Seniors begin to determine best college match

As members of the class of 2012 finished their final college applications in January, they prepared themselves for the wait, the grueling and nerve-wracking wait of wondering, “Will I be accepted? Will I be rejected?”

However, now that colleges are beginning to mail out their acceptance and rejection letters, the tension is higher than ever.

Many seniors have already visited colleges to be better informed about their potential futures.

These visits often play a large role in determining which college an individual will ultimately attend. A shiny brochure simply cannot convey learning and living environments to a student.

For some, the trips can be an enlightening experience, where students find their perfect match; for others, it showed them what does not work for them.

“I had a pretty bad experience when I visited USC, and I just found it wasn’t right for me,” senior Joshua Harris said. “Their fantastic film program lived up to its reputation of being fantastic, but cutthroat.”

Although Harris did not find his dream school, other students said their impressions from afar were wrong.

“I thought University of California Riverside (UCR) would be a total dump since the school doesn’t have that good of a name, but my assumptions were completely wrong,” senior Kristal Kung said. “UCR ended up being really pretty and nice. Some buildings are new and the whole school looks well-kept.”

Aside for having several misconceptions pleasantly proven wrong, Kung was able to find her dream school during her college visits.

“I think MIT clicked for me,” Kung said. “I thought it would look old and dirty since it was around for a long time but it’s so pretty! There’s a lot of green grass and trees. It’s totally different from the stressful depressing image I had of it.”

While college visits can completely change a student’s opinion about a certain school, the ultimate decision is made through a variety of factors, depending on what a student places priority on.

For senior Christine Tseng, her main priority is academic strength of the school rather than location or school atmosphere.

“I highly doubt that were Harvard located in the middle of Nebraska, people would immediately cease [applying],” Tseng said.

Kung has an alternate view regarding academics over location. She believes that both factors need to be weighed carefully rather than choosing academics over all else.

“If you don’t like cold weather and wanted to major in cooking and you got into a school in Alaska that has an excellent cooking program, then you really have to think about whether or not you really want to go there,” Kung said.

Regardless of what colleges the senior class will attend, as they look back on the application process, some feel like their suffering was worth it. Others do not.

“It is unnecessarily expensive and quite a hassle,” Tseng said.

Kung holds a different view of the experience than most students.

“I think the end result will be worth going through all [the] suffering but regardless of whether or not I get into my dream school, I will be going to a college that is right for me,” she said.