Im a senior in high school and applying to college in the Fall. i am starting to get all my information together on which colleges i want to apply to. What are important things to consider when choosing which colleges you want to apply to???
Personally, I’d look for a balanced curriculum. This would offer you many options in terms of your own major, provide for great electives outside of your major, and expose you to students with diverse interests.
I’d also look at the college “type.” Would you prefer a purely undergraduate focused college in a country setting, a large urban university, or perhaps another set of basic attributes?
You also need to consider your budget. Can your family afford very expensive privates, or do you need schools that give good merit or need based aid? Run the net price calculators on some school websites to get an idea of what they would cost you.
Check the stats of accepted students and compare them to your own. It’s ok to have a couple schools where your stats are below average, but make sure you have some where you are average or above average. You want to have a safety which is a school that you are sure you will be admitted to and which you know you can afford.
- Cost (not just sticker price, but the likely net price for your family's income and asset levels, which usually can be estimated using each school's online net price calculator ... as well as your family's ability and willingness to cover that cost. So consider the availability of need-based or merit aid for students like you.)
- Admission selectivity (which can be estimated from many online sources, such as collegedata.com. Example: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1093)
- Availability of the majors/programs you want
- Academic quality (which often tends to correspond, roughly and in a general way, to selectivity and ranking ... although specific programs/majors may be better or worse than the school's overall reputation suggests). Related considerations may include:
- Location and setting (distance from home, urban/suburban/rural location, access to employment and internships, weather, etc.)
- Campus atmosphere (Greek and D1 sports scene, political activism, percentage of campus/neighborhood residents v. commuters, competitiveness, male/female ratio, raccial/ethnic/socio-economic diversity, enrollment and campus size)
- Anything else that is particularly important to you. (At least one CC poster has asked about colleges that allow a student to bring a horse and board it on campus or nearby. Some applicants have special medical or dietary needs. Etc.)
This entire forum (College Confidential) is, in large part, an extended conversation (with 100s of thousands of posts) about the topic question.