How to Choose/Search the Best Schools near me?

With the school admission 2022-23 season approaching and with the current situation of pandemic, it becomes difficult for the parents to decide on which all criteria’s they should shortlist a school and apply for their child’s admission. Also, with this a big question arises in their mind whether the schools they select should be in the vicinity or not?

When it comes to choosing a school for your child, most experts, and in fact parents also, suggest going in for a neighborhood school or a school close to your house.

Choose a School for Your Child: 5 Things to Remember

(a). Time Availability: With less travelling, a child gets more available time for other important things like self-development, co-curricular activities, self-study, more time to rest and enhance productivity and many more on the list.

(b) Travel Exertion: With stressful traffic conditions, travelling via bus can be a cumbersome task for a child, a nearby school can help tremendously in this situation and reduce the travel exhaustion which means the child can now channelize its potential more towards achieving success, overall development and wellbeing.

(c) Convenient to parents: Since the school is within a short distance, this makes it convenient for the parents to manage their child during any emergency situation or requirements.

(d) Better Access to Academic Support: Having a school in the vicinity enables a child to reap the benefits of extra classes, consultation with teachers and seeking their help post school hours. This becomes a challenge when travelling a longer distance.

(e) More Access to Extracurricular activities: Many schools have formats where students can stay back post school hours for the preparation of school level tournaments, contests and competitions.
It becomes easier for a student to avail these facilities if school is nearby or at a walking distance.

Locate a desirable nearby school at UniApply:

Locating a school in your vicinity and comparing with other schools can be as simple as visiting the UniApply Website and navigate to ‘Locate me’ on the left of the home page and set your current or desired location. You can then set the desirable distance around which you wish to compare the schools as shown in the figure.

Criteria to search the best schools around you.

With schools being a deciding factor for a child’s career, it becomes imperative for the parents to do all the due diligence before they even apply for the schools.

Some of the major criteria’s trending to search the best schools around the vicinity are:

1) Academic Profile of the School: This is the most important criteria where details corresponding to the academic program, philosophy of school’s education and the degree to which a school aligns itself to the standard of education defined by the concerned authorities should be assessed and compared to its competitors.

To compare the same on the UniApply website click on the desired school from the list of preferred locations which you had priory selected. Then various factors can be compared from the list of comprehensive parameters available on the left side of the respective school’s page as shown. Overview of the school can be checked through parameters like ‘Key School Stats’, ‘Academic Stats’, ‘Fee Structure’ and so on.

2) School Infrastructure and Facilities: A sound infrastructure plays an important role in overall education. Facilities like laboratories, computer centers, technology, playgrounds, classrooms, number of students per class etc. are the most important factors to determine the quality of education in a school. Hence should top the priority list.

The same can be analyzed on UniApply by simply clicking on the ‘Facilities’ option of the same menu.

3) Faculties: The quality of teaching depends on the teachers and their credibility to teach the students decides the performance of a student. Hence assessment around the same is a must do for any parent before they consider a school.

Faculty details like “Student Faculty Ratio” and “Total Faculty” can be compared on the UniApply by clicking the ‘Academic Stats’ option from the left menu of the respective school’s page.

4) Schools Achievement: The track record of the school reveals a lot about their standard and credibility when compared to their competitors. The feedback of their current students and alumni can reveal a lot about the school. Nowadays social media and educational sites have become a large source of information to select and compare these schools.

The same can be compared by clicking the ‘Hall of Fame’ option on the respective school’s page of UniApply.

5) Environmental Factors: Environmental factors like quality of safety and security for a student is equally important to make sure that a child studies in a healthy culture free of bullying, discrimination, and harassment.

To understand more about the school, parents can explore more options at UniApply school’s page like ‘Key School Stats’ and ‘Gallery’ where they can explore the images and videos on school and kind of activities happening which would give them more idea about the school’s environment.

6) Quality of students: Quality of peer groups plays a maximum role in influencing a child’s overall growth. A high-quality peer group ensures a high quality of competition and learning.

Compare With Others schools

Comparing the shortlisted schools was never made so easy as it has been on UniApply.

To compare the favorite schools, click on the ‘Compare Schools’ tab on the main page of UniApply. The top schools which have been shortlisted can be selected from the option and compared on all the above-mentioned criteria to take an informed decision.

This can be done in 3 simple steps:

1. Click on the Compare Schools option.

2. Select the desired or shortlisted schools

3. Compare your desired/shortlisted schools on all the above-mentioned criteria’s.

Travel time & safety – A Major Concern for Parents

Safety and security of a child is of utmost importance to any parents. With schools being in the neighborhood, not only does the time taken to commute is taken care of but this also helps the parents to manage the safety of their child due to shorter distance and approachability.

Nearby school – A big convenience to working parents

It becomes a challenge for the parents when it comes to a trade-off between selecting quality over distance. Nothing can be better if both these parameters exist together. It becomes far easier, especially for the working parents to manage their child’s schooling when the school is in the vicinity.

Must Read: Importance of Formal Education for a Child

This can be understood in the following ways:

• Parents’ frequency of visiting the school drastically increases when it is nearby even when they are working.
• The peer group of the children who are in the same school also becomes very approachable for the parents when the school is nearby which can further help when the child is unable to attend the school due to any reason.
• Balancing the responsibilities becomes easier for the working parents when the school is nearby as the safety and security concerns of the parents can also be kept in check.
• It becomes easier for the parents to check on the child’s academic progress through frequent direct consultation with their teachers when the schools are nearby.

All of these reasons put together are responsible for the parents choosing a nearby school which is also high in value when it comes to overall academic parameters.