Personalized University Evaluation Project

In this dynamic project, students will embark on an exploratory journey to evaluate and rate universities based on criteria that they personally deem significant. This assignment empowers students to tailor their research methodology, allowing for a highly personalized evaluation process. Students will select a list of universities to research and develop a set of evaluation criteria such as academic reputation, campus facilities, student life, location, tuition costs, and anything else they find relevant.

Using a provided spreadsheet template, students will then rate each university according to their chosen criteria. The spreadsheet allows for the adjustment of criteria, the weighting of each criterion according to its importance to the student, and the inclusion of any number of schools the student wishes to research.

Instructions Begin by brainstorming and listing the criteria you consider most important in a university. Think about what aspects of a university experience are most valuable to you. Assign a weight to each criterion based on its importance to you. Higher weights should be given to factors that are more significant in your university selection process. Select a diverse list of universities you are interested in researching. Aim for a mix of locations, sizes, and types of institutions. Use the provided spreadsheet to enter your criteria, weights, and the universities you're researching. Follow the example on page 2 to understand how to input and calculate your data. Remember, the data on the second tab is randomly generated and is for instructional use only. Conduct thorough research on each university according to your criteria. Use official university websites, student reviews, academic forums, and any other credible sources of information. Rate each university in the spreadsheet based on your findings. Analyze your completed spreadsheet to understand which universities score highest according to your personalized criteria. This project is about exploring what matters to you personally in a university and using that as a basis for evaluation. There is no right or wrong way to weigh your criteria or choose your universities; the focus is on thoughtful consideration and personal relevance.

Sample EduAvenues University Ratings spreadsheet. Students rate each university across configurable criteria (Academic Programs, Location, Campus Culture, Cost, Career Prospects, Food, Compensation, and others) on a 0-10 scale, with an aggregated Overall Score auto-computed.

Example rated rows include Stanford (9.2), University of Virginia (7.25), University of Queensland (7.9), University of Florida (7.35), Michigan State (7.15), University of Cambridge (7.0), University of Amsterdam (6.9), Ohio State (6.75), University of Tokyo (6.55), University of Georgia (6.55), NUS (6.4), UNC Chapel Hill (6.3), Duke (6.2), JMU (6.1), and dozens more across US, UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Use this template to build out your own ratings; do not alter the Overall Score formula column.