Location and Choosing Your School

Location seems to play a huge—though often misunderstood—part in the decision-making process of where to go to school. Many people may simply say something like "I want to go to a school near the beach, or where it's warm," and only apply to schools that are along the West Coast, in Florida, or in Hawaii. While location can, and should, play a role in your decision for a school it should not be the only deciding factor on where you are going to go to school.

The location of your potential schools should only be a single factor, among many, which help you make your final decision. Now, just like with any decision in life, the location of your potential school is made up of several different factors—not all of which are going to revolve around the whole "let's have fun" way of looking at things.

• Region. Take a look at the region the school is located in. Is it in the southwest? Is it in the northeast? When you look at the region look at the average temperature, rainfall, snowfall, etc., to determine whether or not you believe that you are going to be comfortable living in that area for anywhere from two years up to as many as eight depending on your desired degree.
• Cities. There is a perception that larger schools are going to be located in or near, large towns or cities. While this may be true to a certain extent, there are enough instances of great universities and colleges being located in small towns that you are going to want to make sure. The school may be your home for the next few years, but you are not going to only be studying and sleeping, you are going to want to be able to do other things as well—which is where the cities are going to come in.
• Services. When you are looking at the city or area in which the school is located be sure that you look into the types of services offered. Are there hotels (for when family comes to visit)? Are there adequate libraries and copy companies to meet your needs? What about the emergency services? How large of a police force, fire department, and medical community is there? Take a look into all the services that you could possibly think that you might need and see if they are located in the town or city.
• Attractions. Since you are not going to be studying all the time that you are at college, you may want to look into what you can do with your down time. Don't just look to see if there are movie theaters and restaurants, but also other types of things that you might be interested in. Some examples are campgrounds, hiking trails, museums, theme parks and so on.