Braeden Carolan

English 1201
Literature Review 25 October 2020
The question at hand has to deal with why people choose the major that they do as well as
what factors should drive your choice of a college major. I am a senior in high school currently
and I have a big decision to make, what college should I attend and what should I major in?
These are questions that many students must answer as their senior year approaches an end. To
further my research, I want to investigate what the driving factors are for what people choose as
their major in college. I think that the research will apply to my life directly and assist in my
decision making when choosing a university to attend next fall.
In both the article written by Sara Hodon, “The Most Important Factors for Choosing a
College'' and the article written by Patti Grod, “5 things to consider when choosing a college”, it
is suggested to look into things like affordability and financial aid when choosing a college. In
Hodon’s article with Augustana College, it states how private colleges often have a bigger price
tag than public colleges. Though the starting price is larger, most students do not pay near the
amount of the starting price because of the financial aid that the students can earn. Also, the
article by Hodon is very informative and the intention of the article is purely to assist those who
are seeking help choosing a college. The site does have advertisements and is a .com article, but
it does not promote itself and the purpose of the article is purely informational, so it is a reliable
source. Both articles also discuss proximity to home as playing a major role in college decisions.
Patti Grod recognizes that college will be most people’s first time living away from home and
that the distance you would like to be away from your home should play a major role in what
school you select. Grod also talks about what kind of environment you would like to have in
college; would you want to know most other students by name or would you want larger crowds
of people? This article is published on a college website, so the purpose of the article is to help
students make their decision. It is also reliable because there is no self-promotion on the website
and it is written by a student in college, so there is first-hand experience from the writer. “10
Steps to Choosing the Right College” written by Katy Hopkins and Josh Moody has some
common ideas with the other sources as well. One common idea is found throughout each source
which is to rank your priorities and decide what factors are ultimately most important to you.
The article written by Hopkins and Moody is also a reliable source and the purpose of that article
is to inform readers of some ideas to consider when trying to make their decision on a college.
Of the five sources that I selected, there aren’t any glaring disagreements on any of the
ideas mentioned. Each of the articles mentions different factors and ideas to guide a student
through the tough decision of choosing a college. Despite this, there are some differences in the
way they seem to prioritize those ideas. For example, Hodon and Grod both prioritize what you
want to study while in college, but the article written by Hopkins and Moody talk about cost and
affordability first and make it seem like that is a more important factor. A student would likely
consider both price and the majors that the college offers when wanting to choose a college to
attend.
 On the topic of choosing a college, there are not very many misconceptions that occur.
Each source seems to have similar suggestions about topics to consider when selecting a college
to attend. By nature of the research question, there is not opposing viewpoints, but rather there is
an abundance of ideas that people might view differently. Overall, there are quite a few ideas for
students to consider when choosing a college. There are topics like the affordability of college,
the majors at those colleges and how successful those programs are, the proximity to home, the
size and atmosphere of the school, the quality of housing, the extracurricular activities, and many
more. To further the research, the different ideas should be ranked in their importance as a whole
when deciding on a college. Another area that could be looked into more deeply is why people
choose certain majors within their college.

Works Cited

Beutel, Ann M., et al. “Masculinity and Men’s Choice of College Major.” Shibboleth
Authentication Request, 3 June 2019, link-springer-
com.sinclair.ohionet.org/article/10.1007/s12147-019-09236-0.

Grod, Patti. “5 Things to Consider When Choosing a College.” Augustana College, 6 May 2020,

https://www.augustana.edu/blog/5-things-consider-when-choosing-college

Hodon, Sara. “The Most Important Factors for Choosing a College.” CollegeXpress,

Carnegie Dartlet, Apr. 2020, www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-

advice/admission/articles/find-college/most-important-factors-choosing-college/.

Hopkins, Katy, and Josh Moody. “10 Steps to Choosing the Right College.” U.S. News &

World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 6 Nov. 2019,

www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-steps-to-picking-the-right-

school?slide=7.
Writers, Staff. “The Student's Guide to Choosing a Major - Best Colleges.”

BestColleges.com, BestColleges.com, 4 Mar. 2020,

www.bestcolleges.com/resources/choosing-a-major/.