We had criteria of a certain size, specific academic programs, and level of academic rigor that allowed us to narrow our search: Location-under, a six-hour drive or a non-stop flight within an hour of the airport, and not too rural or too conservative of an area.
We then tried to visit as many schools as possible that fit this criterion. After that, it came down to where our son felt was the best fit for him. He had a clear first-choice school and was accepted.
In hindsight, I wish we had made some visits before we narrowed it down by size. Our son went to a school with just over 3k kids, which was too small for him. I remember our GC telling us that as a 17-year-old senior, a small suburban college feels comfortable, but by the time he’s a 19-year-old sophomore, he might have wished he picked NYU.
Academically we were just looking for fit. Somewhere where our kid’s grades and test scores were in the mid range. We weren’t looking for merit and neither kid was firm on major so most schools would work.
Non academic criteria was the same for both kids:
Urban
Medium to large, we put a hard minimum at 5000 students
Balanced m/f ratio
As we were looking at many OOS publics, we made sure there was a decent percentage of OOS students.
We did not have a hard budget. We had a fair amount saved but were willing to go over it if the right school came along. As it turned out, both kids choose the same OOS public and the total price has been such that it just about matched the total we had saved so it worked out well.
Our college spreadsheet was sorted by the average SAT (pre-TO) as a proxy for the strength of the student body. That was the only criteria that made all the college “tiers” crystal clear.
Probably not as crystal clear as you wanted, because high school record has a similar or somewhat stronger correlation to college performance (even the College Board says so), even though it is not reported in a standardized form by colleges. Colleges also choose to emphasize SAT or ACT relative to high school record differently. Also, the choice between SAT and ACT means that a college where most choose the ACT and only a few choose the SAT could be significantly “off” a ranking by SAT.
Average SAT overall, or average SAT for the student’s major/college? For a school that admits to major/college there can be wide differences between stats overall and for competitive programs.
Must haves:
Affordable (in-state public or private that gives merit to get to a similar cost)
Strong resources for environmental science
LAC
Rural/small town
High 1st year retention rate & graduation rate
Within a “reasonable” drive from home (mostly w/in 3 hours but one is stretching to 6 hrs)
Would like:
Low/no Greek life
Ideally has a pep band but not marching band
Fencing club
In/close to a cute small town
First criteria was an ABET accredited engineering program. That’s my son’s first choice for major/career, so it’s a must have.
Cost is a very high criteria for us. Outside of a very few institutions, it does not make much sense to me to spend an extra $20-30k per year over the baseline in state cost (which in our case is still over $100K for 4 years – still shocking to me). So that narrows the list down to a more manageable set.
After that, my son values a research institution, with opportunities to participate in research in freshman or sophomore year. He values research over coops/internships if he had to chose – but he’d like the opportunity to try both - to help him decide where he wants to go post-graduate.
Good biology department. His second choice is biology focused, probably again some type of research, he’s not really interested in being a doctor.
After that he has preferences but the weighting of them goes down:
opportunities for club soccer
pretty campus (quads, etc)
4 seasons — not too hot and not too cold (this plus the above is funny b/c he’s looking at ASU which is more of an urban campus and very hot a lot of the year, but his aunt works in the engineering department and knows all the research professors so he’ll have some help there, and he’d be able to coach his niece and nephews in soccer)
close to family
We used Low - Medium - High as the metric for each criterion.
our affordability factor (cost) based on NPC
size of student body (Goldilocks)
Specific majors
Then these additions after those top 3:
D19 – seeking BFA
Reputation of faculty and alumni (for career networking based on major)
Location – NOT in a “big city” (distraction factor) but not in the middle of nowhere
Driving distance from home
Not a “sportsball” school
S22 – seeking BA/BS
Undergrad focused
Not a “huge” campus – walkability from one end of the campus to the other (no shuttle buses, please)
driving distance from home and driving distance from GF
quality of music facilities/faculty (to play in orchestra as EC)
student body culture – “Can I see me here?”
Quality of dorms and residential requirements (ideally at least 3 years)
Quality of food
rec center/gym facilities
I love this question! I chose my college based on three things: location (proximity to CS companies in my case), cost, program, and weather! I didn’t want to even apply to places where the weather was too cold! I was incredibly lucky that my college meet all of these expectations
DS22 said nothing south of DC and ended up in Durham! DS24 is focused on ease of access to mass transit (particularly trains), totally not kidding. He’s watched how it’s not the easiest for DS22 to get home to NY from Durham. DS24 loves BU and I think it’s mainly that there’s 5 or so T stops ON CAMPUS!
For both my sons, being Jewish, the atmosphere on campus was important - yes a decent number of Jews on campus was hoped for but it was more - is there an active BDS movement, has the Hillel been shut down, etc. And, even if the percentage of Jews on campus was low, if Hillel was well run that was enough (e.g. Purdue).
Several months ago, I mentioned upthread that this was a great thread, and when my DD, who’s applying now, got to the point of deciding her finalist schools where she has been admitted, that this would be a thread I would share with her. That way, she can come up with her own template of what’s important to her, based on the MANY great criteria shared here.
I am so glad I bookmarked this months ago and found it again so easily.
I can add one more (if it hasn’t been done already): quarter system vs. semester system etc.
It would be great if we could add to this as it comes down to our kids making their final decisions! It will be invaluable thereafter each year as students make similar decisions next year and thereafter.
This is helpful for deciding where to apply in the first place and then where to go when the student has all admissions in hand.
I think some of the issues to consider are also specific to the student.
One that comes up often on CC (after the fact - like middle of second semester) is understanding what legal accommodations or other levels of support may look like. There are no more IEPs, 504s, or other medical accommodations in the way they may have looked in high school but they still exist. What does staffing of that office look like, how responsive are professors and deans?
Related, what does health services, urgent care, mental health services, etc…look like?
Other:
-Availability of housing after year one - or even during year one.
-what classes do they take in their major year one and what pre-recs do APs IBs or DE classes take care of. Make sure that it is not their fourth semester on campus before they get to a class in their major - that is tough.
-What special programs, fellowships, leadership groups, etc…have they been invited into with their acceptance? This can give them huge advantages and opportunities at some colleges including mentoring, travel, paid internships/research. Do not let them ignore those emails. (Some of these start before the fall semester which allows them to move in early and make some bonds. (Pro tip - moving in a few days early without the crowds and all the local hotel rooms booked is huge!)
-Travel home and parent visiting realities - costs, time, ease, etc…
Rather than a checklist of what to consider in making a final decision, I actually think eliminating is a much better approach. You can always find the pros of a college, but at some point, ruthlessness is called for. Your child wouldn’t have applied if they didn’t like something about the school, right?
This does really depend on the student (and of course, assumes that cost has been discussed with parents.)
One kid ended up choosing based on two main factors.
Feel
Where would she likely end up working?
Other kid chose based on two main factors also.
Feel
Cost. He just couldn’t justify US spending a lot more money on education. He simply felt it wasn’t worth spending more on an out of state or private university over his instate option.
This was an interesting process with data which was collected from traditional college sources and supplemented with onsite college tours. We visited each college to identify livability issues and kept that information in a master spreadsheet. Decision-making at end came down to a number of things with aspirations for pre-health or a science career. Key criteria for decision making included:
College Value–this was a mix of academic reputation and cost of attendance. The cheapest are usually not the best, but the most expensive was not worth their cost. No financial aid, so we were stuck with merit-offering only schools.
Location–This was sorted out with the college trips. Some places seem nice online but when you actually look at travel to and from–the airport access or distance from home is important and even the close airports may not have great travel options. Some colleges are located in marginal areas and my daughter is a runner and wanted relatively safe areas to live.
Available major–Interested in classics and science as a double major. This shrunk the pool, especially after you visit and can tell the classics departments days are numbered. Had to deep dive classics enrollment stats and age of faculty. Two schools which otherwise were great looked marginal in the classics and both are closing the majors.
Undergraduate research quality–Most reputable schools have undergrad research available. Not many do it well. US News rankings more useful here than expected, but was confirmed by reviewing productivity of faculty in majors of interest.
Premed/grad school placement stats–not sure how real these are since every place is a little different, but some schools clearly did not get good placements.
College Endowment/Presidential leadership–There is a dearth of high quality leadership at colleges. The money often follows good leaders and stability of leadership was important–this was colored by the interest in a Classics major. Colleges short on cash or with new leaderships often need to cut programs in the humanities.
Smaller school–ultimately a preference, but not a real deal breaker
Running trails/weather–a real factor for a 4-6 day a week runner.
Medical school placement rates are easily gamed and manipulated at schools with pre-med committees which discourage weaker applicants from applying (which can be a good thing for the applicants, since futile applications end up being giant waste of time and money). A higher medical school placement rate typically means that the pre-med committee has a higher threshold of applicant strength to encourage the pre-med to apply to medical schools. Of course, colleges without pre-med committees may have a larger number of weaker applicants applying and pulling down the placement rates.
Medical school placement rates may also be affected by pre-meds’ states of residency and whether the in-state public medical schools have relatively more or less space for them.
