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Five things to look for in your future college

By Riaz Naqvi

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Published: Fri 2 Mar 2012, 8:02 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 2:58 PM

Budding high school graduates can be very influenced by statistics. Ask them about what college they would like to attend, and the answer is often based on where that particular school is ranked. Another common criterion for judging a university is ‘average income within a year of graduation’.

Fair enough, but these are just numbers, and numbers never tell the whole story. Here are a few more things that should be looked at when trying to decide on a college:

1. A good careers department

An effective careers department does more than simply arrange internships. These people can help students build their CV, professional reputation and, more crucially, help them decide what they would like to do in life. Many young people may find it difficult to comprehend that they have 40 or more years of a career ahead of them. A careers department should offer students ample networking opportunities with employers, and should arrange workshops that teach vital soft skills such as communication, presentation and confidence-building techniques for the workplace. Another big factor to look into is support extended to graduates.

2. Progressive attitude toward technology in learning

Just a couple of years ago, it was commonplace for most universities to block access to Facebook on campus. Students, as always, would invariably find ways around this and eventually IT departments worldwide caved in and allowed access. These beleaguered administrations suffered from a collective ignorance of the power of social media and the web as a learning platform. Many schools now offer original podcasts, e-books and blogs that allow students to gain a deeper understanding of what goes on in the classroom, in their own time.

3. Opportunities to interact with staff outside the classroom

One of the drawbacks of going to a ‘huge’ university is that one-to-one face time with lecturers is often very limited. There are sometimes hundreds of students being taught by a single person, and opportunities for feedback can therefore be rare. Questions of personality become important here: the people that grow most in this sort of environment tend to be natural extroverts, while quieter, shy types may feel isolated from the educational process.

4. Student activities

Your CV should show more than just academics. Student activities offer the chance for a person to get to know himself or herself in a different context. Team sports are a valuable opportunity to grow leadership skills, while debate clubs teach priceless communication techniques. An ideal culture of extracurricular activity balances fun with responsibility.

5. Diversity

Diversity of cultures is diversity in thinking. You should seek to educate yourself among people from different places, who harbour seemingly alien value systems. This helps one learn to empathise better with alternate points of view — to better understand ‘the other’.

Remember that university is about more than just getting a paper, or even access to higher income jobs. It’s about getting to know yourself, and growing as a person. It’s about seeking opportunities to cultivate lasting relationships that will prove invaluable in the future. Most importantly, a good university experience should highlight the importance of being able to challenge one’s own assumptions.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com


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