How Do You Choose a College?

Confession: My son chose his college because of a party.

I spent last weekend in Tucson visiting Alex. It was wonderful to see him thriving at college. Coincidentally, while we were there a memory popped up in my socials, a picture from 2017 of him, Gabi and their cousins in Tucson where the family had gathered to celebrate their grandma's birthday.

The picture brought up so many memories. It was junior year of high school and Alex was really struggling academically-- as seems to be fairly common for juniors. The trip was such a welcome break for him, especially the cousin time. On the Saturday we were down there, we took a wrong turn driving somewhere and ended up in the middle of a huge UofA pre-game block party. Everyone seemed to be having a great time-- kids in the car included-- except my husband who had to navigate our rental car out of a massive Greek Row street party.

The image of that party stuck with Alex, I think in large part because it contrasted so sharply with so much of what he was hearing about college-- that it's all about hard work in the classroom, that it's exclusive, and so many other things that kids internalize about college-- at a time when he was really frustrated in the classroom and not feeling particularly good about his future prospects.

The following year when the time came to apply to colleges, he still remembered Arizona and Tucson. He knew he wanted to go away to college-- he's always been one to forge his own path, so following all his high school friends to Oregon wasn't high on his list-- so he looked up Arizona's out-of-state scholarships and lo and behold, he was actually eligible for a really good scholarship. To make a long story short, he applied, was accepted with the scholarship, and enrolled. (If you want the long version of that story, all the gory details and more are in my book, How to Pay for College.)

I know it's kind of ironic-- and frankly feels almost like a confession-- that as much as I preach values and costs and doing your research when it comes to choosing a college, my son chose his school in large part because a party looked fun.

And it has turned out to be a fantastic choice for him. Where he struggled academically in high school, he's a straight-A finance major in college. He sought out and landed a great internship last summer which has turned into a full-time offer in corporate finance at Ford after he graduates this year. He was a statistics tutor. He's captain of his varsity esports team and received a scholarship for that, plus an opportunity to speak on a panel at Comic Con. He's made great friends, found mentors, and enjoys his classes.

And to be fair, it's not the party that made him successful. As his mom, I'd say it's in large part the decision to go away, and how Arizona structures its business program. Going away forced him to have a plan to make friends and get involved, which led to him choosing the pre-business academic residential community where he was sort of swept up in a group of like-minded students with access to resources from peer tutors to meet-and-greets with faculty. Not knowing anyone made him sign up for intramurals as a free agent, so he was assigned to a soccer team that created 15 new friends. And knowing that he had to keep his grades up to keep his scholarship and to be admitted to the business school junior year gave him concrete and achievable academic goals.

What makes your student thrive? That's what you should look for in a college environment. If you need some help on clarifying that, check out my book, How to Pay for College, or my online course, The College Financial Plan. Both are loaded with tips to find great fits and great scholarships.