The Search for the Perfect College

Lately, the pressure has been on to get good ACT and SAT scores and to take the most difficult classes possible senior year. This is all in hopes of getting accepted to the college of your choice. But getting accepted might not be good enough for you; you may also want a scholarship, whether it is academic or athletic. The problem is how do you know what colleges to apply to? How do you know what colleges are right for you, or which ones or out of your range? The truth is, I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I am becoming more knowledgeable on the subject.

The first college I looked into was Drake University. This is a private college in Des Moines. I started out looking on the Drake website. This included a wide variety of information, all the way from the campus life to the athletics at Drake. Drake University is a very prestigious college and is home to the annual Drake Relays. The Drake Relays is basically a huge track meet where runners from all around the United States have come to compete since 1910. Since I am I runner, this is the first thing that always comes to my mind when I think of Drake.

Drake is a private college so it does cost a little bit more than the 3 public universities in Iowa. The tuition comes to a total of $35,090 which includes room and board as well as the technology fee and the student activity fee. There are other various fees that students have to pay depending on what their major will be, as different materials are used. Here is a link to these different fees on the Drake Website.

Drake has about 5,000-6,000 students every year and is considered by most standards to be the 2nd most prestigious college in Iowa with Grinnell coming in 1st. The student to faculty ratio is 14:1 so the class sizes are not large compared to most universities. This allows for a more personal basis between students and their teachers. It also makes it possible for faculty to know students by their name, which is almost unheard of at large universities like Iowa or Iowa State. Drake has over 70 programs of study and allows students to combine majors and even create their own majors. Drake is so appealing to many people because it is a small school with the academic benefits of a large school.

Here is a link to the official Drake Website