Public vs Private
Public Colleges/Universities:
Are primarily funded by a state government.
Are generally larger than private schools and have larger class sizes.
May have a larger selection of majors than a private school, with both liberal arts classes and specialized programs.
Private Colleges/Universities:
Often operates as an educational nonprofit organization and does not receive its primary funding from a state government.
May be more expensive but may offer more financial aid than public colleges.
Are smaller than public schools and have smaller class sizes than public schools.
Some may have religious affiliations.
May have a smaller selection of majors but may offer more specialized academic programs.
Types of colleges
Liberal Arts College
A four-year institution of higher education focusing on undergraduate programs of study that lead to a bachelor's degree. Students take courses in the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences.
Tend to be relatively small and place value on the close relationships between students and their professors.
Focus on broad skills in critical thinking and writing, not narrow preprofessional skills. Along with a focused major, liberal arts students will take a breadth of courses in fields such as religion, philosophy, literature, math, science, psychology, and sociology.
Research University
Focus primarily on research and offer students the opportunity to do their own research, usually using cutting-edge technology.
Graduate students, postdocs, and professors conduct original research in diverse fields. Undergraduate students may have to compete with graduate and postdoc students for attention from professors
Can be public or private institutions. By definition, research universities offer master's and doctoral degrees along with bachelor's degrees.
Ivy League School
A group of colleges and universities recognized globally for having a reputation for high scholastic achievement and social prestige.
Brown Columbia Cornell Dartmouth
Harvard Princeton University of Pennsylvania Yale
Little Ivies
Unofficial group of small, academically competitive private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States.
The term Little Ivy derives from these schools' small student bodies, standards of academic excellence, associated historic social prestige, and highly selective admissions comparable to the Ivy League.
Amherst College Bates College Bowdoin College
Bucknell University Colgate University Connecticut College
Colby College Hamilton College Haverford College
Lafayette College Middlebury College Swarthmore College
Trinity College Tufts University Union College
Vassar College Wesleyan College Williams College
Community College
Affordable public colleges, funded by tax dollars.
The highest degree available is usually an associate's degree, which takes full-time students about two years to complete.
Students will need to transfer to a four-year college to get their bachelor's degree after completing their associate's degree.
Trade School (Technical School)
A postsecondary educational institution designed to train students for a specific job in a skilled trade career.
Offers hands-on training to prepare students for actual work in their chosen field.
Programs are entirely concentrated on relevant job training.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
Any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans.
HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents.
Top Ranking HBCUs:
Spelman College Howard University Xavier University of Lousiana
Hampton University Morehouse College Tuskegee University
Florida A&M University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Fisk University Claflin University Delaware State University
Predominantly White Institutions (PWI)
PWI is the term used to describe institutions of higher learning in which Whites account for 50% or greater of the student enrollment.
Categorizing your schools
Target School
Your academic credentials ( grades , SAT or ACT scores , and class rank) fall within the school's average range for the most recently accepted class.
Reach School
Your academic credentials fall in the lower end, or even below, the school's average range for the cohort of students accepted the previous year.
They could be long shots, but they could still be possible.
Financial need, academic strength, and a college's desire to have you on campus can all influence your financial aid award and make the cost of attendance more manageable.
Safety School
Admission is more likely because of a student's academic profile.
Your academic credentials exceed the school's range for the average first-year student.
These should also be colleges you'd be happy to attend
Think about financial aid when creating your list of safety schools—make sure there is at least one school that you know your family can afford on that list.
Acceptance Rate
Are a ratio—the number of total applicants to accepted students. For example, if 100 people apply to a college and 10 are accepted, the college has a 10% acceptance rate.
While many schools admit most applicants, many selective colleges report an acceptance rate of under 10%.
Graduation Rate
Graduation rates measure the percentage of first-time, full-time undergraduate students who complete their program at the same institution within a specified period of time, usually 4 or 6 years.
It's important to see if the schools you are researching are actually graduating their students.
The national average is 33%
Retention Rate
Retention rates measure the percentage of first-time undergraduate students who return to the same institution the following fall.
The national average is 69%
Student-Faculty Ratio
This term applies to how many faculty members there are at a college in comparison to the number of students.
The smaller the ratio, the smaller the classes and the more likely you are to get closer attention from professors.
The national average is 18:1
Degree Types
Associate's Degree
a degree granted after a two-year course of study, especially by a community or junior college.
Bachelor's Degree
a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after four years of study.
Master's Degree
a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after one or two years of additional study following a bachelor's degree
Doctorate/PhD
Advanced degree of 4 or more years beyond a Master's program.