DNA Ed-Master: Key focus areas while choosing a college

Choosing a college is a very important decision that creates a lifelong impact. I’ve been asked countless times by anxious parents and students what factors one should look at while making this choice. Leveraging my experience of more than a decade in the field of education as a teacher and mentor, I’ve come up with an effective strategy to optimise your options by focusing on 7 key parameters. 

1) Reputation and Academic Ranking/ Rating: A reputation takes years, if not decades, to build. It is one of the best indicators of student and industry perception of the overall academic credibility of a college. Additionally, accreditation grades or ratings assigned by bodies such as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of India are a strong indicator of the quality of education disseminated by the college. It is usually best to use reputation and academic ratings as a screening criterion while shortlisting probable colleges. 

2) Academic and Non-Academic Infrastructure: Academic infrastructure like laboratories, latest instrumentation and equipment, software and technology tools, manufacturing and testing facilities, functionally equipped classrooms and even a state-of-the-art library are the backbone of any college. Making sure your potential college has these facilities up and running is an absolute must. And that’s not all. A college must also help a student develop their talents, non-academic skills and overall personality. To this end, the presence of infrastructure like gymnasiums, music rooms, amphitheatres and indoor and outdoor sports facilities also become critical factors while making a college choice. Go visit the college and check for yourself if the infrastructure is satisfactory. 

3) Faculty Reputation and Quality of Education: All colleges offer courses, but yours must prepare you for the future! It is hence necessary that the faculty are not just academically distinguished, but also great teachers and mentors. Coursework must expose students to the latest happenings in the industry, provide them with hands-on learning and present them with an opportunity to delve into the very latest specialisations that can be future-defining. It is usually a great idea to interact with the admissions team of any college to understand the academic programs in better detail! 

4) Internship Opportunities and Job Placements/Hiring: This one’s a no-brainer! A college with better internship opportunities and job placements is obviously a go-to. However, what’s also important to check is whether the college offers facilities such as deferred placements for those who are keen to pursue entrepreneurship immediately after college. If such facilities do exist, they can be potentially game-changing for you in the future. 

5) Peer Group: As the old phrase goes, a man is known by the company he keeps. A college that offers a culturally diverse yet multifaceted and talented student group is likely to provide a significantly better environment for any student’s overall growth and development. After all, you’re likely to spend a large part of your college years interacting with your peers, seniors or juniors directly or indirectly. Positive learning outcomes from these interactions are not just desirable but an absolute must! Hence, making sure your potential college has a good track record when it comes to the quality of student intake is very important. 

6) The Alumni: Alumni can play a huge role in shaping a college’s reputation, infrastructure and overall industry alignment. Not only does the alumni base lend credibility to a college but also is instrumental in providing opportunities to students in their alma mater through mentorship, internship opportunities, placement opportunities and referrals. The network that one can build with the alumni of one’s college can create a plethora of possibilities for the future. 

7) Location: Location matters - a lot! I’ve seen plenty of students who’ve suffered greatly due to a variety of factors such as unbearable weather leading to ill health, inability to adjust to the local cuisine and lack of employment ecosystems. It is very important to make sure that you’re comfortable with the potential location of your college, because frustration can be very real otherwise! 

While there isn’t a perfect answer to the question of which college to choose, using the above 7 parameters as your guideline will help you make an optimum choice. As Diana Ross famously said, “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.” 

The author of the article is Tejas Shyam, edu-preneur and founder of The Education Journey.

For more insights, he can be contacted at institute@tejtutorials.com

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own and do not reflect those of DNA.)