<p>Do you want large classes or small class sizes? Do you need a sense of community, or do you want to be lost in the crowd? Do you prefer a school that politically leans left or right? If you don't know what you want to major in, ask the schools on your list when you have to choose a major and what would happen if you decide to change your major. Are there any programs that are important to you that you want to continue in college, like cultural clubs, or anything that interests you? Do you prefer lecture or discussion? </p>
<p>You've gotta be more specific in telling us what you're looking for. </p>
<p>You should take one free day and think seriously: Why do I want to go to college? What are my goals in college? What do I want to get out of college that I don't have yet? Do I want to go to college to get a degree, or do I want more, less tangible things? And what school environment will best suit what I want? These questions take time to answer. Make sure you're honest with yourself and you aren't distracted.</p>
<p>For example, my goals in college are to become well-educated, to learn the skills I need at work and for the rest of my life, to have great intellectual conversations with students and faculty before I graduate and go off to work, to have fun, and to learn more about what I want to do in my life. Ultimately my goal is to enhance the quality of my life. </p>
<p>From this, I thought, okay, what do I need to become well-educated in a broad range of subjects? I want a liberal arts education. I reasoned that a sense of community and an intellectually curious student body who want to stay up late talking about ethics over a cup of hot cocoa is vital to my happiness in college. To become well educated I want to have access to professors, tutors, and the library. I also want to study abroad for a term to learn more about the world. And so on. From these needs, I found a list of schools and I made a list of questions to ask students at these schools to find the schools that best match what I am looking for in a college experience. After I came up with my initial list of 10-30 colleges I had to think more about the specifics. All the schools in my initial list will help me fulfill my main goals. Now I have to think, When is the library open? How often do people party? What would happen if I decide to change my major? What specific extracurriculars do I want to continue or try in college? And so on. I group the colleges into schools I'm unlikely to get into, schools I have a good chance of getting into, and schools I am confident I will get into. I ask students from my colleges these questions, read guidebooks, look at school websites, look at viewbooks, I try to find out everything I can about all my colleges, and then I narrow down the colleges in each group so that I will have 2-3 schools in each group. I will apply to those schools, and I will have a great time at whatever final school I choose to go to, because it meets the major goals of my college education.</p>
<p>See how this is much more meaningful than saying, "I need to find a prestigious school with the best biology program?" as lots of people here seem to ask?</p>
<p>This will be your home for the next four years. You need to do a critical examination of you, who you are, what you want in life (you may not know yet, but it's good to think about it), what your idea of success is, and what you want out of college. Whom do you want to talk with for four years? Then figure out the qualities that will help meet your goals. </p>
<p>That is how people should go about their college searches. Too many people on CollegeConfidential and all over are doing their college application process incorrectly. And that's just too bad.</p>