Okay everybody, it’s week four! I have finished setting up the spreadsheet that I talked about in the blog post for week three. If you would like to see it, just let me know! On the spreadsheet, you can explore the factors I have talked about in previous blog posts I have made. The spreadsheet will also likely be updated by yours truly in future weeks to come. I already have a few colleges on the spreadsheet, but if you know of a college or university you are interested in, tell me! As I have said before, that even though the primary goal I have with my Genius Hour project is choosing the college theater program that is best for me, the project can be of use to others too! What is important to me is making sure that someone could receive some help on getting information about colleges from my spreadsheet and/or blog posts, even if they only help a little bit.
That being said, let’s talk about my thoughts on choosing a potential college thus far. Right now, I am most interested in colleges out of state (like Wagner College or Hollins University), though cost might be an issue with that in the future depending on if it stays the same or not. A few colleges and universities on the list are schools specifically for women to attend (like Converse College and Hollins University), which I am interested in but have decided it may not be the biggest deciding factor. That is just the thing I have found with the categories I am using for the spreadsheet, they themselves can vary in different ways. Categories like cost and distance obviously vary, what about categories like student to staff ratio and the estimated amount of undergrad students per college or university? Categories like this can be a make or break deal to someone concerned about the size of a school’s campus. They can ask themselves, “Do I want a big campus or little campus?” As I said though, if you think my spreadsheet can help, just let me know, and maybe I can just help!
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Alright everyone, it is already week three! Yours truly has been putting those organizational skills talked about in my second weekly post to work. I never really saw the appeal of spreadsheets before the project started. I had used them a little before Genius Hour started, though even then it was just when I was first learning to use them and maybe when I didn’t have anything else to use for organization. When I started using a spreadsheet for the research on my college theater project though, I finally saw why they are so popular. The categories of my search and what I am looking for in my research work perfectly with the organization and formatting of a spreadsheet. The said spreadsheet I am working on right now will be available for viewing soon. This way, people can see information on a college theater program they are interested in or even find a new one to look into. The good thing about the spreadsheet I am making is that it technically does not even have to stop at just researching theater programs. While that is in fact, the primary goal for me, it does not have to be for everyone. Some of the factors that I have chosen, for example, researching distance from home, cost, estimated amount of undergrad students, the student to faculty ratio, etcetera, all can be shown to anyone planning on going to a college or university. I am not the only person who is thinking about my future. Posting a spreadsheet with information about colleges and universities might be able to help my peers a little bit. That being said, there are specific things on the spreadsheet, like is it a top theater program or not, that people can take into account if they so choose. I am at a stage in the Genius Hour project where everything is truly starting to come together. As I previously stated, I will have the spreadsheet up as soon as I possibly can and I can’t wait to see what you guys will think of my research! This is turning out to be both fun and useful!
It is hard to believe we are on week two already, folks! For yours truly, it has been mostly researching more colleges including Appalachian State University, Elon University, Western Carolina University, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University and Brown University. I have a tip for anyone who's documenting colleges - stay organized. In the beginning, I was simply typing things up almost at random, leaving no thought to the categories. Once I realized my mistake, I went back and put things into the categories I mentioned back in the blog post for week one. Another thing I’ve learned is to realize that I am me. When I say “I am me”, I mean that in the sense of, I am not one of the people who rank all the top colleges. While I was researching, I was led to a top 20 list of theater colleges on Princeton Review. Whenever I was reviewing a college that held a spot on the top 20 list, I had to think to myself. Am I genuinely interested in this school or have I convinced myself that I am interested simply because it appears on a list? When I say “I am me” I also mean that I am not one of the students enrolled in one of the top twenty colleges. Just because it worked out well for those students does not mean it will work out well for me.
As I started looking more closely at particular colleges and what I found attractive and unattractive about each one, I realized that what might make a college appear on a top 20 list or in the top 25% category may not be important to me. For example, many of the rankings stress how hard it is to gain admission or how much money alumni give to the college after graduation. Things that are more important to me are a beautiful campus with high quality facilities, professors who care about students and provide mentorship, small class sizes and strong study abroad programs. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll need to reevaluate my criteria and make sure they are tailored to my needs and preferences. This will be a fun journey, but I don’t think it is going to be easy. Hello everyone, I'm so excited to get this twelve week project off to a great start! As you might have read before, I am researching various college theater programs to see all the different factors that go into picking a college and see how I might just find the right place to help me with my Broadway dreams. Of course, there are lots of factors that go into picking a college. Cost, distance from home and even if they have a good theater program or not. It's important over the course of these next twelve weeks that I try not to get too fixated on one factor and forget the rest. For example, there are online reviews and top twenty lists of colleges, I might get so focused on a factor like that, that I completely forget if I could even afford to go to a top twenty prestigious college or university. Another thing for me to remember is that I should research as many factors in choosing a college as possible (without going overboard of course) due to the fact that while one factor of choosing a college might seem small to me, it could mean a great deal to someone else making the exact same decision. I want this blog to help inform other people about the factors of choosing a college or university and how all those factors can vary depending on where you want to go to get a higher education. Some of the colleges I’ve looked at thus far are Converse College, Hollins University, Drew University and Wagner College. Those are only four schools and already there is quite a bit of variation in factors like the amount of undergrads they have, distance and location, the fact if it is a women’s college or not, etcetera. Even if it is only a few thus far, one can catch my drift that there are lots of different options to choose from. I will feel accomplished in knowing that even if the twelve weeks are done and I haven’t decided on where I want to go, I’ll have helped my future self and maybe even helped a few other people too.
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AuthorI'm a high school student researching theater programs for college. Archives
December 2019
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