Using the "Relevance Calculus" to Choose Your College
Source: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Topics: How to Choose the Right College, Choosing a College, College Visits
If all goes well, by the close of application season, you will have secured admission to college. We hope that you'll have several offers to choose from. So it's time for the big question: How do you decide which college or university to attend?
Choosing A College Using The Relevance Calculus
The Relevance Calculus chart is designed to help you think about the factors to consider when choosing a college and their relative importance to you. We have broken the Relevance Calculus down into six primary or meta-categories described below: (1) Academics, (2) Students, (3) Campus Life, (4) Campus Facilities and Infrastructure, (5) Geography, and (6) Financial Aid.
How It Works
Read the descriptions of these six primary categories and assign each of these categories a "Category Importance Score" from 0 to 2 in the space provided. Give the category a 0 if it is of little or no importance to you, a 1 if it is somewhat important to you, and a 2 if it is very important to you. Be sure that once you assign a category a Category Importance Score, you use the same score for that category across all colleges and universities that you are considering and comparing.
Descriptions of the Primary Categories
Academics
Click here for detail description of factors in the relevance calculus on academics
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on academics
The Academics category includes such factors as the quality and scope of your college or university's course catalogue offerings, the reputation and quality of the professors who teach there, and the flexibility with which the various departments allow students to pursue their interests.
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Students
Click here for detail description of factors in the relevance calculus on students
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on students
The Students category aims at examining and measuring your reaction to the people with whom you would be sharing the college experience over the next four years at a given school. Covered in this category are such factors as your perceptions about the level of students' academic curiosity, your perceptions about what aspects of the college experience are most heavily emphasized by these students, and your perceived "fit" with the people you met.
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Campus Life
Click here for detail description of factors in the relevance calculus on campus life
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on campus life
The Campus Life category measures the quality of life on the college's campus, the variety of the social and extracurricular offerings, and the approach that students at the school take to college life.
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Campus Facilities and Infrastructure
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on facilities and infrastructure
The Campus Facilities and Infrastructure category examines the bricks-and-mortar facilities that the college offers, including housing and dining options, exercise facilities, health clinics, and security.
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Geography
Click here for detail description of factors in the relevance calculus on geography
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on geography
The Geography category examines the campus's relationship to the world—what city or community it is located in, what the climate is like, the availability and proximity of natural and manmade attractions, and the ease of travel to and from campus.
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Financial Aid
Click here for detail description of factors in the relevance calculus on financial aid
Click here for the relevance calculus worksheet on financial aid
Simply put, how generous is the school with its financial aid program? What percentage of last year's incoming class received some form of financial aid, and what was the average and median award of aid per student?
Category Importance Score assigned: ___
Now that you've scored the meta-categories, its time to delve into the factors within each one. But before we do that, let's look at how you're going to use this information, so that you'll have some advance notice about how to organize this activity in your own mind.
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