It’s a big decision and there are many factors to take into account. Our Campus Navigator tool can help you pick schools according to your own criteria, and here are some suggestions of what to consider to help you get started on figuring out which university to go to.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Location

Are you ready to or can you afford to leave home? Do you want to stay close enough to home to visit every couple of weeks with your laundry, or do you want to spread your wings and move across the country? Are you prepared to deal with a brand new setting or do you want to stay within your comfort zone?

Consider the school's surroundings. Is it located in a city or in a small town? These factors can affect everything from part-time job prospects to socializing, to culture shock, if you're firmly a rural recluse or an urban hipster.

If you are looking at a school in a different city or town, consider travel costs and how often you want to visit home.

If you're planning to study abroad, there are many sites you can check out to help make your decision. For study-abroad programs offered through Canadian universities, click here. And here's some information about scholarships for studying abroad.

Class sizes and professors

Look at the average class sizes at the schools you are considering. Classes, especially during the first couple of years, tend to be large and impersonal, so if you want more face-time with your professors or teaching assistants, you may want to pick a smaller school. But keep in mind that smaller classes may not necessarily mean a better education; many renowned professors teach at larger schools.

Also research the faculty at the schools you want to attend. If you want cutting-edge researchers (who may or may not be the best teachers) look at the awards they have won or the research projects they run. See how many professors have tenure and how many tenured professors teach entry-level courses.

If you prefer excellent teachers and are not so concerned with being taught by celebrity profs, check out the teaching reputation of the school and even speak to current students if you can take a tour or see if there's an alumni forum or blogs or Facebook or MySpace pages by current or former students, or teachers.

Programs

Look at the programs offered. If you have an idea of what you want to study, see if the school has a strong program in that area. Clues to help you: famous alumni, as well as the variety and number of courses in your field.

Then look at the course outlines, which may be online or available from the department, and dig down into how the program is slanted. For instance, one school's psychology courses might be more focused on neurobiology, while another's might be more about social psychology.

The campus

Look at different campuses. Do you prefer a self-contained campus such as Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., or do you prefer a school spread out across a city's downtown core, such as McGill's campus in Montreal? You're going to be spending several years at university, so make sure the campus offers everything you need to feel comfortable.

If possible, take a tour of the campus. Most universities offer guided tours on a schedule or if you book ahead, or you could just show up and walk around and ask current students their candid opinions. If that's not possible, many universities offer virtual tours — you can start with the ones on our website.

What services does each campus have to offer? For instance, if you are worried you don't have good essay writing skills, it's more important to pick a university with good academic support centres than a big rec centre. Our student rankings, found on Campus Navigator, lets you search for universities based on how students rated the quality of various services.

If you're moving to a new place, it might be more important for you to attend a school with many student groups and where you can have your pick of extracurricular activities. If you come from a particular ethnic or religious group, you may want to find a campus with places for you to meet others from the same background.

If you have a disability, which campuses have the best resources to help you? Are these resources accessible? Search here for organizations for learners with disabilities.

You might be interested in the quality of food on campus.

Residence

Residences can be big dormitories or intimate townhouses. You can have single rooms or shared rooms. Some residences are downtown or close by, whereas others are farther away. Some are crowded, some less so. Some have a reputation for being rowdy, whereas others have a more studious reputation. These are things to think about in terms of what you prefer.

But there are also some practical considerations, like how much does the residence/meal plan cost, how easy is it to get into residence and are spaces guaranteed, how long can you live on campus, can you get out of your contract early if residence isn't working out for you, and if you can't get in, what's the off-campus housing situation like?

Our Campus Navigator can show you what current students think of their residences, but also contact the university to get information about the more practical aspects.

Sports and athletic facilities

If sports are very important to you, check out the school's reputation for sports, or where scholarships are offered in your best sport. Also, some universities have better athletic facilities than others. Click here for a Globe and Mail article on finding athletic scholarships in Canada.

Technology on campus

If you're more comfortable listening to a podcast than taking handwritten notes at a lecture, you might want to check out schools that are more tech-savvy than others. Search for that criterion on our Campus Navigator and check out our article on technology on campus, Teaching the iGeneration.

School spirit/atmosphere

School spirit is difficult to define. Part of it can be cheering for the campus teams, but it's more than just wearing the school colours; it's about creating a more positive learning environment through strong bonds. This can mean going to campus events — either political, educational or artistic — or running for a leadership position in a student group, or participating in a community service project, or just even participating in silly, fun events.

If school spirit is important to you, you can use our Campus Navigator to search for universities that got a high score on that.

As for atmosphere, check out whether the campus is a large commuter campus like York University in Toronto, Ont., where there's an interesting urban and multicultural mix of local students, but they tend to live at home so there isn't as much socializing after class time. Or, you may want a more intimate school like Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., which has small classes.

What's available outside of classes

The kinds of things you can do depends partly on whether you're going to school in a big city or a smaller place. For instance, in a larger city, you'll have access to more activities, venues, restaurants, theatres, concerts, exhibits, bars, associations and so on. But in a smaller place, you may get more of a chance to participate. For instance, if you're interested in theatre, a larger city might offer you more performances and big names, but in a smaller place, you may be more likely to get involved in a local production yourself. Check out alumni blogs or forums or social networking pages, and look at the city's tourism website, if there is one, to get a sense of what's available around town.

As for on-campus, a larger university may have more of choice of clubs and activities, from academic to athletic, or artistic, political or religious groups. But smaller universities often have unique clubs or events you can participate in, especially if the university has a strong focus in an area like agriculture or high tech.

Most universities' websites describe what's available, both on-campus and off. There are also many web pages by and about student groups.

Reputation

Depending on what you want to do with your degree, a school's reputation could help you during your job searches after graduation, or your graduate school applications, if you want to keep studying. Canada's best-known research-intensive universities have a very good reputation and will have great name recognition among employers; but there are many smaller and less renowned universities that have good reputations in different ways (like excellent undergraduate teaching and small, nurturing campuses) and in different programs (especially specialty programs, such as agriculture). These universities can also have good co-op and internship programs and result in high-quality jobs for graduates. So, while Canada's "Ivy League" schools' reputation can matter in some situations, like some professions such as law or business management, those schools are not necessarily your best choice, depending on what you want to get out of university and what you want to study.

To get a sense of reputation, especially if you know what career you want to get into, talk to:

• The related professional associations or licensing bodies
• Employers likely to hire graduates from the program you're considering
• Program graduates or upper-year students
• Instructors in the program you're considering
• Check out our Campus Navigator

TOOLS

The Association of Universities and Colleges Canada website has extensive profiles on each school in Canada, a summary of student services available on campus and a rundown of expected costs.

The Globe and Mail's Campus Navigator is a tool that can help you search for schools that fit your criteria, which can include size, programs offered, location and many others. You can also dig deeper and search on everything from class sizes and teaching quality, to quality of on-campus food and opportunities for off-campus fun, as rated in our annual survey of undergraduates.

Visit the Canadian government's CanLearn.ca website to get detailed profiles, requirements, application and admission information for programs of study at Canadian CEGEPs, colleges and universities.