<p>Hello,
I'm highschool senior and I'm really confused on how/ what to look when searching for colleges.
PS: I'm still undecided for what to study</p>
<p>If you’re undecided, look for a really well-rounded school and/or a liberal arts college. Talk with your family about how much you can afford and then, based off of that, either look for cheap schools (often in-state public), schools that offer the appropriate amount of financial/merit aid, or if cost is not an issue, any schools you want. Once you have a few that seem good on paper, visit them. I really didn’t have a sense of what type of college or what atmosphere I was looking for until after I had visited a few. By visiting, you may be able to determine whether you like big or small, urban or rural, and anything in between. There are a ton of factors that go into making a list of colleges. Those are only a few of them. Once you begin finalizing your list, make sure you have an appropriate number of reaches, matches, and safeties (both academic and financial). </p>
<p>Your major is important only to the extent that you not choose schools that don’t have it. So if you think you might do music theatre, consider schools that have music theatre along with other majors you might do.</p>
<p>It’s really important that you want to go to college next year. If you don’t want to go next year, then don’t. If you want to wait a year or three to give yourself time to grow up, a break from school, a chance to learn a trade, then do it. College isn’t for everyone at 18. For young men as a group, this is especially true. So perhaps this is the most important decision: do I want to go to school regardless of what everyone else is insisting. Without the desire to do well, you will not do well. College is so much harder than college that there’s no sense spending all that money if you’re not ready to work hard and take advantage of all the great opportunities colleges offer.</p>
<p>Most important is what your family can afford. To find this out, pick some schools within your state: a state flagship, a private LAC, a mid-size private uni, and a secondary (as in not as good as the flagship) public college or uni. Get your parents’ help to put together the information that you need to run the net price calculators that you’ll find on the Financial Aid pages of each of these local schools. They’ll need to get out their last tax return, checking and saving account statements, stock portfolio accounts, estimates of home value, etc. The required info is listed by the NPCs, and each NPC will ask for some of the same/some different info. Run the calculators and talk to your parents about what colleges cost and what they will be able to provide you for each of four years. This is a very important conversation to have for each student who wants to go to college, and it should happen NOW before you make the list because there’s no sense applying to schools you cannot afford. Some schools offer need-based aid, some offer merit-based aid, but you cannot know how much until you do the calculators. If your parents are divorced, both the parents, the one with which you live and the one you don’t, will have to file (this can be a problem with divorced parents, but it’s essential that they provide you with accurate information because when they fill out the real financial aid forms around December they cannot lie without committing federal fraud. The npcs will usually tell you of need-based aid you might get (called grants often), as well as potential work-study and personal and parental federal and state loans (your loan amount is maxed at $5500 the first year). You want to avoid debt whenever possible. It is critical to your post-graduate success that you not have more than $10-25K in debt.</p>
<p>Once you have a general idea of what each KIND of school costs, then you can add that information to the question of fit. Where will you best fit? Well, some place you can afford, obviously. Will you need to go to a community college to save money or to bring up your grades? If not, you’ll want a four year that has your major(s), has a climate you love or at least can put up with, is nearby to far from home, is co-ed or single-sex, is in a city or the country, etc. You can talk to your guidance counselor about these criteria and s/he can help you flesh out your school preferences. You can use a tool like SuperMatch, found in the left column of this page. An important part of fit is admissions potential. What is your GPA, your standardized test scores, your level of course rigor, your extracurricular activities, etc.? You want to go to a school where you will be challenged but not overwhelmed, and that’s what the admissions officers want for you, too. </p>
<p>After you’ve put together a list of, say, 3-12 schools where you “fit,” in your mind, bring them to your GC or to us and ask for help with assessing your list. Maybe there’s something you haven’t considered with this or that school. Maybe there are other schools you might consider. </p>
<p>This is a start. There are things to do I’ve left out, but it will get you underway. Do not neglect your studies this semester. They are very important. Take rigorous classes, but there’s no need to take 5 APs. You’ll be miserable this spring and find it hard to finish once you’ve gotten into and decided upon a school–and still have six weeks til you graduate. Let us know how you’re doing.</p>
<p>First thing is to have a frank conversation w parents about how much they are willing to pay per year.</p>
<p>There are some really good points here: money, type of school, selectivity…</p>
<p>I’m going to add something else to this list that I think is usually ignored… WILL YOU BE HAPPY THERE? - this is a pretty basic question but it’s very important. All research points to this: students who are happy and involved in social activities get the best grades.</p>
<p>A big part of this question is considering factors that might seem silly: how far away from home is it? (and does that matter to you?) what’s the weather like? what’s the international student population? (if that matters to you) is there an active social life: greek system, clubs, sports? can you do undergraduate research? (if that’s something you want) is there a good work experience or study abroad program? (that might matter) what is housing like?</p>
<p>The list goes on and on and on … and it varies per person. I was an international student and I knew I wanted to go abroad, so distance from home wasn’t a big deal for me. Weather, on the other hand, was: I can’t handle harsh winters. Cost was also a big deal: that’s why I chose Canada over USA (A LOT cheaper for international students).</p>
<p>Give it some good thought. Consider all of the things that influence your happiness. Hope this helps!</p>