How do you choose among several good options?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I am barely 18 and I am faced with the May 1 deadline to choose a college that will affect the rest of my life, albeit in a good way.</p>

<p>Now I have four good choices. All give free tuition scholarship, so with the financial issue out of the way, my parents don't want to impose their views. They just explained to me where each of the choices may eventually lead to. Fortunately, no matter which choice I make, I am likely to succeed. Btw, the USNWR rankings are not of much help because when I consider the various important factors together, even a lower ranked school in my list is as good as a higher ranked one.</p>

<p>I want to ask experienced adults/parents on this board this general question: In your life, how do you usually decide among competing options? For example, does flipping a coin work well? :)<br>
My hope is that I can apply your general method to resolve my particular dilemma. But if I can't decide in the next couple of weeks, I will be taking Yogi Berra's excellent advice
** If you come to a fork in the road, take it. **</p>

2

<p>First, pretty much everything you do and decide, and a lot of random uncontrolled events, will have an effect on your life. Picking a college is just one of those forks in the road. Don't worry this decision to death.</p>

<p>I am the analytical type. I collect data and analyze. I would recommend thorough college visits. Talk to students and faculty. Ask questions. Learn as much as you can.</p>

<p>..and then go with your instincts..</p>

3

<p>If you are down to two schools and absolutely can't figure out a preference, flipping a coin is a great thing to do as an exercise. Flip the coin and pay close attention to how you feel the moment you see the result. Is it a little internal jump for joy or a momentary feeling of disappointment? Your body's initial reaction will tell you what your subconscious actually prefers.</p>

4

<p>I'm a data hound. Put everything down, that you care about, on a spread sheet and stare at it a lot. Put something down for the subjective stuff too. For example, rank the appearances of the campuses. In the end a nice trick is to flip a coin and see if the result feels good. If it doen't feel good, try flipping again.
WOW cross post w/ etselec, I'm not alone!</p>

5

<p>First, make a list of the qualities that are important to you, for each school. They can be anything -- from academics to the size of the dorm rooms to the average rainfall in January -- just as long as it is something that matters to you in making the choice. Create an arbitrary scoring system reflecting whether college is strong / weak / or middling with respect to that category. </p>

<p>Make a chart showing those qualities -- on the left side of the page, list the qualities in order of importance. Across the top, list each school. </p>

<p>Doing that may make some of the difference stand out more. </p>

<hr>

<p>Also, now is the time to get the course catalog from each school and start reading more in depth, familiarizing yourself with school requirements, majors offered, required courses within each major, imagining what your first year schedule might look like. </p>

<p>Also, look into the housing options, student activities, and other parts of campus life. Check out the transportation options to/from the college -- how will you get there? how long will a trip to/from the campus take and what will it cost each time? Study some maps and figure out what else is nearby your college -- where might you expect to go with your friends on a day trip on a weekend? </p>

<p>Again, the deeper you look, the more differences may emerge.</p>

<hr>

<p>In the end, however, it may end up being mostly an emotional choice - and one good way is to use a coin flip, and pay attention to how you feel if the school loses. For example -- for each school in turn you can decide that if it comes up tails, the school will be eliminated from the list. If you flip the coin, and it comes up tails... and it makes you feel upset or sad -- so that you think that want to try again -- you know to keep that school. If, on the other hand, you feel relieved -- or ticked off that the coin keeps coming up heads... you know that you really don't like the school.</p>

<hr>

<p>You might also get some meaningful help on these boards if you name the schools. </p>

<hr>

<p>Finally-- as you already know, you have 4 good choices, and the outcome of any choice is likely to be equally good. So if it comes down to a coin toss or simply an arbitrary choice based on a trivial reason in the end -- that's fine too. So don't stress out too much. You can sleep on things for awhile, and things might just tend to sort themselves out more as the month wears on.</p>

6

<p>Hmm, it appears that we all use the same coin-toss philosophy.</p>

7

<p>Agree with etselec. </p>

<p>Carolyn recommended this method for my son when he couldn't decide between his top two picks. My husband, son and I all thought College B was the better fit, but when my son did the coin toss, College A clearly was the winner.</p>

<p>My son is finishing up his freshman year and he couldn't be happier.</p>

8

<p>Here's last year's thread on this topic: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=178089%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=178089&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>Did you do overnight visits? What was your gut feeling? Don't ignore that when you get to this point. I've learned over the years - sometimes the hard way - that that little voice in the back of your head, or that strange nagging feeling that you sometimes get, is what to listen to, if you have a choice that's tough to make.</p>

<p>Stop looking at stats and websites, close your eyes and try to remember how you felt on each campus. Picture yourself there. What seems right?</p>

<p>I know this sounds a bit crunchy-granola-ish, but listening to your inner voice is just as important a skill to develop as intellectual skills.</p>

10

<p>Moonmaid is right. Just make sure it's an informed inner voice.</p>

11

<p>When all else fails, go with your gut. Say to yourself" I'm going to go to......, "and see which college makes you feel happier inside. Then pick that college.</p>

12

<p>I'm a "go with your gut" kinda girl myself. Is there one of your choices that makes you feel better just thinking about going there? (All other things being equal.)</p>

<p>Good luck in your decision.</p>

13

<p>the spreadsheet is the best!
somewhere in the wide net is a rate-your-professor site. look at ratings of teachers in your areas of interest. look at their educational background and current work if that applies. eat at the cafeteria. contact kids on facebook.
Do one on financials first. Be sure the aid is similar. Some schools pretty much promise to keep your need based aid around the same even if income goes up a bit -or goes down a bit too. Be sure if it's merit aid it's not linked to a high GPA that most kids can't do.
take notes and fill in all the blanks on the spreadsheet. At best it will help you decide. At worst it will keep you busy til the end of April and the big coin toss.</p>

14

<p>I picked up the coin-toss idea from someone on the forum, I think. Could have been calmom or curious14...</p>

15

<p>calmom posted very useful advice; a spreadsheet is a good way to make sure you're considering the factors important to you. </p>

<p>But what if everything still seems tied, even after the spreadsheet? If you still don't have one college head-and-shoulders above the rest, flip the coin just like you've been advised. It does seem a weakness of our culture that we we assume there has to be one right or best choice instead of allowing that several may be equally good insofar as is humanly possible to tell. This lesser-used viewpoint is termed "satisficing". You will cause yourself no end of grief if you insist you have to make the best choice of where to go on vacation, what job to take, even which spouse to marry. No matter what you decide, there always exists the possibility of there being a better choice out there.</p>

<p>For college choices that are close enough, in the end satisfaction will be raised or lowered by things than can't possibly be predicted in advance -- who your roommates are, the profs teaching the classes the semester you take them, whether you happen to "click" with the interviewer for internships or jobs, even whether you twist your ankle walking back from class one day. Could one college have turned out better than the other, after all? Sure, but we can never know.</p>

<p>Sometimes, though, there is a subconscious preference for one or the other, and here is a trick that can help reveal it. Don't wait until the day your response is due to flip the coin; do it a few days ahead. Then that evening fill out the acceptance paperwork & sign the forms, enclose the deposit check, seal the envelope and put a stamp on it. But don't mail it. Sleep on it. If you wake up in the morning happy the decision is over, off to the post office to mail the letter (with proof of delivery, of course!). If you wake up with his stomach in knots and want that letter back, it's right there on the top of the dresser.</p>

16

<p>Read "Blink"</p>

17

<p>If the four schools all provide you with strength of program in the area(s) of your academic interst(s), and your overall impression is that you'd be fine at any of them during college and as a launching pad after graduation, then the question is:</p>

<p>"Where do I think I can be the happiest ME?" </p>

<p>Quality of life, in other words, according to you, yourself, and you. Includes, but not limited to: </p>

<p>Location - area of the country, location of the campus (urban/suburban/rural), the campus itself - are any of them near great recreational areas, etc.? Student body - most all from the same state, or from different areas? Dorms, living options - did you check them out? Level of energy preceived among the student body - peppy or laid back, and which mode suits you the best? Friendly student body? Social opportunities? And last, but definitely not least - opportunities and support for your favorite ECs, or the ECs that you've always toyed with trying but never had the time.</p>

18

<p>Thanks for all the responses. After detailed analysis from every angle, I am going to go with my gut feelings.</p>