Ivy League schools may offer a wonderful addition to a resume, but some students decide instead to go to small honors programs at public universities in order to save on tuition and have a more positive experience along the way.

When Joy Furman looked into colleges to attend, she wanted something more enjoyable than her high-school experience.

“It was really important to me that I would be well-prepared for the business world, but at the same time I also really wanted to have a positive college experience – unlike high school where I was just a workaholic,” she said.

Although she looked at Ivy-League schools, she wanted a change of pace from her heavy high-school workload.

“I outwardly wanted to go to an Ivy League school because that’s what my parents and friends expected of me, but inside I just wanted to be with a different class of people,” she said. “I felt like my whole high school experience had been less than genuine and I really wanted to explore myself in college.”

When talking with her guidance counselor one day, Furman found what she was looking for — a brochure for the City University of New York. The lower tuition rates and the pictures of students inside the brochure intrigued her.

CUNY also offered scholarships to qualified suburban honors students, and after talking to some people who attended the college, she decided to take a tour. She went to the business school, Zicklin, and talked with students who were in the honors program.

“They were all suburban high-achievers who, like me, were tired of the academic rat-race and wanted to do their own thing while still getting a quality education without accumulating debt,” Furman said.

To wrap up her visit, she met the dean, who was a former dean of Columbia University. He told her about the benefits of attending CUNY and how several students decided to attend the college for exactly the same reasons she was considering it.

She also met several of the female students at the cafeteria.

“They were just the opposite of the unapproachable Prada-wearing, cliquish girls that I was used to,” Furman said.

Furman returned to her guidance counselor and said she had decided to attend CUNY. While earning her degree, she also found the college experience she was looking for.

“I got a great education for very little debt, made some good friends and never regretted it for a second,” she said.

Selecting a major, let alone a college can be mind boggling to any high school student. But for an over achiever, it can be overwhelming. So how an over achiever selects a college beings with finding out what makes your heart skip beats. Where does your passion lie? The last thing an over achiever wants to become an uninspired graduate and joining others in a work force who have no love for their studies or work. It is equally important to find a college that is both a good fit academically and offers challenges and opportunities.

Talking with teachers in your chosen field of study is helpful and so are working professionals in the field. To pursue art or music, it is important to recommendations for colleges from working artists or musicians. Their experiences can help select or eliminate choices.

More student friendly campuses welcome prospective students to visit, attend classes in their field of study, personally meet with professors, and stay overnight in a resident hall as the guest of another student.

Small private colleges have high academic and admission standards resulting in classmates who are equals in terms of academic caliber. The smaller class sizes offer personalization. Faculty members know the students individually. Students have a better chance to know each other. Additionally, they offer a wide range of opportunities to participate in extracurricular and other activities. Class sizes are smaller.

A small private college is a great place for an overachiever to flourish because it is possible to pursue new activities and interests, such as student politics, or theater, or sports. These activities can be added to a student regimen in addition to maintaining a full academic class load. These extra pursuits offer advantages that compliment classroom studies. As such, an over achiever can undertake a variety of new challenges which can be both invigorating and intimidating. A business major can participate in a theater class and production, thereby learning and enhancing public speaking skills. Gaining additional confidence in front of crowds and audiences is important to success after graduation in business.

Students can also maintain other skills and interests, such as playing a musical instrument, by participating in college orchestras. For example, a student may audition for and be successfully accepted into a college wind ensemble, which may also count for academic credit.

Although many state universities can offer competition in the form of numbers of students against whom to compete, the overachiever may find a small private college more satisfying.