Figuring Out What You Want in a College

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Think About a Particular Orientation
If mixing with others from your ethnic background or faith is important to you, you may want to make sure that you have the opportunity to do so at college. Think about how much of a priority this is for you.

I've been raised in a certain denomination and even though I wanted to go away from home to school, I wanted to feel like I was in a safe environment, one that was well-supported. I was sixteen hours away from my parents--it was important for me to be comfortable where I was."

Students from nonwhite backgrounds sometimes say they feel isolated on a predominantly white campus. If attending college with culturally (or racially) similar peers is important to you, find out about the student populations at the schools you're considering and look for those with diverse student bodies.

Some students choose to attend schools composed almost entirely of people from their ethnic background. Students at these schools often speak of a great feeling of camaraderie, as well as the benefits of having role models from their own culture. This might be a choice you need to consider depending on your own preferences.

Coed or Single Sex?
At Vassar, there is a strong female voice because it was one of the Seven Sister schools. I really liked that part of it, but I also liked the fact that it was coed.

While all-male schools are on the decline, all-female colleges are not. There are more than seventy of them to choose from and they're actually gaining in popularity--admissions have been up in recent years.

Concerns about a restricted social life and limited dating opportunities prevent many young women from considering women's colleges. But, there are some compelling reasons why a college-bound gal might want to add them to her list of possibilities. Only about 2 percent of all female college students graduate from women's colleges, but a very large percentage of the graduates of these schools end up in some top positions.

For example, check out the following statistics, as cited by Converse College and www.WomensColleges.org.

Graduates of all-female colleges represent:

• 20 percent of the women in Congress
• 20 percent of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business
• 33 percent of female board members for Fortune 1000 companies
• 50 percent of the women pursuing advanced degrees
• 30 percent of Business Week's 50 Women Who Are Rising Stars in Corporate America

Why are those who attend women's colleges so successful? One reason often cited is that women can focus more on challenging themselves intellectually because they are free of the distractions of dating. Also, there are more opportunities for women to assume leadership roles. This is not to say that such opportunities for female students are absent in coed schools, but at all-female colleges, women fill 100 percent of these roles. They also fill the majority of jobs there: 90 percent of the presidents and 55 percent of the faculty are women.

Despite all these stats, it's important to remember that there are millions of female students who thrive in a coed environment and prefer to be around both sexes because that's what it's like in the real world.

I think an all women's school is fantastic. It's a great opportunity. But I have a lot of friends who went to Smith and it just seems like oftentimes when they get out, they're just really na�ve when it comes to the ways of the world.