What Makes A College A “Surf College”?
This is by no means a comprehensive list. These are basically schools that are either geographically situated near great surf, have healthy surf scenes, and/or have surf clubs or teams. There are scores of schools with surf organizations on campus—we could have added two dozen more schools in California alone—so do your research, go online, and visit campuses.

College Surfing - Make Your Passion Your Career

What To Consider When Choosing A School

1. Academics
Every college offers a bachelor’s degree in political science, but when you dig deeper, you’ll realize that schools have specialties, and their marquee programs get the best funding and attract dynamic professors who will open your mind to your potential. You don’t go to a steak house and order a salad, so do your research and you’ll get way more out of your college education.

2. Surf Quality
College is full of two things: poverty and commitment. You’re poor because you have no real job and you’re being charged between five- and 35-thousand dollars in tuition each year, and you’re committed to classes, study groups, seminars, internships, etc. Long story short: you aren’t gonna be taking surf trips, so if surfing is a priority for you, choose a school near some decent waves.

3. Life Experience
Are you going to college to make Mom and Dad happy, or are you looking for new experiences? You can get a good education in California or Maine, so unless you need the diploma to say “Harvard” on it, remember, New Jersey has good surf, too, you just need to get a six-millimeter, hooded fullsuit for winter.

4. Costs
College is something most only do once, so if you get into a great school that charges an arm and a leg for tuition, don’t panic. Almost everyone gets some sort of federal, state, or private assistance in paying for college these days. Case-in-point; TransWorld SURF’s Online Editor Justin Cote’ basically got paid to go to college because he was broke-ass.

5. Partying
First of all, every school is a party school. Yeah, some have wilder reputations than others, but realize that degrees from “party schools” are taken less seriously in the real world. Understand that later in life, if you’re competing for a job against someone you’re evenly matched with and the recruiter sees that he graduated from Princeton and you hold a degree from Beer Bong U, he’s getting the nod