<p>Before the whole college application process started, I told myself that I wouldn't choose a college over another for any single person. But after going to admitted students programs, I'm starting to lean towards one school because of the really cool pre-frosh and current students that I met.</p>
<p>Should this be a factor in deciding what college I go to? I feel like such a small sample size isn't an accurate representation of the college, and yet it's hard to commit to either school and possibly never see the people I met at the other college.</p>
<p>Definitely! That’s fit, right? It means that you are very comfortable with your environment, and you can visualize yourself making friends with the people. If many people earned your approval there, then that’s your fit, and go ahead, choose it. </p>
<p>However, if you’re picking a certain college over another based on ONE person’s amazing personality (as in, you thought one person on campus was totally awesome and the rest were regular/normal) , then that’s not very helpful – Try to gauge more from each of your choices. </p>
<p>I LOVED my choice where I’m heading in the fall, Tufts, because of the students’ friendly and warm vibes and the VERY friendly admissions committee (hey, their blogs made you feel respected and approved) and chose it over WashU and Johns Hopkins because of simply that. Personal experience with this.</p>
<p>Of course you should. SugaLover is right - if you meet/see lots of people you envision yourself making friends with, then you’re zeroing in on one important aspect of ‘fit.’ It also means that you don’t let yourself get turned off by the first group of people you socialize with if they aren’t a fit - it means you try to gather more data points by looking for other groups. </p>
<p>Of course, this is only one aspect of ‘fit’ so you need to collect data on the other aspects as well. If it helps, make a list of whats important to you, and then rate each school on how they stack up on each dimension, including the intangibles like ‘clicking’ with the people you’ve met on campus thus far. It’s not that the ‘highest score wins’ but rather its a technique for figuring out if you really have zeroed in on what matters to you.</p>