I have toured several colleges already and I seem to like everything. I had a list made up before visiting that are good for my major but also has a good mix of different schools. I started visiting some very different schools and I liked them all. Whether it be urban vs rural, big vs small, LAC vs university, etc I see the positives in everything. How else should I try to make a reasonable list? I want to go into finance in which prestige of school could matter. Other than that, I’ve just been looking at internship/study abroad opportunities, postgraduate surveys, and financial aid/scholarship opportunities. Those are my only criteria so far but there’s a lot of colleges that meet these standards. What else should I do?
Have you talked with your parents? Do they have opinions on how far they want you to go? What they can pay? Some students are surprised when their parents express opinions late in the the game.
One thing my D looked at was career services (good or not) and class sizes. She check out average class size as well as student / faculty ratio. She was used to 20 kids in a class and didn’t want to lose that in a college. How do you learn? In finance, you will probably have core classes that are large (unavoidable). But, other than that, what do you like.
What about semester vs. quarter system? Does that matter?
Weather?
If money is no object and you truly like everything… throw darts. 
I’m kidding.
Sounds like you’re doing all the research you should be doing. Next step is to prepare a list of reaches-matches-safeties. Remember, a safety is a school you will be happy to attend – and you know you can afford.
@phoenixmomof2 Money does matter and that is the biggest factor right now. I have safeties where I can get scholarships and NPCs come out affordable for match/reach type schools for me.
My parents haven’t given me any specific restriction on distance but I don’t want to have to take a plane back and forth. Within driving distance(6-7 hrs from here) I have tons of schools available as I’m in PA.
Weather doesn’t really matter to me. I’d prefer somewhere without either extreme but it’s not that big of a deal. At first I thought small classes would be a huge factor for me but k don’t really mind large ones anymore. All of the large colleges I’ve been to so far have smaller recitation classes and of course all have office hours.
I actually haven’t thought about quarter vs trimester. Is that a big deal to most people?
Perhaps you are just not that picky. This can be a good thing in that you will have a wider range of colleges to choose from within the base requirements of affordability and academic offerings.
@katliamom @ucbalumnus Yeah I’m not that picky. Its nice not to have a “dream school” that I’m obsessed with and I personally don’t care about prestige. However, I don’t know where to draw the line between prestige and cost since it could matter for finance. One safety I have looked into is OSU which I could have a net price of 20k/year already and even lower with a better scholarship.
Is it bad to have a list specifically based on strength of their business program? Since I’m not that picky I don’t know what else to go off of.
That’s certainly one thing you should consider. I also like internships and postgraduate surveys that you mentioned earlier. You seem to be going about this evaluation very thoroughly. Good luck.
Looking at the strength of your intended major is fine as a consideration. But also consider the strength of other majors you may change to later, and whether your intended major or any of the other majors you may consider requires competitive admission after enrolling at the school.
@ucbalumnus Should I avoid schools where you get accepted into your major later? I was looking into UVA for business but you don’t accepted into the business school until later on. It worries me because if I get rejected then I don’t know what I could do.
Direct admit is preferable. For schools without direct admit into the business major, look at what the minimum GPA is (if there is one) for admission to the major. If there’s no minimum, try to find out what profile admitted students normally have.
It depends on how competitive admission to the major is, and whether there are alternative majors that are not difficult to get into that are acceptable to you.