Choosing a college is a big undertaking. There is so much to consider - the location, the price, the prestige, and how rigorous the coursework may be. If you’re tossing up between a more accessible versus a selective college, some questions arise. Firstly, to even consider a selective college in the first place means that you likely already have the financial capacity to pay for it, or else the grades and/or sporting success to receive a scholarship.
One big question mark, however, is whether the selective colleges are more difficult. Sure, we already know that selective colleges are made to be harder to get into and more expensive to pay for, but do they equal a higher load of coursework or difficulty in programs? Here’s the lowdown of college selectivity and what that means for the difficulty of the courses.
Why are colleges selective?
This gives the college students who do make it in a level of prestige, offering added value to their degree when they later graduate and share on their applications to potential employers that they went to a selective college.
Are they very different in grading?
Generally, amazing grades are the deciding factor for entry into selective schools. But everyone having higher grades is not necessarily the case.
Some colleges might have a more strict level of grading, but more often than not, it’s not going to be extremely hard to receive good grades for students who made it into the college in the first place.
Is the workload actually harder?
The proportion of higher-achieving students may be larger at a selective school (but as we mentioned that might not be the case all of the time). Grading might be a little higher, but even then, if you got into the selective school, chances are you’re a good student, and will therefore be able to meet the high standards that the school sets just as a normal student would at a regular college.
Selective colleges will also differ greatly from each other in terms of their exclusivity, the prestige they hold, the average grades of the students, and the difficulty of the courses.