I’m currently using Collegeboard’s Big Future to find specific colleges. Even after I put all of my criteria in (selectivity, type, location, financial aid, diversity, etc), my results are at ~100 schools. How do I begin to narrow them down even further? I would research them, but that’s just a lot of schools to look at. What do you think the best snapshot of a school is? Quick, bulleted summaries, video tours, student POV, etc? Thank you!!
As you seem to have basic details and a longlist, I strongly encourage you to get a guide book such as Fiske. You probably now want to start narrowing down by fit, and using a guide book is the best way to do that. You simply get a lot more detail about colleges when you can look at a book. Borrow from the library, or ask to sit in the counselor’s office after school and look at theirs if you can’t afford to buy one. A lot of people also use Princeton Review’s book too.
To quickly eliminate a bunch, if it matters to you, go by region. Can’t bear to be cold? Off the list. Can’t stand humidity? Off the list. That can help a lot. Also, bear in mind that it is often a little (or a lot) easier to get into colleges that are not in CA or the North East. So if you are thinking of studying an impacted major, that might help you.
Fiske guide or Princeton Review guide for a quick overview of a school.
Rugg’s Recommendations or department websites if you know your major, to see if your intended program is strong.
College Scorecard to see if you’re likely to afford a school and to check graduation rate.
Visit a few places and decide if you like big/small, rural/urban, etc. Cull the ones in the wrong type of setting,
Prefer closer to home over far away all other things being equal. Air travel adds to costs and isn’t much fun lately.
Out of state publics can be private school prices for a public school experience (unless it’s a merit aid school) so be picky about which you leave on your list.
Visit admissions websites and sign up for emails and junk mail. You will be notified if there is a representative in your area. Attend presentations and college fairs.
Look affordability first. Run the NPC at a few of the colleges to get an idea of what college will cost you and see what scholarships/financial aid is available.
My post got yanked for posting a link, so you’ll have to search it for yourself. Look up DIY College Rankings. It’s $42 and the best money you’ll ever spend. You can easily rank and sort anything that IPEDS tracks. So, let’s say you want all schools that offer mechanical engineering, with less than 10,000 students, with a 5 year graduation rate of 70% or better! a first year retention rate of 90% or better! less than 10% part time students, and more than 50 engineering classes offered, sorted from least expensive to most for out of state tuition, you can do it, along with any other sort you can think of. It is a very powerful tool.
Did you put the major you want in there? That usually helps.
Does anyone know when the college search feature is coming back to this site? I wish they would have left the old one up while they developed the new one, that is what I used to use to do some quick searches.
A few ideas:
–Talk to your parents about any limitations they may have on your college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else) and take out any schools that don’t meet those criteria. You can run the net price calculator to get an idea of aid for each school.
–Be sure whatever list you come up with has a good mix of reach, match and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend.
–Agree with getting your hands on some good guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review). These can often be found in the guidance office or in a library. You can also look on the websites of these schools.
–Be sure every college on your list has your academic interest. Think about any other criteria you want or don’t want in a college and eliminate some schools – it can be anything from Greek Life, religious school, big time sports etc. Consider what size colleges you like (large, mid-size, LAC), what locations you like (not just geographic but also rural, suburban, urban), weather, available ECs – really anything you care about. If you can visit a couple of schools representative of these different types it may help you to get a sense of what you like.
Two quick screens that can narrow down the list:
Check for the availability of a good department for your intended or possible major(s).
Check the net price calculator.
Agree 100%.
Try to go visit schools before they let out for summer in your area of various types (large, LAC, in a city, rural area, etc) to get more of a sense of what it it like to attend. They don’t have to be schools you’re planning on applying to, you’re just looking for more of the general feel.
Then, informed by what you discover and by the considerations above, build some factors to help make the list smaller.
But I think there’s also a message in what you are finding. With several thousand colleges in the country, even after you do some filtering you are still left with lots of choices. And that is the message. People tend to assume they can narrow things down to a handful of “best” choices with one or two at the top of that small list and perhaps one they’ll “fall in love with”. But maybe this isn’t realistic. There are, for most kids, dozens if not 100+ schools that as far as anyone can tell in advance are equivalents in terms of the opportunities and education they provide. After that chance plays a role; did you take a class from a prof that inspired you to choose that major, make a friend that gave you a lead on an internship that led to your 1st job out of college, end up in a dorm bull session that completely changed your outlook on something?
Thank you so much for your help everyone!! I will keep all of these tips in mind. Any other tips would be appreciated. 
Also, does anyone have input on what size schools are best? I go to a school with 1000 kids per class, but I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s just whatever, I guess. Do you guys think smaller schools are better, or bigger ones? Thanks!
Small versus large school is a personal choice thing. Some people find big campuses exciting, others find them overwhelming. Some want big football and other large campus events, others don’t care. Thinking about budgets, a large, in-state university is the low cost option for many kids.
Small schools can be more personal, but not necessarily. If you’re looking for personal advising, ask the kids on campus how well the school does that.
No school can be good at everything, so look at several departments you may be interested in and see what the facilities and class offerings are like. If you change your mind about your major, will you have to change schools or will you be able to just change which classes you register for? For many large schools, majors can be full and changing into them later may be difficult or impossible.
First talk to your parents about how much THEY will pay each year for college
Have them run the NPC on the websites of a few schools…your flagship, a couple of privates, a couple of OOS publics.
Don’t run the NPC on Ivys or Stanford because they give super aid and might mislead your family into thinking other schools give aid like that.
You can only borrow $5500, so keep that in mind.
Here are some fit variables you can use to narrow down your list, some of which have already been mentioned:
- Academic calendar: semesters vs. trimesters/quarters
- Curriculum: Open, regular distribution requirements, or heavy requirements/core?
-Surroundings: Rural/small town, suburban/small city, or urban/big city?
- Weather: Midwest/New England/Mountains four seasons, Southern heat & humidity with mild winters, the precipitation of the Pac NW, or the California season?
- Majors and courses available
- Class size
- Research and internship availability
- Ease of getting into the majors you like
- Location (by region, state, etc.)
- Campus beauty, size, and convenience
- Things to do on and off campus (social vibe)
- Sports scene
- Cost (run NPC for approximate COA)
- Dorms and food