When choosing what colleges to look for, there are many factors to take into account. Obviously, the first step is to decide what sort of career you are likely to take. For our purposes, it will be a career in artificial intelligence. Remember, do not narrow yourself down too much when looking at courses, for example, majoring in 'image recognition' may not be a good idea, since it won't give you the general knowledge required to get you into a job outside of that field. In fact, taking an artificial intelligence course 10 years ago may have been a bad idea, since there were very few jobs that required such in depth knowledge of AI. So, choose whether you would like to major in AI, or major in computer science with the focus on AI. This kind of thinking really gives you direction - and direction is a definite must-have when deciding your future. So, before you even look at prospective colleges, decide generally what you would like to do. The next step is obviously to start looking at colleges. I know from my experience that getting a book on colleges is a great start - most books like that are ordered under courses, then sub-divided into requirements and such. Getting hold of this sort of infomation is imperative, because it allows you to look at what colleges will suit your requirements and levels. For example, if you are a 'C' student, don't waste your time (or money, in the US) applying to colleges that won't accept you on the basis of your grades. If you are an 'A' student, don't waste your time looking at colleges with an 99% acceptancy rate either. Next, get information from the colleges. In the UK it is as easy as merely writing off to them, and they will send you a large book about the college free of charge. Look through each of these prospectuses, and if necessary write down all the relevant information in a spreadsheet. That way, when you have 10-15 (at least) prospectuses, you have a good idea about the range of marks you are expected to get. Next, start to eliminate until you get down to 5 or 6 - disgard colleges that are in areas you don't like, whose fees are out of your range, or simply whose courses are slightly different to what you expected. From this stage onwards, the way you apply differs in the two countries. For me, I narrowed my choices down from 15 to 6, then applied to UCAS. After to get all your offers (or rejections), UCAS send you a reply form for you to choose two colleges, one firm and one insurance. Then you have to get the necessary marks, and you're on your way! For a list of some of the colleges the Generation5 team looked at, please choose a country: |
