If you’re set on having a future in a particular career, you’ll need to find a college that gives you exactly the right qualifications and educational basis. Here’s how to find a college that will help you get exactly the career you want.
Some students have no idea what future career they want when they are at the stage of applying to college. In this situation, students will tend towards applying for a course in a broader set of subjects that will give them plenty of options while they are making a decision about a future career. The choice of college in this instance will be more focused on what makes sense in terms of location and where a broad diversity of possible careers can be pursued.
But if you already have a good idea of what career you want, the way you search for a college will be altogether different. Here’s what you need to focus on to find a college that perfectly suits your choice of career.
What Do You Need To Study?
The most obvious place to start is to find out what subject or subjects you need to study to be able to do the career of your choice. Every career is different, so look in detail at your chosen career, and make contact with some authoritative sources in the field, such as accredited membership organizations. Think a little bit about your career trajectory too. For example, you might wish to be a journalist focusing on environmental themes. Although you could do a college course in journalism, you might be better placed gaining a degree in an environmental subject first, which could help to make you a subject expert in the field before specializing in journalism.
Look At Courses
Once you have identified exactly which course or courses you need to study to reach your desired career, do some research on all the colleges that offer this. Using a trusted website such as Authority.org can be an efficient way of finding all the colleges that are relevant to you. Coming up with a long list of colleges that offer the course or courses you need is an important early step towards identifying the right college for you.
Consider Reputation
Once you have a long list of colleges, you will want to narrow it down a bit to get closer to finding your top choices. One key consideration you will want to make is what is the very best college you could attend for the grades you have, or are expecting to get? The reputation of the college you choose will help you later on, as it will look good to future employers if you studied somewhere renowned or prominent. Consider the reputation of a college as a whole, as well as the reputation of the department or course you want to study. Sometimes the two things are not the same – for example, a specific course might be very highly regarded in a specific industry, even if the college itself isn’t high up in the league tables. The opposite can also be true.
Do You Need Accreditation?
In order to work in certain careers, you need to have studied an accredited course in order to qualify. Accreditation is when an official body gives its stamp of approval for a course being up to the required standards in order to work in certain professions. Find out if this is a factor in your chosen career, and look carefully at whether the course and college you are interested in provides this accreditation. Sometimes it is not always obvious, or sometimes the accreditation of a course is coming up for review, in which case you want to be sure that a particular course will retain its accreditation.
Other Factors That Make A Difference
Once you have pinpointed a few courses and colleges that offer the course or courses you need, it’s time to think of some wider considerations to help you decide. One of these considerations is if you can study everything you need to study at your shortlisted college. Using the environmental journalism example, could you study an environmental subject, and then go on to study journalism, all at the same college? This may or may not be important to you – but if you want to go to college and settle there for a few years, you might want to factor this into your decision making. Also think about the geographical locations of your shortlisted colleges. If you don’t want to travel too far from your home town, or if you need to be close to family, this will help you further pinpoint the best college for you.
Extra Support
Embarking on the right college course for your career is not the only thing you need to consider when choosing a college. Take a look into what extra support you might get at the college of your choice. A strong careers advisory service, mentors who know about your chosen industry, and links with businesses for work experience opportunities – are all things that could make a big difference to your future career success. Being able to gain some real life experience and insights into your future career can give you a strong edge over other students when you get to the point of applying for jobs.