State universities pass the test

Steve always asked me to give my spiel about the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which is the entrance exam for many US universities, but together we used the opportunity to sing the praises of US state universities.

I am always amazed at the overwhelming amount of students who have attended my SAT lessons over the years with the goal of getting into a “prestige” university like Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Columbia. In the last couple of years, students have been targeting more west-coast universities and many have their sights set on Stanford University in California.

Thankfully, students are also targeting California state universities such as the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC). I wish more would examine the University of California in Berkeley.

I tell students that I got my first degree in anthropology at Ohio State University (OSU), and I would not trade that experience or that degree for any degree from any other university. I got an excellent education at OSU and Framingham State University (Massachusetts) where I received a Master’s degree in international education. I did my library science certification at Indiana State University.

All of my beloved universities, as you might notice, are state universities. State universities are far cheaper and the education is excellent.

If you look online, you can find US universities being rated for everything from Most Accessible Professors (Colby College in Maine) to Best College Dorms (Scripps College in California) and Most Beautiful Campus (University of San Diego California.

A recent Huffington Post article that I read noted that the happiest students attended Vanderbilt University, a private research-oriented university in Nashville, Tennessee, while Columbia University — a definite prestige university — had the most politically active students.

The list goes on and on, but the important point is that the university experience must be all-encompassing.

It must be about much more than the name of the university and simply whether or not it is considered a “prestige” university.

It must offer an experience, and it must offer a good, solid education.

I recently decided to finish my history degree at OSU, since it is possible to do it online now, and the courses I have taken so far have blown me away. They have been excellent courses with caring professors who take teaching to a whole new level online.

In the US system, students don’t really have to make up their mind what they plan to study until they have completed two years, but students who feel reasonably sure about what they want to study will often find that state universities are in the top ten of their chosen disciplines.

Students who have struggled in school and students who are not academically inclined will want to check out the community colleges — especially on the west coast where a number of hands-on disciplines are offered. My son, Zino, received an excellent degree in wood technology at Seattle Community College.

So, as we start this school year, I hope students will consider all of the options available if they are targeting US universities. I know Mr Weeks will be delivering the same message on the other side of the world.