No matter how much the importance of a good value and a strong liberal arts education is embossed into the recesses of a high school senior's brain, inevitably other determining factors creep in when looking for schools. He's got two years to decide. He needs to get his GPA and his class rank up and his handicap down, and he's got it made. Students should not just think about cost and majors, said Parks, they should be thinking about what environment will most make them happy. A lot of kids want to go to the University of California at Los Angeles, but they don't consider the travel expense or the fact they will get to see their parents once a year, if they get to see them at all, he said.
Size is important, too.
Others can go off on their own to a 20,000 or 30,000 student body and get along and find the nurturing atmosphere they need. Most students take the college entrance tests in the spring of their junior year. By the time fall of their senior year rolls around, if they're still interested in improving their scores on those tests, the number of schools should be whittled down to a reasonable size so that test scores may be directly sent to those they're applying to. Satisfactory test scores aren't the only thing colleges are looking for in students, however. Diversity and balance are words often mentioned by recruiters and admissions representatives when asked what they look for.