How to choose the best University?---------A good application of the most famous DECISION MAKING STRATEGY
Someone only refer to the ranking of the universities. Frankly speaking, it is the heuristic way to make your choice. It is an easy way. But is it the best way, I wander. I would like to depart the human decision into two ways, rational choice and irrational way (heuristic and fast way). Going aboard is one of the biggest choices for a person. I think everyone should thing deeply and have the rational and best choice. Admitted, the ranking is the fastest way to know the university is good or not, but it is not all.
How to do rational choice? I would introduce a famous and efficient way to do that. That can be used into many prospects in your life.
Fist, LIST all the factors you care about, The factors are Money, Duration of the study, Ranking of the university, Ranking of the department, Chance to get admission, Academic Interest, Location, Chance of part time work, chance of immigration, Agency help, Environment, Feeling factor, Personal preference, and Major. Second, list the WEIGHT of each factor(0-10, the higher the better). Third, give the points to each university according to the information you got(0-100points, the higher the better). For example, the ranking of the university may be computed as follows: 100-ranking in TIMES 2002. Oxford 100-1=99points. IF YOU HAVE NO PREFERENCE, PLEASE GIVE 50points.Last, choose the universities getting high marks. It might a bit abstract. Let me to give you an example.
Mike is boy studying Peking University. His major is Math. The GPA is 3.1. And he wants to go to UK for graduated study. He can study Math and Management. His family can offer him 400,000Yuan to study. He can have a broad rang of choices, such as MSc in Math, MPhil in Math and MSc/MA in management. That is very difficult for him. He list the factor he care about and give a weight to each factor.
Money 5
Duration of the study 4
Ranking of the university 8
Ranking of the department 7
Chance to get admission 10
Academic Interest 2
Location 0
Chance of part time work 1
Chance of immigration 0
Agency help 6
Environment 2
Feeling factor 0
Personal preference 3
Major 5
Weight 0-10 0-most careless 10 most care
He listed some universities, Oxford university, Edinburgh, Leicester University. And use the strategy I said above.
WEIGHT Oxford Edinburgh Leicester
Money 5 70 80 90
Duration of the study 4 0 50 50
Ranking of the university 8 99 85 80
Ranking of the department 7 80 75 60
Chance to get admission 10 40 80 90
Academic Interest 2 50 50 50
Location 0 - - -
Chance of part time work 1 70 50 50
Chance of immigration 0 20 80 40
Agency help 6 0 70 100
Environment 2 90 80 80
Feeling factor 0 - - -
Personal preference 3 90 80 60
Major 5 20 20 70
SCORE IN ALL - 2822 3675 4050
5*70+4*0+8*99+…=2822
Then you can draw the conclusion that Leicester and Edinburgh University seems better for you instead of Oxford. Why? The “chance of get Admission ” of Oxford is too low but the weight is 10.
If this model is applied in the final choice of several admissions. You can delete the factor “chance of get Admission ”. Then the different result comes out.
You may say, “That is a statistics game.” It is a game, interesting and useful.
| 
