Find the right fit

Here are five factors to consider when making your college list

The U.S. alone has 5,300 colleges and universities with varying sizes, specialisations and marketing pitches. Canada and the U.K. both have close to 100 universities and colleges each. India itself has over 400 private universities and colleges. While a lot of information is available at the click of a button, how do students make sense of what is out there? How do they know which is the right course to pick? To make sense of the clutter, here are some factors to keep in mind before starting to list colleges.

In addition to the institution’s ranking, also look at subject rankings of the major that you are interested in. A top school may not offer the major you want or not be well-known in that area of study. The Guardian subject ranking shows many hidden gems in places like Bristol, Leeds, London Metropolitan and Strathclyde in Scotland, which are highly ranked across Economics and Law.