<p>With the thousands of colleges to choose from, it can be hard to come up with a shortlist of schools to apply to. If you have rigid criteria that the place has to fullfill, narrowing it down might be fairly easy. If you don't, it can be extremely difficult to come up with a list of reasonable length. For most people, applying to 30 or so places is not an option. Somehow or other, that list has to be slashed... </p>
<p>What has your approach been to choosing your colleges? How have you gone about making your list?</p>
<p>I personally narrowed my list to 20 or so universities by focusing on overall academic excellence and more specifically, schools that were good in the subjects I considered majoring in. My parents and I then spent 4 weeks one summer visiting all 20+ campuses! I realize that most students don't have that luxury, but my parents figured that if they were going to spend a substantial sum on my undergraduate education, I might as well go to a school that appealed to me. After my visits, I narrowed my list to 11 schools that I liked the most. In retrospect, I should have applied to just 7 schools, but I was not as decisive back then as I am today.</p>
<p>Use CollegeBoard's Matchmaker as a starting point. Researching school's websites will help you figure out what you want in a college. Every college you come across (be it from college mail, the newspaper, a bumper sticker), RESEARCH it! I must have visited about a hundred college websites, which helped me eliminate colleges from my list and figure out 1) potential majors, 2) small differences that set certain schools apart, 3) what I wanted in a college.</p>
<p>I made [thread=201775]this post<a href="what%20seems%20like">/thread</a> a long, long time ago. You don't have to follow it to a T, but it may have helpful info.</p>
<p>I can tell you how our oldest daughter did it. Maybe it will help.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Start with size. If big time sports are important to you, strike LACs/small schools--you're really working with a pool of 70-100 schools which fulfill the big time sports requirement. Conversely, if knowing everyone in your class, or having no big lecture classes is important, strike most publics.</p></li>
<li><p>Next, go to location. You can eliminate vast numbers of schools if all you're interested in, for example, are schools in the East. Within that framework, also think about whether you want to be in a college town, a remote area, or in or near a big city. Again, this wipes out a lot of schools.</p></li>
<li><p>If you're interested in a particular area, find out where the area is offered (and, if offered, emphasized). My daughter wanted a school with a journalism program, which eliminated a large number of schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it important to you to be in a culturally/racially/religiously/economically diverse school, or would you rather be with a more homogenous student body? Available statistics will help you eliminate based on this criteria as well.</p></li>
<li><p>When, and only after you've done the first four, start looking at admission possibilities and department/prestige ratings. If you do those first, you might well apply to schools which aren't a fit because they're both "highly rated" or "match schools" or whatever. Make an intial list based on the first four (should be a managable number at that point), then tweak it based on likelihood of admission, prestige, how the website looks, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Pick 5-8 schools to visit (I know some people visit 30 and apply to 20, but I'm a big believer in the idea that if you've done your homework, you can get down to this number). Include at least one safety school that meets all your requirements, with the idea that if you like the visit, you can have a comfortable fallback position. </p></li>
<li><p>After the visits, apply to some or all of the visited schools. I don't think it will be all--visits weed out some possibilities.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For me, coming up with a college list wasn't too difficult. In fact, it was rather fun to see my options and start figuring things out :-P. I started first with location; because I knew I wanted to be in a certain part of the country, I was able to cross of a ton of schools. Also, I initially cut things down by including only small and medium sized schools on my list because I knew I didn't want to attend a large school. With these selections, I used some of the college list generators online (Princeton Review, Collegeboard, and Naviance) to come up with a basic list. </p>
<p>Following this, I looked at each of the schools the list generated more in-depth and cut down that way. For example, I got rid of all religiously affiliated schools and all schools that didn't have field hockey (however, in retrospect, unless you're 100% positive you're going to play a sport in college, don't include that in your requirements). Then I looked at the level of the schools and got rid of those that weren't as selective as I desired as well as those whose average SAT scores were several hundred points lower than mine and didn't have a different selling point.</p>
<p>Once I'd done all of that, I started coming up with a list of schools to visit. I'd say I probably ended up visiting around 20 schools out of the 28 or so that were on my list. Upon visiting, I was able to further narrow schools down based on the feelings I got from the school overall, the attitude of the students I met, the attitude of the admissions officers I spoke with, and the surroundings of the school.</p>
<p>Lastly, before coming up with my final list, I spoke with my GC and made sure that everything looked good from his perspective. He suggested a few more schools which I looked into and gave me feedback on how balanced my list was in terms of reaches, good fits, and likelies.</p>
<p>And that was my college search, more or less :-)</p>
<p>Well, I win....I started out totally differently! I was/am a big college admissions advice book junkie, and one of my favorites, Greenes' Guides: Making it into a Top College has a fairly comprehensive list of private and public schools that the authors (who I find to be credible) consider Demanding, Very Demanding, and Exceedingly Demanding, based on selectivity (it is not a ranking of schools. A school on one level is not necessarily "better" than a school on the next level...usually it justs has a lower acceptance rate). After reading through the book, I was able to determine that based on my stats, Exceedingly Demanding schools were my reaches/tough matches, Very Demanding schools were my matches/safe matches, and Demanding schools would be my safeties. </p>
<p>First, I eliminated the public schools, because they didn't have the feeling that I was looking for. Then, I took the list and went on collegeboard.com and wrote down where each school was located and eliminated all schools in the West and South. From there, I checked out a Fiske's Guide and began reading up, eliminating schools as I went along and getting it down to 14 schools--7 Universities and 7 LACs, covering the spectrum with 3 safeties, 6 or 7 matches, and 4 or 5 reaches. I eliminated schools on feeling, but I did have criteria: big sports scene was a turn-off, conservative campus was a turn-off, greek life was a HUGE turn-off. I stuck to almost entirely small to medium sized schools. Then, spring break of my junior year, my father and I made the East Coast pilgrimage and visited 10 schools. Based off this trip, I eliminated 3 of the schools right away, and 2 later upon further reflection. Later, I visited 3 other schools and eliminated one, as well as added another school. And that's how I did it!</p>
<p>PS: I applied to 9 schools total, in case you were having trouble keeping track :).</p>
<p>The very first decision I made when making my college list was deciding what acdemic quality of schools I wanted to apply to. If you have a specific program you'd like to major in, research to find out what schools offer it or have particular strengths in that area. Size is also a good way to choose, but for me, location was more important. An important choice to make is distinguishing between in-state and out-of-state schools. Location is often one of the very first factors for many people as their parents don't want them to go out of state or to an entirely different coast. Then you can start getting more intimate with each school...look at their websites, figure out what the philosophy and feel of each school is. Ask around to see if you can talk to any alumni, ask for information packets from the school, etc.</p>
<p>I posted this advice for someone else recently as far as narrowing down their college list:
I think as you start to do applications, you'll figure out what you really like. Schools were naturally eliminated based on my motivation level to fill out their app...not because I was lazy, but because as you start to fill out the application you ask yourself why you're applying there and if it's even worth the effort to apply. I cut down my list from about 14 or so schools to 9 schools this way because I just began to realize what I wanted as I was going through the process of filling out apps.</p>
<p>Match up all the schools with one another in your mind and ask which one would come out on top. Is there one that consistently loses? As far as my elimination process, I realized that I would take my safety school over many other choices on my list. Visit if you can as well! That helps you realize what your tastes/preferences are.</p>
<p>Chose the 6 best schools academically that were none-tech oriented, and that I had match stats for (ended up being mostly Ivy-tier schools). Plus Lehigh because I live an hour away from it and its a fun school as well.</p>
<p>For me, the two big things were academic quality and the "feel" of the school. I used sites like campusdirt and c o l l e g e p r o w l e r to find campuses that I'd feel comfortable in. </p>
<p>Once I had complied a long list of options, I played teacher and made a rubric. I came up with a list of qualities I wanted in a school. Then, for each school on my list, I gave points on 1-10 scale for each desired quality. Those schools that didn't score high on the rubric were eliminated.</p>
<p>I've gotten criticized for my picks on here, so offering insight into my methodology might help out.</p>
<ol>
<li>Sought out the schools with the best academics in my areas of interest</li>
<li>Sought out schools with the proper "feel"
I then listed the pros and cons of each school and attempted to order them.
At this point, you'll have a reach-heavy list. Compile a list of safeties based on the same categories you used earlier along with</li>
<li>Admissions</li>
<li>Finances</li>
</ol>
<p>Ehh I took a more unorthodox approach. I just visited schools one summer while my family drove down to Charleston on vacation (UNC, Duke, UNCW, Charleston) then I visited Wake (because it was near the other schools and I could not see myself at Carolina, Duke, Wilmington, or CoC) and knew I wanted to go. Afterwards I visited some other schools just in case I didn't get into Wake.</p>
<p>DS's methodology -- keep in mind he is intensely focused on what he wants to do. YMMV!</p>
<p>1) Strength of intended major(s). Every school on his list gets him where he wants to be -- but in some schools it's through one major, others it's a different one, in others it's a double major.
2) Quirky/intellectual vibe. Likes being in a "hothouse" of sorts with folks who share his bent.
3) Ability to be stretched for four years. This ruled out some schools that were on the early list that DS thought might be a good fit, and led him to some larger schools than he originally considered.
4) Strong humanities/social sciences. He wants substantial humanities courses in addition to his intended major(s).
5) Opportunity for merit money at some of the schools. Not pie-in-the-sky scholarships, but something to reduce the retail price.
6) Personal relationships with professors, cooperative learning environment, flexible course placement.</p>
<p>Things that did not factor in:
1) Prestige. There are a couple of big names on his list, but due to their offerings, not the marquee value. The one Ivy on his list right now is there because he liked the school on its own terms (and it's not the school where he's a legacy).
2) Geography. He is applying all over the country -- both coasts and in-between.
3) Size -- which was originally a factor. This changed as he looked at probable course placement and depth of program. His list runs from schools of 750 kids to 40,000.</p>
<p>He has visited all eight schools on his list, and has sat in on classes at all but two (which he'll do in the fall). Has also talked to profs/advisors at nearly all the schools. Through his ECs, he has developed an amazing network of contacts -- students and profs -- who have offered much advice and useful input. </p>
<p>He says he would be happy at any of the schools on his list. He did not want to rank his list or assess their reach/match/safety status for his GC, because that's not what's driving him (though for those who will question this, yes, he has a nice spread). </p>
<p>His stats and ECs will ensure he gets a thorough read anywhere he applies, which is as much as anyone can hope for. We are lucky that our in-state flagship offers generous merit aid, is very flexible about course placement and actively seeks out top students for one-on-one research opportunities. It sets a high bar for the other schools to match, and it's nice to have such a good place as the benchmark. DS says, "There is no bad decision here." It is making this process a lot more enjoyable!</p>
<ol>
<li>I knew the thing I wanted to major in the most was only offered at a handful of schools, so I added two similar majors and had a list of about 100 then</li>
<li>I then took off all of the schools that werent in the northeast or upper midwest (I knew I wanted a big city that wasnt too far away, was liberal and had cold weather)</li>
<li>Then out of maybe 40 or so schools I picked the ones in what I thought were the best locations, the ones that were cheap, the ones where I thought I could get some really good merit aid, the programs I liked, and the ones that were most "prestigious"</li>
<li>so then out of a list of around 20 I just took off ones slowly (took off some that would be too expensive, some that were too hard to get into, some whose application was too hard lol) until I got down to 9... I only toured 2 of them before applying, but was pretty sure I'd be happy at most of them..</li>
</ol>
<p>for me, i looked for colleges that fit me. i knew what i wanted: good school spirit with good sports scene, great social scene, top-notch academics, known prestige, and great campus. honestly, i didnt have a concrete set of preferences and looked at a bunch of schools but in the end, my initial preferences brought me to a list of NU, Duke, Penn, UIUC, USC, Michigan, Indiana, and Cornell. Cornell was only one that didnt really fit but I really liked an academic program they offered (ILR) so the lack of sports scene, campus rural location, and lesser social scene didnt hinder my selection. really, you first have to figure out who are, then go on a college search. I often see people choose colleges way too early and finding out what they really wanted too late. realize that the next four years are made up of a lot more than academics.</p>
<p>I looked at location first. Schools that were less than 15 minutes from the beach. Also weather. Schools that had temperatures around 65-80 year round. And then I eliminated all schools that weren't division 1. So basically I was left with UMiami, UCSB, LMU, USD, Pepperdine, and SDSU. But then I decided I would also like to add a Big 10 school, so I added Indiana University, because it met all requirements except location.</p>
<p>I'd just like to add: Be flexible. Be open to new schools (and majors!), and don't be afraid to add/eliminate schools to your list. Your list will probably change many times; I know I must have made at least 30 college lists (usually about 10 or 15 schools on each). I applied to ONE of the schools that was on my first list. Looking at my list from the end of my junior year, I only ended up applying to 3 of the 10 schools on the list; my first choice on that list ended up as my #3 choice. All of this to say, be flexible.</p>