Finding the right college is one of the most important things that you’ll ever do, as it marks an important and exciting step into adulthood. That’s why it makes sense to carry out a thorough college search and find the one that’s perfectly suited to your current and future needs. College is a place of learning, of course, but it’s also a place where you can grow physically and emotionally. There’s so much that you’ll gain from the right college and will carry with you for the rest of your life, and here are just five of them.
1. A Sense of Independence
High school is a place where you have to work hard, learn as much as you can, and gain qualifications that can prepare you for college or the workplace. It can often be a regimented environment, one where you spend most of the time listening, learning, and repeating. One of the biggest changes from high school to college is that colleges encourage you to think and learn for yourself and, in doing so, they help to foster your independence. The ability to think critically, make your own decisions, and explain and stand by your choices are skills that are often honed during the college years and can prove to be invaluable throughout adulthood.
2. Friends for Life
It’s good to have lots of friends at high school, but it’s a fact of life that we will lose touch with many of the people who were close to us at this time, either because they or we move away, or that we simply move in different circles. Friends made at college often turn out to be friends for life, however, and that’s partly because of the parental independence that you gain at college. It’s a time when you can really be you, whoever that is, and meet like-minded friends who share the same passions and ideas. In fact, it can go a little further than that, as studies show that more than one in four married couples met their spouse at college.
3. Contacts for a Future Career
College is a time when we often find out exactly what we want to do with the rest of our lives, and it’s often not what we thought that was going to be at the time we left high school. In addition to discovering new skills and aptitudes while at college, we often also discover people who will play a big part in our future careers, although we may not know it immediately. College contacts can help you secure a job, or you may come into contact with employers and businesses through internships that you can return to after graduating. If your college course has already put you in contact with potential employers, it can be much easier to secure a job with them at a later date.
4. A Second Home
There are certain towns or places that will always have a special significance to us: our birthplace, the town we grew up in, and the place where we went to college. When you find the right college to attend, for the rest of your life you’ll be proud to say that you studied there. That’s why many former students join their college alumni association and follow the progress of their sporting teams year after year. In short, your college experience creates a lifelong sense of community and belonging.
5. Your Qualification
Not least among the many things that you’ll take with you from college life is your degree or diploma. It’s so much more than a beautiful piece of paper—it represents all the hard work you’ve put in throughout your life to reach this point. It’s also, of course, a document that can prove vital when it comes to making the transition into the world of work. It’s little surprise, then, that people want to preserve and display their degree or diploma certificate; a superior-quality diploma frame from specialists in the field will protect the certificate itself as well as provide the grand setting that it deserves.
Where you will go in life after graduation nobody can tell, but completing a course of education at a first-class college will certainly give you a great start. Remember to take your framed degree or diploma certificate with you everywhere you go and hang it on your wall with pride. Many of the other things you’ll take with you—a sense of worth and independence, friends, jobs, even life partners—also often have their roots in your college years. The best college for you may be cheaper and more affordable than you might think. One thing’s for sure, finding and choosing the right college for you will transform your life in many unexpected ways.
