Now that I know where I’ll be headed come fall, I figured I might as well pass on some of the wisdom I’ve gained throughout this process.
(Skip down towards the bottom to read a summary of advice if you don’t want to read the other stuff.)
Background
I started researching colleges early on during freshman year and over the course of my four years in high school I changed my college list many times. I finalized it this past summer, including both top schools and safeties. I had decided on applying ED to Northwestern, EA to UVA, and regular to Georgetown, William and Mary, Ohio University, and the University of Alabama. And maybe also University of Missouri. Journalism major to those that offered it, political science to the others. Good list of reaches and safeties.
My stats: 3.78 GPA, 29 ACT, well-rounded ECs, great letters of rec, great essays. In short, I wasn’t in the 1% of applicants, but I was above average (in general).
What I Learned/My Decision
Around August or so, I thought hard about my choices, and decided that I really didn’t want to waste a lot of money applying to so many different schools. Additionally, I considered the fact that some of the schools on my list wouldn’t be very affordable; earlier in high school, I had been somewhat naive about the cost of college, but I began to realize that my parents wouldn’t be able to afford Northwestern or Georgetown, even with financial aid (unless it was very good aid, which was doubtful).
After prioritizing, I also came to the conclusion that while I really did love the top schools on my list, I could be just as happy at other schools that weren’t ranked as highly; namely, Alabama and Mizzou. True, they weren’t top 25 schools, but I liked them. And more importantly, they WERE top schools – in journalism, that is. I took the blinders off and realized that the ranking of the department is more important than the ranking of the school as a whole. Yes, Northwestern, with its prestigious name, offers great opportunities. But Missouri has just as good of a journalism department as NU.
So I ultimately ended up only applying to Mizzou and Alabama. I visited both, and didn’t like Alabama as much as I thought I would. So that left me with Mizzou, which I fell in love with upon visiting. In comparison to Northwestern, I honestly feel like Mizzou has even more opportunities for me than NU. I think while Northwestern is a great school, Mizzou is the better fit for me for a lot of other reasons aside from financial aspects.
Moral of the Story
To sum up the above, these are the major things I’ve learned through the curse of the admissions process:
- [] Do NOT forget about financial stuff. I always saw threads advising students to avoid crippling debt, but always shrugged it off as something that happened to other people. I don’t know why I thought I would be immune. I’m usually pretty realistic but I guess it seemed so distant at the time that it didn’t seem like something that would be an issue. Nonetheless, I’m glad I realized that I wouldn’t be able to afford certain schools on my own instead of getting into a top school and then not being able to go because I couldn’t afford it (or worse, going and ending up in $100k debt).
[li] Realize that your priorities and expectations may shift over the years and that’s perfectly fine. I, for one, am glad mine did. If you had told me freshman year I’d end up at a state flagship, I think I would be kinda disappointed I didn’t end up at a “top” school. But like other freshmen, I was enamored with rankings. Now I’d like to think I’ve matured a little and have my priorities straight.[/li][] That said, there’s of course nothing wrong with going to a top school. Let’s make that clear–this isn’t a post to say how going to a not-as-good school is better than choosing a top school or that people who choose to pursue applying to top-ranked schools aren’t being smart. Someone has to go to the Ivies, and if that’s what you want, terrific! Just be sure that wherever you apply to, you are doing so for the right reasons.
[]And just like there’s nothing wrong with going to top schools, there’s nothing wrong with going to a school that’s not as ranked highly (as my post illustrates). Mizzou is ranked 99th for national universities (USNWR), but it’s often considered #1 (or some close number) for their journalism program. In short, if you’re going to judge a school based on its ranking, use its department ranking for your prospective major.
[li]**Whatever you do, attend a college that YOU like/b. Attend a college for your reasons; don’t let anything cloud your judgement. I think some students feel pressured to apply top schools because they think their peers will look down on them for going somewhere that’s not “elite.” But don’t let others’ thoughts about a school influence you. Go where you feel comfortable.[/li][]Also, if you end up at a more mediocre school out of necessity rather than choice, that’s okay. You aren’t a failure for not attending a top school, nor are you doomed to have a terrible experience because it wasn’t your first choice. I know a few people who ended up at their state flagships instead of Ivies, and while at first they were indifferent about it, they now LOVE their college. Do your best to make it as great of an experience as possible; applying to the school’s honors college, for example, can help make it a more personal, rigorous experience.
That’s about it. I can go more in-depth if anyone wants but I just wanted to hopefully help out others with some things. This is by no means a comprehensive guide for applying to college (I left out the little things, like “don’t procrastinate” and whatnot), but some wisdom I’ve gained over the past 9ish months. Hope it helps!
-CE