Was it a gut feeling? Did the college simply have everything you wanted? How did you know?
My kids knew after accepted student visits. 24 hours on campus when the college is trying to put their best foot forward (and not always succeeding!) was critical for my kids. Finding the right school takes a lot of research and elbow grease – and then the best plan is to apply to a range of schools you would be willing to attend and think are in your financial ballpark, then give them a closer look after acceptance.
This probably won’t help: I didn’t know until I was on campus freshman year, which was the second time I’d been on campus (after my accepted student visit–I decided to attend a school I had never been to). Sometimes you don’t/can’t know before you get there, but you can just know yourself as best you can and hope that marketing materials/what’s online is somewhat accurate. Forums like this are helpful nowadays because you can find former students usually who can talk about nebulous things like school vibe, etc.
Personally, I lead with academic fit + general personality/location fit and assumed/hoped the rest would fall in place. They had exactly the academic program I wanted (ranked & reputable vocation-based journalism school) + Boston (big city) + large school with varied course offerings (I wanted the ability to blend in and do lots of things) + no sport, Greek or religious culture on campus. I was able to figure out all of this through admissions materials/the website, plus I went on recommendations of people I knew (“You’ll love Boston!”). And then they offered me the most money and voila!
If you’d asked me at 17 in April of my senior year what my “gut” was telling me, it would have said NYU. I didn’t get in (in hindsight, a blessing), but years later came to discover that I actually don’t like New York! I hated living there the summer I had an internship in the city. Just wasn’t for me. So my gut was totally wrong, and logic (+ actual admission) took me to the right school for me.
Have you already selected what schools you’re going to apply to?
I don’t think there is a single “right college” for most people. Fit is something we stress on CC, but many students can bloom at a number of colleges. Fixating on a particular college can lead to heartbreak if one is rejected or it turns out to be unaffordable.
I turned down my top choice in high school (Chicago) because it was unaffordable and attended a college that was in many ways a polar opposite at the time. I wound up loving it and did rather well there. Over the years, I’ve come across many colleges that I might’ve loved to have attended, some of which I hadn’t even heard of when I was in high school.
It was the first school I ever visited (Bucknell). I have been on maybe 40 different college campuses and taken a lot of tours, but nothing has come close to how much I loved Bucknell. I’ve visited many of the Ivies and a lot of other highly rated schools, but I just knew that I had to go to Bucknell. Hope I get in :-S
@samf01 I had the same feeling when I first visited too. It was my second school that I visited. I assumed it was just the perfect fit, but it was more the aesthetically pleasing campus. I feel that people have a hard time distinguishing between astonishment due to campus beauty and true feeling of being at home.
I think it is hard to know if you have picked the “right” school until you are at least well into your college years – and sometimes you don’t really know until years after you graduate. That fuzzy great feeling you get on campus doesn’t necessarily make it the best choice for you.
I ̶i̶n̶s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ encouraged my student to schedule a full day at the three schools that offered the most merit aid. One was the dream school. After full day visits spent attending several classes at each school, interacting with professors and students, the dream school faded and the unexpected safety program rose to the top, a surprise to all of us. And it is a good fit.
@ttran9621 I’m debating between brandeis and tufts