Saturday, October 31, 2009

College Location

Shawn Roberts

A large part of choosing a college for students is the location of the school. This doesn’t just apply to how far a student wants to live from home either. There are many different kinds of locations a school can be in. There’s college towns which are basically a small city that is built around a college like Eugene, Oregon and the University of Oregon (a commonly used definition is a city with under 250,000 residents). Colleges can also be nearly intertwined with the city such as the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A third kind are rural colleges that seem to be placed in the middle of nowhere and seem to be the entire city like Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.

Which of these is the best location for a college though? In her article “The Best places in the U.S. for college students" Mariah Brill addresses what factors should be considered. Some of these factors include cost of living of the surrounding area, the job market in the city, diversity, and of course social activities. One of the points made in the article is that no matter how good of a college someone goes to, their job opportunities just won’t be the same if they go to a rural college. She also says that living in a city with high costs of living usually translates into a higher starting salary for the newly graduated students.

In the end it comes down to what one wants to do with their lives upon graduating from college. If the job that you plan on working tends to be urban based, an urban college is probably a good choice.

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