<p>By now you should have a decent idea of whether the school is affordable. You will probably cross off a lot of schools on your list. I had around 25 schools left at this point. These were schools that were either already affordable because they were in-state or schools where my EFC was at an affordable price. Now that you know they’re affordable, you can spend time being nitty gritty about details. Go on websites like CC and college niche (formerly college prowler) to see if these schools seem like good fits atmosphere-wise. Here are some examples. Since I’m majoring in political science and I’m for the most part liberal, I didn’t want conservative schools. You can find out info like that through online websites. And although I didn’t mind an urban campus, I wanted that campus to actually feel like a campus and not just be in the middle of the street. I wanted small class sizes, I wanted a low amount of graduate students teaching the classes, I wanted more undergraduate students than graduates so that there would be more room for me to grow. I wanted a lenient curriculum instead of many required classes. I wanted the opportunity to minor or double major. There were so many things that I wanted. None of my schools ended up having all of these things, but I learned to compromise and make sacrifices. If there were a lot of graduate student teachers, I would at least make sure that there were specific opportunities only for undergraduate students that I could excel in.</p>
<p>By this time, I had a relatively short list. It was around 15 or so schools. My last step was making it balanced. I had a lot of safeties on my list, so I looked at it very closely and determined, “I’ll get into school x and y, and I would choose x over y any day so why am I even applying to y?” Then I crossed off y. I got my list down to 11 schools this way, 4 safeties (though you should probably have less), 3 matches and 4 reaches. If you have 10-15 schools and want a lot less, like 6-8, you should visit some of the schools. Actually, you should visit even if you have a good amount, just to get a feel for the college. Sometimes you get this idea of the school off its website, but in person, the school is completely different. It may not be as intellectually stimulating or close knit as you thought, and visiting is the only way to find out.</p>
<p>Now look at each school and ask yourself if you would be happy here. If the answer is no, cross it off. Don’t ask questions or second guess yourself, just cross it off. </p>