What should you look for when selecting a college? The Ivy League is not always the answer.

Post By: COYD Staff

Jay Matthews from the Washington Post wrote an article last week titled “In seeking a college, consider its activities”. I thought the article showed honesty, humility and accuracy. He used his life as an example of why in seeking a college, consider its activities. He mentioned that “at almost every position of the chain of command above [him] were editors who had attended colleges ranked far below [his] Ivy-covered alma mater, yet they were making much more money and could fire [him] with no more than a quick e-mail to the personnel department.” His article highlights an extremely important point regarding what a high school student should look for when selecting their top choices of colleges? Name brands are everywhere in our society and they are not excluded in colleges. The Ivy League has the best branding of them all. For decades, people have associated the Ivy League with the best. And for many majors, the Ivy League does carry the best academic programs but for many other majors and fields, they don’t.

At the end of the day, why does one person go to college? The end goal is usually not just to go to a good college. Most people strive to go to a good college that will give them the best education and experience in their field of interest so that they can get the best job after school, excel at their job and advance their career. In Jay Matthews’ case, he wanted to be a journalist and he says that if he had attended a college that had a great journalism program instead of his Ivy League school, he would have flourished faster in his career.

Below are several fields of study and the top colleges that correspond to that field of study. Notice that not all of these colleges are in the Ivy League or even in the US News & World Report Top 20 nationally ranked undergraduate programs.

Architecture
Cornell University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Rhode Island School of Design
Syracuse University
University of Texas at Austin
Carnegie Mellon University
Rice University
Boston Architectural College
University of Notre Dame

Business
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of California Berkeley
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
University of Texas – Austin

Computer Science
Yale
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford
University of California – Berkeley
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign
California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon

Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford
University of California-Berkeley
California Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Cornell University
Purdue University
University of Texas – Austin

Film/TV
University of Southern California
New York University
University of Texas at Austin
University of California Los Angeles
Columbia University
Northwestern University
California Institute of the Arts
American Film Institute Conservatory

Journalism
Northwestern University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
San Francisco State University
Arizona State
Columbia University
University of Southern California
University of Missouri – Columbia
University of Maryland – College Park
University of Florida
Syracuse University