University Selection puzzle!!! How to choose which university to go to?

Choosing university can be a great dizzy puzzle and it was of course a hard time for me!
Having learnt from the experience of previous exchange programs, I have been paying large amount of attention to the choice of university for the postgraduate application because this is one of the most important aspects to optimize the experience during this 1-year postgrad program. People have different criteria of judgement and priority in different career path and life mission. Below are my criteria and they should not be used to compare to the choices that the others are making because each of us is so different! For me, direct and formal education in class is important, but I have observed that there are so much more important aspects that also contribute to the experiences.

For my case, here are some points of my consideration:

• The course design and syllabus of the program : Don’t assume that the same title of program at different universities will have the same curricular, course options, course design, area of focus, option for specialization, method of teaching and more. Some universities have special features, such as field trip outside of the countries, or internship, or employment placement and some other don’t have it. Some universities have a big class size and others have a very small community. Each has its own pros and cons.
• University’s reputation and its ranking nation wide and worldwide: There are quite a lot of ranking sites. It’s good to check different sites and see how they provide different reviews to the university you are considering. Don’t solely believe everything one site says. Consider what criteria mean the most for you and your interested major.
• Different universities have different field of specialization, so overall ranking would not always completely ensure that your department is going to be the best. Focus on the subject ranking is more helpful for you. In addition, pay attention to the difference of ranking for undergrad and post-grad school! Quite often the ranking site’s score tends towards the comparison of  undergraduate study, which doesn’t cover much of the postgraduate study. Therefore, when you look at the ranking site, do pay attention  to their ranking methodology to see what are included, what are not and what are the flaws. Finally, As Albert Einstein said, ” Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted”. Use your critical thinking to make analysis for what matches you the best, and take the university ranking as just one criterion of the overall considerations. Ranking is just one of the ways to measure and compare different universities, but ranking is not a perfect measure because some of the important aspects also miss out from the ranking criteria. Here are some examples of well-known ranking sites and there are still more.. http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2014#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014-15/world-ranking. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings

  . http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html

• University’s areas of specialization and background of the academic bodies (I checked who the teachers are, their education, research interest, where they are from, what areas in focus? How many prominent world changers or outstanding professor/Nobel laureates …etc). Sometime, a university is very famous and highly ranked, but that doesn’t mean it’s good at every field of study. While some other times, some smaller universities have lower overall rank, but they are the leading experts in that particular field of study.
• The extra-curricular activities: I love volunteering activities, active student union, campaign and more. Being active in social and volunteer work is a source to brighten up my soul and a way for me to learn even more than classroom arrangement. That’s why is one of my top priorities in terms of selecting university.

• University’s core value, principle and its vision: this can be found on their website and prospectus, as part of their public relation (PR) promotion. However, to access whether what said is reflected in real practice, it’s useful to observe that in their actions. Ex. If they claim to have the core value of being environmentally sustainable, you can try checking such things as campus architecture and space arrangement, sustainability projects, events and more. Ex. If a university claims to have a culture of innovation, you can look into the way of teaching/learning, entrepreneurship supports, then do the analysis whether it really encourages such culture. Don’t just believe the PR and marketing!
• The composition of students (how many percent are international students? From where?) :This lets us know the diversity of the environment here: For me, I would like the environment where I can build network, friendship and understanding with classmates from all continents, as well as having the voices heard. Sometimes being minority give some extra difficulties, but sometimes it’s also a great opportunity for us to shine.
• Quality of the facilities: I checked about how the building looks like (using the university’s gallery link or the google’s street view), hi-tech facilities, libraries, support center and so on. Those information should be available on the university’s website, youtube or you can do the search on google. Most well established universities would have their well-developed website with all information you need. Download or request for prospectus from the university because that booklet is like a promotional magazine that the university would try to feature holistic information on all of the important aspects of their university.
• Alumni of the university: Check who are the most influential people coming out of that university, observe  what kind of leader that university has produced, what kind of difference those people have made (those information can be  found in the prospectus, or the alumni book …etc).
• University’s link to the world institutions and other, such as private sector for career link, NGOs for collaboration or Government for the policy recommendation and so on. For instance, my university where I’m studying now is linked with one of the top 3 world’s biggest poverty study institutions, meaning that several professors are contributing to this field of poverty and development, and we are also among the first place to welcome lots of amazing guess speakers from different parts of the world to share the recent ground breaking findings.
• The city where it’s located: economics and political power of the city, living condition (living cost, population, ethnicity) of the city, geopolitics: City you live in can somehow determine how much opportunities you can have access to. Ex. In major cities, there are chances that the major business, NGO, institution would be locating and even some significant people would tend to come to the major cities for such things as conferences and so on. Yet, small city doesn’t automatically or always means less opportunity, it’s just the type of opportunity would be different. I love travelling and learning from the world, so I somehow look for the central location where I can have easy access to the international airport or train, so that I can travel cheaply or less expensively to explore different parts of the country and region while studying!
• Weather: For some people from tropical country, moving to some places with so different weather condition can more or less affect the health and well-being, which in turns can affect the level of comfort of staying and ability to study well. There’s a saying that “ There is no such thing as bad weather, only wrong clothing”. With proper preparation and adjustment, this issue can be dealt. However, only you know about your personal health and level of adaptation!
• Location of the university: is it in the city center or in a far distance from the town? What type of environment you prefer? There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but it depends on your choice of preference.

Ex. I got admission from both, the London School of Economics & Political Science and the University of Manchester. When I had to make the decision between the two, there were several things I looked into. LSE was in world’s top 10, while Manchester was in top 30 for the overall university ranking, but when looking into the development study (my field of study), Manchester was the 3rd in the world while LSE ranked later. I did a brief research on where journals related to my field of study come  from. I also checked the background of those directors, professors and faculties at the department to see if there’re people sharing my research interest and cover my regions/field of interest. I looked into the program structure and extra-curricular activities. With the university of Manchester, there was international field trip and hand-on research in developing world (for my case, Uganda), but LSE didn’t offer such opportunity. In addition, personally, I prefer major cities, but not the giant metropolitan city/capital of the country’s kind of life style.

These were how I went about choosing my university and I hope these would help you to some extend make a good choice for your future! Remember that each person has different field of interest, expertise, needs, priority, value and ways of doing things! Don’t try to follow what I did! Just take it into consideration when you design your own way of approaching this daunting task! Good luck!