Some people know from childhood that they want to become a doctor or a miner. Others do not even know what to work with. Someone’s finances and the results of studying at school allow you to go to any faculty, and someone chooses from what is available. What if you do not know which university is better to do? Depends on what prevents you from making a choice.
You do not know which university is better
A good university is a vague concept. To understand which university will make a schoolboy a steep specialist, you need to dig a lot of data.
Look at the rating
Note that the ratings of universities are different. Simple lists like “100 best universities in the world” are not suitable: what they evaluate is not always necessary for the future profession. Look for ratings that reflect the employment of graduates: how many specialists found a job after school, how quickly they were settled and whether they work in the specialty at all.
Information for reflection:
- Ratings of the agency “Expert RA”: starting with the abstract “best university” and ending with the list of the most sought-after employers.
- Monitoring of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on the employment of graduates.
- The rating of the quality of educational activity (also according to the version of the Ministry of Education).
- Example of the salary rating of the portal SuperJob. Look for similar collections for other professions.
If you are going to enter, and your educational institution does not appear on any list, ask the representatives of the university whether it is easy for graduates to find a job. Perhaps the university does not track the fate of all graduates, but at least cooperates with employers and helps in finding a job. Ask about such programs: do they work and on what terms.
Communicate with graduates
In social networks is full of groups of graduates. Look for them and ask the former students if it was worth what they received, time and effort. A sample list of questions:
- How do employers react to a university diploma?
- Was knowledge useful from lectures and seminars in the work?
- How is the college evaluated?
- Are graduates happy with the level of salary? How quickly move up the career ladder?
Go for all days of open doors
The universities hold meetings with the entrants to praise themselves. Walk around, listen. Ask how to find work after the university, whether it is possible to transfer to another faculty and how to do it.
Learn more about the opportunities for study, travel abroad. Ask questions about the equipment in the laboratories and even the quality of food in the dining room.
You do not know what you want to be
Do not worry if you have not decided what you want to do. You have time to choose the business of your dreams. But if you want to act now (so as not to waste time or for other reasons), try to find a suitable option.
Look for professions that you do not know about
Open the directory of professions (the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation has this and such) and see who you can work with. Just read the descriptions of the professions in order. If you like something, go to any job search portal and look for vacancies. Analyze what demands are made on applicants and what you will have to be able to do.
Sometimes such free search gives more than all the tests of career counseling.
Choose a university with a large number of directions
If in a year or two you understand that you want to do something different, you can find a suitable specialty within your university. Then it will be easier to transfer to another faculty and hand in additional subjects.
Stop at the most difficult
If you have no idea what you want to be, but you still need to study (parents are crushing or you are afraid of the army more than a session), then choose a difficult specialty.
First, there is less competition in complex areas. Secondly, if you decide to change faculty or specialty, after a difficult study everything else will seem paradise. Thirdly, the skills of self-discipline and overcoming difficulties are the best that a modern university can give.
Choose a practical specialty
So that you can start right after your studies or even during it. Otherwise, after the university you can find yourself with a diploma that neither you nor the employer need.
It is better to earn on an unloved position and save money for a new business than to spend a few years on crusts that are not useful at all.
You do not have money
Training is expensive. Or not?
Do not get hung up on a loud name
Roughly speaking, if you want to become a mathematician, you need to become a mathematician, not a student of the Best Mathematics University. Therefore, look for the necessary specialty in other universities and other cities. Maybe you will find an option for many thousands of kilometers, but with a scholarship.
Do not stop in Moscow and St. Petersburg: there are good universities not only in them. The HSE study on the accessibility of education in 2016 will help to take a fresh look at the geography of education.
Go to college
Colleges are cheaper. They are faster in the program. And in some years on hands there will be a ready specialty, work and an opportunity to study on correspondence or evening branch, without thinking of how parents will pay study.
Choose a university where good scholarships are paid
In many universities active and talented students are encouraged by paying them additional scholarships. Also, the region can help with money.
Find out if there are fellows in the university you are going to meet. Ask how they did it. There will be a small change – to become one of the best students of the university.
Try target set
The target set is when the enterprise pays for your training, and after studying you must work at this enterprise. Sometimes the contract is not with the enterprise, but with the municipal authorities. In fact, this is a kind of educational credit, it is not money, but work that is the only way to repay the debt.
Find out if there is a target set in the university of interest to you, ask what enterprises they work with. Take the contacts of departments that conclude contracts – and forward, to study the conditions and features of training.
Please note that orders to enroll target workers are signed earlier, and applications must be submitted in the spring. It is best to do everything on the spring break.
Checklist of the school graduate
If you are confused, what to do right now, check yourself with a short instruction:
- Decide what you want to be.
- Make a list of universities that have the required specialty.
- Strike out educational institutions that you can not afford.
- In different rankings, check the position of the remaining ones.
- Choose several universities for which you should try and take exams.
