Finding the Right School in New York City

So you've just moved to New York City and you are looking for a good school of higher learning. Good for you! Living in New York is a fun and exciting prospect. A number of people call this the capital city of the world, since it is both the largest and foremost financial center in the United States, as well as the headquarters for the United Nations. It should not be much of a surprise to you that there are a number of different well respected and accredited colleges and universities in the city from which you can choose.

First of all, you are going to want to come up with a good working list of the possible college and university choices in the New York City area before you start trying to reduce the list to come up with your finalist choices for application. This is essential as you must have some colleges and universities to which you will make application, but at the same time, you can only apply to so many of them effectively. Keep in mind that an often times enormous amount of paper work is involved in putting together a strong application. This will not be multiple choice work here. You will be required to answer a significant number of short answer questions. On top of this, each application will want letters of reference, high school or other college transcripts, and probably one or more essays to go along with the standard application form that you will have to completely and accurately fill out. With all of this in mind, a maximum of five applications for colleges or universities will be all that you can realistically hope to complete both accurately and well. Any more than this is overkill.

It will be helpful if you can pick your major area of study out in advance of coming up with your finalist list, too. Are you interested in going in to a business undergraduate program? Perhaps music or art is your passion and will be your major area of study? Will you choose to be a teacher? Or maybe the more traditional arts and sciences really are for you, in the end. These are all important questions to both ask yourself and to answer. Not every New York area college and university specializes in all, or even most, of these vastly diverse areas of study.

To help you with your selection process, a selection of hand picked New York City area schools is listed here. In the category of applied and creative arts, The Art Institute of New York City is a strong choice. It is among the foremost student educators in the fields which include media, design, cooking, and fashion. Berkeley College proves to be a coed college which concentrates on undergraduate degrees in business, among other areas. Sanford-Brown Institute features a nationally well known variety of career programs in the field of health care. Columbia University is literally among the greatest academic and research schools of higher learning in the entire world, engaging in ground breaking research in science, medicine, the humanities, and the arts. With three different undergraduate schools, it is certainly a prestigious and world class choice. For dance, drama, and music The Julliard School is among the top choices in the United States. CUNY is a well known New York City collection of fourteen different colleges specializing in most fields.

The first element that you will want to keep in mind in looking for the college or university in New York for which you are best suited is to pick out a school based on things that matter to you personally. Parents, guidance counselors, and friends should not force you to make a decision that you don't feel good about. It is you who will spend the next four or more years of your life at the school that you choose. It should be one about which you are really excited. It is important to pick out a school that has courses in which you are interested, along with extra-curricular choices that you find appealing.

Next you should consider your inside gut feeling and overall impression of a school that you select. It is not as important what the school's reputation or national rank is when all is said and done. Even assuming that a school is ranked number one in something, this does not necessarily translate into finding out that it is the best match for yourself. And even though college and universities whose programs score lower in the national rankings because of some financial reasoning could have very powerful academic departments. It is true that university and college rankings are intended to offer you a useful tool for comparison. But this is not the only criteria about them that matters. These national survey rankings take into account a great number of differing categories, and many of these might not matter so much to you personally.

Then too, when you are making applications to schools around New York City, do not forget that the overall package of a school is what matters most. You should not get stuck on any single aspect in the process of application. Above all, it is never a good idea to specifically tailor your individual applications to whatever you feel that the school itself is truly looking for in a prospective student. Instead, always be yourself in all phases and components of the university and college application process. Be proud of who it is that you are, and fully celebrate it in the college and university applications. The best college match for you will certainly be glad for the various strengths that you have to offer the school. They will evaluate you based on who you are. If they reject your application, then this will not invalidate you as a person or a candidate, only it will affirm to you that the particular school in question was not ideal for you and your personality and characteristics.

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