<p>I need some help in narrowing down a list of 20ish colleges into a final list of ten. HOw do I start? There's so much to consider. Can someone suggest some ways?</p>
<p>List out your colleges.</p>
<p>How did you pick your original list, and how much research have you done so far?</p>
<p>A few strategies:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Look at application crossovers. You may find that there's lots of crossover between certain schools on your list, but not others. Try to find out which schools are outliers, and what makes them different.</p></li>
<li><p>Make a list of what you're looking for. What's make-or-break for you? For example, I wanted a school with strong academics, decent food and housing, etc. - duh. But I also wanted a good Classics department, strong extracurricular music, lots of activism, large LGBTQ presence, etc., and those aren't found everywhere. When I started looking at those factors in detail, a lot of schools fell off the list fairly quickly. Think about specific academic programs or extracurricular opportunities that you need to have.</p></li>
<li><p>20 schools is a lot to visit, but if any are nearby and convenient: visit, visit, visit. Lots of schools look the same on paper; when I visited it became clear immediately which ones had what I was looking for. And ...</p></li>
<li><p>See if you can "block" them. For example, I divided my list into women's/co-ed, urban/rural, near/far, larger/smaller, etc. Then start thinking seriously about what your preferences are. If you're able to do visits, try to visit a few schools that represent a variety of different options. You may spend five minutes at NYU and realize that you don't want to be at an urban school, knocking out half your list with one visit.</p></li>
</ul>