As I explained in a previous post, I recently asked a group of friends about their experiences in selecting a college or university.
This account comes from a graduate of the University of Portland (Oregon, not Maine), who later pursued a Masters in International Studies from the University of Denver. He is now a specialist in international trade at the US Department of Commerce.
“For undergraduate studies I wanted a small school focused on a classic liberal arts education. I did not want fraternities, big football games, and classes bigger than my entire high school. However, I wanted to be located in a larger city/metropolitan atmosphere but not necessarily right downtown. Picky I know, but when you think about spending a $100,000 and more for college you should get what you want and that is what I got at the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon.
Now with that said, I do not think I was totally aware of all of these needs so in some respect I got lucky. My parents did not go to college and thus had very little input as to what school would be better suited for my needs, plus I was taking on the financial burden of going to a small private school, where the price of one academic quarter was twice as much as a full year at the State schools in Washington State.
My undergraduate college was not a brand name school outside of the Northwest, but it is constantly ranked as one of the best small private schools for the price. Further, it continues to strive beyond expectations. A year after I graduated they started a financial campaign to raise a measly 7 million dollars over 5 years, in the first two years they raised 10 million and by the end of the 5 year campaign they had raised over 20 million with the majority of coming from alumni. I think this says a lot about the experience people had while attending.”
So, as usual, I have some questions for you, dear reader. Is a “brand name” school the most important criterion? What is the measure of a “good” education?
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.
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Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.