In Your Element

A picture of IU Bloomington's gates.

My family and I started planning for Spring Break, and this year, there's one thing that they're focused on: College visits. When narrowing down what college a person wants to attend, there are many factors that help the student make a final choice:  I believe that the environment of the school is a key factor in the process. 

I would argue that the environment and area of a college is an important factor because people have a certain comfort level that they want to maintain. When deciding on colleges, students are encouraged to branch out and look at colleges into other parts of the country or even in the world. I think that this contradicts with the tendency that a lot of students choose to go to college near their home. 

Fox Business agrees with the fact that a college's surroundings majorly influence a student's decision. One of their articles says that a pro for staying in state is that "students have the option to go home more often since it doesn’t involve a plane or train ticket, or a long drive." This goes back to the comfort level I was talking about before. Even if a student did go to a college on the other side of the country, the type of people and lifestyle can be similar. I'm not saying we should all take crazy risks and go places totally out of our element. I'm just wondering why we put such boundaries on ourselves when we make decisions.

Did you consider a school's environment when picking a college/place to live? Are you considering it right now? How would you define America's comfort level? How have Americans been influenced by American society when making decisions? 

Standard System of Testing

As I was thinking about what I should blog about this week, I decided to talk about a major topic in my life: Standardized Testing. I feel like as a junior it's an obligation to be preparing for the ACT. Many students study for the ACTs in order to better their chances of getting into different colleges, but I think there's always an undeniable sense of worry that students have while taking the test. 

Students put all their hope in a number that, some people believe, proves our intelligence to schools. Apart from the stress students put on themselves, there is always pressure to study for SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests. They are generally emphasized by schools, parents, and the peers around us because of the requirements that colleges have regarding the tests. Although standardized tests are a common part of American culture, many have gone against and questioned the fairness of it. 

There are many different articles about the pros and cons of standardized testing, but I chose this one to look at. I picked this article, written by procon.org, because of the #2 pro and con of the article. Both completely contradict each other; one says that "Standardized tests are reliable and objective measures of student achievement", while the other says that "Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance." 

So what's your opinions on standardized testing? What does this system (standardized testing) say about America?