Deciding on which college to register with is a big decision. There is a lot of information out there about hundreds of different colleges. How will YOU use that information to choose the right college for you?
Don’t forget to fill in the College Check-List form at the bottom of this page!
Decisions: Big and Small
Life is all about decisions. Without even realising it, we make decisions every minute of every day. Some decisions are ‘small’ decisions, for example: “Should I eat an apple or a banana?” Some decisions are ‘medium-sized’ decisions, for example: “I’m running quite late for work, so, should I take a bus or a taxi to get to work?” Then you get big decisions, for example: “Should I get married?” Generally speaking, the ‘small’ decisions don’t have serious consequences. It is not going to make much of a difference if you eat and apple or a banana.
Decisions: Consequences
But what about those decisions that do have consequences? These bigger decisions are generally not easy decisions to make. I can’t imagine anybody buying a car without having thought about what kind of car they want. For example, Bob won’t just go walk into the first car dealership he sees and buy the first car that he sees in the dealership. Why not? Well, Bob probably has list of things he needs in the car he is going to buy.
For example, Bob has four children – so he needs a car that will be big enough for his family. And, Bob needs a strong car that will be able to cope with the bad roads in the town where he lives. He also has quite a specific budget (amount of money that he is willing to spend), and, he insists that he will only buy a blue-coloured car because blue is his favourite colour. Before Bob buys a car, he will have to make sure that the car meets all his needs. He will only buy a car once he is sure that the car is right for him and his requirements.
We’ve just spoken about Bob. But why don’t we speak about YOU. If you are busy deciding on which college to register with – then, that is one of the ‘big’ decisions we spoke about earlier. Like Bob who is not going to buy the first car that he sees, you will obviously not register with the first college that you see advertised. Why not?
Well, you have a list of things that you need and expect from a college. Let’s look at some of those needs:
Needs:
1)Money needs –
I am sure you have some kind of budget when it comes to paying for your studies. Each college has different fees. Some Colleges expect you to pay for your textbooks while others don’t. At some colleges, before you register with them, they make you sign a credit agreement with them.
At College SA, for example, we don’t do that. We don’t believe in keeping people trapped in credit agreements. We make you sign a contract (which is a legal agreement) that says you are responsible for paying your fees, but, we our contract with you does not allow us to charge you interest on any outstanding fees.
All colleges will require you to sign a legal agreement with them. This kind of legal agreement will state what you and the College can expect from each other. But, only some colleges (and we are not one of them) make you sign a credit agreement.
What about deposit fees and registration fees? Some colleges will expect you to pay many thousands of Rands before you even receive your student card (that’s if you get a student card!)
What about if you just want to study one or two subjects – some colleges will force you to pay the price of a full Diploma, even though you are only taking two subjects. So, it’s like charging you for an entire house even though you only want to buy the front door!
2)Course / Subject needs -
If Bob wanted to buy a car, he wouldn’t go into a grocery shop to buy his car, you won’t contact a Beauty School if you want to study to become a teacher. The college that you choose needs to be able to offer you the subjects and courses that you are interested in. And, what about if you want to take a variety of different subjects, for example, a Secretarial course and a Computer course – not all colleges allow that, they force you to stick to one kind of programme.
3)Reputation needs –
Imagine if Bob’s best friend told him that the BLUE car is the worst car in the whole world because that car is famous for always breaking down, and, that it is impossible to find a mechanic that knows how to fix that kind of car. There is no way that Bob would even consider buying a BLUE car because of that car’s bad reputation. It’s not like Bob’s best friend is lying to him – his friend used to own a BLUE car, so he knows what he is talking about. Now imagine if his friend actually recommended another car to Bob, if he said to Bob: “Bob, I’m now driving a RED car and I have never been happier with a car. This RED car is very light on petrol, it is reliable, and the people who work for the RED car Company are so helpful and friendly. After having spoken with his friend, do you think Bob is going to rather buy the BLUE or the RED car?
Yes, of course, Bob would rather buy the RED car because it has a great reputation – people are saying good things about it, unlike the BLUE car which is famous for all its problems.
Did you know that colleges also have reputations? Every single student who studies with a college will have an opinion about that college, and that opinion part of the college’s reputation.
For example, The College of Apples and Bananas had 1000 students. Nearly every single one of those 1000 students failed their courses because the study material was so bad. Also, most of the students at The College of Apples and Bananas were really unhappy with the kinds of service they had received from the College. Can you see that this college, The College of Apples and Bananas, very soon received a bad reputation? Surely you want to register with a College that an excellent reputation?
Apart from speaking to a college’s students, is there another way of finding out more about a college’s reputation? Yes, there are two things you can do.
Firstly, you can go to Google on the Internet. In the search bar, type in the name of the college plus the word ‘complaints’. See if you get any results – you may just be very surprised.
Also, you can go to the website www.hellopeter.com. This website is place where people can let other people know about the bad service they have received from businesses. When you go to this website, type in the name of the college that you are thinking about registering with. If that college has a bad reputation, you can be sure that there will be an article about them in www.hellopeter.com.
To make it easier for you, why don’t you click this link: http://www.hellopeter.com/search-reports?keyword=college, it will take you right where you need to be on the Hellopeter website. See what students are saying about some Colleges.
4)Accreditation needs –
This is such an important thing to consider when deciding on a college, and yet, not many people actually understand what is meant by accreditation. Let’s look at this word ‘accreditation’.
When we say that a college is accredited, what we mean is that the college has got official recognition as a registered education provider. In order for a college to be accredited, it has to pass lots of tests to make sure that it will offer good quality education to its students. If a college is accredited, it means that the college meets certain minimum standards, such as having approved learning material etc. When a college is accredited, that college has to make very sure that it must keep on meeting those standards. Accredited colleges can lose their accreditation if they start to fall below those standards. When you register with an accredited college, it also means that the award you get from that college will be recognised by other institutions and businesses. In other words, if your award is from an accredited college, then when somebody is looking at your CV, that person will know that you got your education from a college that has high standards in terms of the quality of the education.
You should always find out if a college is accredited before you register with them. By the way, College SA is fully accredited!
5)Service quality needs –
Every time you ‘do business’ with a company, you will receive some kind of service from them.
If you went into a bookstore because you wanted to buy a particular book, you would expect to be ‘serviced’ by that bookstore. In other words, you would expect that the bookstore have books for you to choose from and, you would also expect that there would be somebody working there who would take your money if you decided to buy a book. Those are pretty simple and realistic expectations – what kind of a bookstore would it be if it didn’t have books to sell?
You could also have other kinds of expectations – for example, you could expect that an employee of the bookstore assist you with finding the book that you are looking for. You might also expect that employees of that bookstore to be helpful and friendly. These kinds of expectations are slightly different because they refer to the quality of the service that you receive. It is unfortunately true that we often receive bad quality service from many companies.
What is bad quality service? Let me give you a few examples:
Examples of Bad Service:
- Have you ever gone into a shop and asked one of the employees where you will be able to find a certain product, but, the answer that you receive was something like: “No”, or, “I don’t know”, and then that person walks away from you?
- Have you ever gone into a shop to buy something, stood in the queue so that you could pay, but the cashier completely ignored you?
- Have you ever phoned a company to find out more information about a product, but nobody at that company answered the phone? Or, you spoke with somebody who told you that they would call you back with more information – but they never did?
There is no reason why you should not expect good quality service from a college too.
I am sure that you would prefer to register with a college that is actually happy to provide their services to their students (and to their prospective students). When you are considering registering with a college, look at the contact details that you have for them. Is there just one phone number? Or, is there more than one way to get hold of the people who work there? Do they have a fax number; do they have an email address? Remember, you have the right to expect good quality service from a college.
Do not register with a college that does not want to service you!
We have looked at the different things you can and must expect from a college, in other words, we looked at your needs. It is very important to remember that YOU are responsible for getting all the information you need from a college to make sure that the college will be able to meet your needs. Make sure that you choose carefully – you will be investing a lot of time and money into your education.
Useful Websites:
If you are considering registering with a college, then the following websites will be very useful for you:
To find out more about College SA as a College, click HERE for MORE INFORMATION
Choosing a College Check-List:
To help you choose the college that is best for you and your needs, we have created a little check-list table that you can fill in. Once you have filled it in, you should find it much easier to choose the right college for you.
We encourage you to submit this Choosing a College Check-List. We want to see the information that you have found about other colleges. We want to know if there is anything we can do to make College SA even better for you.
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