I’m going to be a senior this fall and was wondering what recommendations people have who’ve been through this overwhelming process of applying to college. I am really hoping to avoid this situation: I apply to 10ish schools and when I get into some of them, I visit and realize that I’m not happy with them, meaning I probably should have applied to different schools. In essence, what’s the best way to create a list of Safety, Match and Reach schools that I love (without visiting them all in advance), so I’ll be happy going to anyone of them? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
First, determine your must-have and nice-to-have criteria. Presumably, you must-have criteria will include affordable net price and academic offerings that you are interested in studying.
You can try the net price calculator on each college’s web site, although if your parents are divorced or have unusual finances (i.e. other than mainly wage/salary income and ordinary assets), they may be less accurate or you may have to check carefully how you should enter the information. You can also check to see what merit scholarships the college offers.
Of course, you can go to the college’s web site to check academic offerings.
Since visits are relatively expensive if the college is not local, you want to first screen your college list with criteria that can be determined before you visit. Also, you want to think beforehand what you want to learn from a visit, so that you can make the most of it.
Start your list of colleges that meet your criteria with a safety that you know that you will be admitted to, know that you can afford, has the academics you want to study, and otherwise is one that you would like to attend.
If many of your target colleges are hours away, it can be helpful to visit local colleges if possible. That way you can get a feel for if you want big/small, urban/rural, greek life/no greek life, etc.
First talk to your parents about how much money they can contribute.
Decide where you want to be geographically (region of the country).
Decide what size school you want.
Look at the list of schools that meet your criteria and figure out which ones might be a match for your academic statistics. Do a bit of research about those schools and see if any of them are appealing to you. Find your safety schools first.
To what has already been stated, I’ll add:
- Type of environment – rural/urban/suburban, weather
- Social vibe – party scene, activism, school spirit, clubs, things to do
- Dorms/food
Basically, start your search based on academics and cost, as @ucbalumnus said.
Once you have that rather large group of schools, divide them into lists of (probable) reaches, matches and safeties based on the schools’ acceptance rates and where your scores and GPA fall within the schools’ averages.
Once you have decent-sized groups of reaches, matches and safeties, apply the other “fit” variables to them: environment/location, social vibe, and other academic fit factors (like academic calendar, class sizes, etc.). You should now have a pretty decent idea of what your favorite 10(ish) schools are.
As long as at least a few of those are matches/safeties, and as long as you like and can afford all of the schools to which you apply, you will do fine.
I agree with what everyone else has said, but want to add another important point:
When you visit these imaginary colleges to which you have applied, and which have accepted you, and you are “not happy,” why are you not happy? Probably, it will be less because there is something fundamentally wrong with the college, and more because there is something fundamentally wrong with your attitude and expectations. You can fix that, and, even better, you can avoid it altogether by starting the process with the right attitude and realistic expectations.
– No college is perfect. They all have good points and less good points, maybe even bad points. Being happy about a college is being focused on its good points; being unhappy is the opposite. That’s a choice you can make.
– Mainstream colleges are all generally much more similar to one another than they are different. People obsess about relatively small differences, especially here on CC, because those differences distinguish one college from another. But once you are attending a specific college, its differences from other colleges are a lot less important than its similarities. Are people who dress like you and share your interests and tastes a majority at college A and a minority subculture at college B? What does it really matter? If you are the most social person in the world, you are still not going to have more than 10-20 close friends, and college B will have plenty of people eligible for your friendship circle. The big difference is that it may take you a couple of extra weeks to find them. The good point is that you will have a better chance of making some friends who aren’t like you as well. Does college A have a special program that interests you, and college B not? Special programs are marketing. You can likely duplicate 90-100% of A’s special program at any other college that offers related majors by picking and choosing your courses well. You may not wind up with a handy-dandy label on your diploma, but in terms of what you have learned you will be absolutely fine, and that is way more important than the label.
– The best strategy everywhere is to figure out who the best teachers are in the broad field that interests you, to take whatever classes they teach, and to let them and others advise you on how to develop and accomplish your career goals. No matter what college you go to, a huge portion of your experience will be based on two or three professors. As long as a college has a department relevant to your interests, it will likely have two or three professors you can really learn a lot from and who can help you on your way. If you go to a place like Harvard, you can pretty much choose any professor. If you go to East Podunk State, you may have to pay more attention, and you may not have limitless choices. But if you choose carefully you can absolutely get a Harvard-quality education anywhere.
– First impressions are based mainly on physical things – the look of the buildings, the food you eat, the layout of dorm rooms. In the long run, however, those physical things are among the least important parts of your college experience. The human landscape (so to speak) is much more important. And 18-year-old humans are really, really good at adapting to different physical environments, even if you have never had to do that before. On CC, you will see long, passionate discussions of dorm bathrooms – in-suite vs. common, single-sex vs. open to all, how many showers. You know what? Two weeks after you start college, you will have adapted to whatever the bathroom situation is there, and bathroom differences will be completely unimportant to your college experience.
– Wherever you go, you will be there. You, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, are far more important to your college experience and success than anything about your college
– Fight unrealistic expectations. College is great, college is magic, but it’s still in the real world. You will go through periods of loneliness, boredom, and frustration wherever you are. If you have a tendency to get depressed, you will get depressed sometimes. That has nothing to do with the college. You can get a bad roommate, a bad teacher, or an inconvenient dorm assignment anywhere. You’ll live.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to like one college over another for relatively trivial reasons. If you are choosing between two colleges that have accepted you and that you can afford, any stupid reason is a perfectly good reason to choose one over the other – bathrooms, food, which colors look better on you, which seems to have more attractive people of the sex that interests you, even prestige. Just don’t get hung up on those things to start with, and you will be fine.