal. Poly. State U. (Pomona)	CA	agri
California State U. (Fresno)	CA	agri
California, U. of (Davis)	CA	agri
Colorado State U	CO	agri
Connecticut, U. of	CT	agri
Georgia, U. of	GA	agri
Illinois, U. of (Urbana-Champaign)	IL	agri
Kansas State U	KS	agri
Maryland, U. of	MD	agri
Nebraska, U. of	NE	agri
New Mexico State U	NM	agri
Oregon State U	OR	agri
Pennsylvania State U	PA	agri
Purdue U	IN	agri
Texas A& M University	TX	agri
Vermont, U. of	VT	agri

Architecture		arch
Arizona, U. of	AZ	arch
Arkansas, U. of	AR	arch
Auburn U	AL	arch
Boston Arch. Center	MA	arch
Cal. Poly. State U. (Pomona)	CA	arch
Cal. Poly. State U. (San Luis Obispo)	CA	arch
Catholic U	DC	arch
Cincinnati, U. of	OH	arch
Cooper Union	NY	arch
Detroit Mercy, U. of	MI	arch
Drexel U	PA	arch
Florida A&M	FL	arch
Georgia Inst. Of Technology	GA	arch
Houston, U. of	TX	arch
Howard U.	DC	arch
Idaho, U. of	ID	arch
Illinois Inst of Technology	IL	arch
Illinois, U. of (Chicago)	IL	arch
Illinois, U. of (Urbana-Champaign)	IL	arch
Iowa State U	IA	arch
Kansas State U	KS	arch
Kansas, U. of	KS	arch
Kent State U	OH	arch
Kentucky, U. of	KY	arch
Lehigh U.	PA	arch
Louisiana State U (Baton Rouge)	LA	arch
Miami, U. of	FL	arch
Mississippi State U	MS	arch
Montana State U	MT	arch
New Jersey Inst. of Technology	NJ	arch
New York Inst of Technology	NY	arch
New York, State U of (Buffalo)	NY	arch
North Carolina (Charlotte)	NC	arch
North Carolina State	NC	arch
North Dakota State	ND	arch
Oklahoma, U. of	OK	arch
Oregon, U. of	OR	arch
Pennsylvania State U