Did you know that September is National Campus Safety Awareness Month?  Campus safety has always been a hot topic for prospective students and their parents, however it has recently gained more urgency due to the murder Yale graduate student, Annie Le.  All colleges and universities are required to report crime statistics under the Cleary Act and there are new proposed federal regulations that will update campus safety guidelines.  So, campus safety information is readily available to prospective applicants, however, it should not necessarily make or break your decision to apply to a certain college.  There are several factors to consider when thinking about campus safety.  First, think about the location of the school.  A more urban school is probably going to have more safety issues, so maybe you would be comfortable in a more rural setting.  Also, think about what you can do as a student to be safe once on campus to prevent crime from happening to you.  Security On Campus, Inc. offers a few tips on their website for prospective students and their parents, as well as information on crime statistics on campuses.  The Daily Beast also recently published a list of the 25 colleges with the worst crime rankings.  The list includes Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale and Brown.  Would you decide not to attend one of these schools just because they made this list?  I don’t think so.  Like everything else with the college admission process, it is important to think about the big picture and not focus on one ranking or statistic that a college may have.
 
Katherine Price
Educational Consultant
Technorati Tags: campus safety, campus safety statistics, safety on college campuses, ivy league