What's a good way to find a good fit?

College Search & Selection
1

I hear a lot of advice on choosing a college based on fit but I’m really not sure how to do this well. Can somebody who has done it successfully please walk me through the process. Where did you start? What criteria are important? Did you prioritize these criteria as must have vs nice to have or were all of them equally important? How did you gather a list of colleges based on the criteria? How did you find colleges in similar clusters so that you could have good reaches, matches and safeties for the same criteria? How long was the initial list and how many did you end up applying to finally. How did you demonstrate your fit in your application?

Sorry lots of questions because I’m still trying to figure this out.

Thanks in advance

2

I would start off by taking the following steps:

–ASSESS LIMITATIONS: Talk to your parents about any limitations on your college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else).

–ASSESS ACADEMICS Honestly assess your academic stats (GPA, course rigor, standardized tests) and determine what range of schools are reach/match/safety. Only look at schools that meet the criteria your parents have set.

–LOOK FOR COLLEGES; Talk to your guidance counselor to develop a list. If your HS has Naviance that is a valuable tool. Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) which can often be found in the guidance dept. or a library and start reading about schools in your academic range.

–THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT IN A COLLEGE: Anything you care about is fair game. A few ideas of questions to ask yourself are: Are you looking for any specific academic programs? What size/location school do you like (try to visit different types of colleges)? Do you want Greek Life? Do you care about big time sports? What type of location (not just geographic, but also rural/urban/suburban) do you prefer?

Other than affordability the list of must have/wants is personal. As a couple of examples – some people may not care if there is big time sports or not while it could be a priority for others. Some people apply to a group of similar looking schools (because perhaps they only want a small LAC) while others apply to what appears to be a wide dispersion of schools (perhaps because their top criteria is the strength of the business program). YOU need to figure out for yourself what is important in YOUR search.

3

Good advice above. I am likely to say almost the same thing but in different words. Some important criteria to look for are:

Budget: What can you afford? What can you afford without taking on debt? There are a very large number of very good universities. Many students spend more than they really need to. A college education is the first really expensive item that you are going to buy.

Distance from home: If you live on campus, then attending a university that is 5 miles from home is going to feel like a completely different world compared to living at home. You should think about how far away from family and friends you want to be (but recognize that if you go to university 5 miles from home your friends still might have moved far away).

Size: Would you be more comfortable at a large university or a smaller school?

Academic Rigor: How difficult of a university do you want? Top students sometimes want to go to the highest ranked university they can get into. However, this often means the academically most difficult and challenging univerity they can get into. At MIT or Harvard pretty much every student was top in their high school, but a lot will then be in the lower half of their class at university.

Also important under “academic rigor” as @happy1 mentioned is a realistic assessment of where you will be able to get accepted.

Potential Major: You will want to look for a university that has a good program in your likely major or majors. Many students change their mind about their major after arriving at university. Thus you might want to attend a university that has a strong program in multiple fields that you might be interested in.

Anything else: You are going to be attending classes, doing your homework, taking tests, doing you laundry, and just getting yourself up in the morning. You want to attend a university or college where you are comfortable. This might mean in a city, or in the country, or in an area with mild winters, or in an area that gets lots of snow, or anything else that matters to you.

You should think about what you want. Then visit multiple schools and see what you think when you are there. Most or all schools will give you a guided tour. Many schools will allow you to sit in on class and/or have a chat with a professor in your intended major. You will have to sign up for any of these.

By the way, your original question “What’s a good way to find a good fit” is a very good question. You are starting to think about this the right way.

One more thing that I might add: You need to apply to safeties. You need to find at least one and preferably two safeties that you know you will get into, you know you can afford, and you would be happy to attend. Matches and reaches are usually a good idea but are optional. If your safeties are a very good fit you might not need to apply anywhere else. One of my daughters ended up deciding that she wanted to apply to very good universities that were all safeties for her (they were out of the country in Canada where admissions is predictable largely based on stats). She didn’t need to apply anywhere else. I have seen a few other cases of students that didn’t really need anything other than their safeties because their safeties were that good. Most students also want to apply to matches and reaches.

4

Visit as many campuses as you can, even if they close to home & aren’t colleges you are interested in. Try to visit while classes are in session so you can see students & sense the vibe. Walk from the area where dorms tend to be to where classes tend to be. Some campuses are busy & lively…others quiet & serene.

You will be amazed how quickly you will clarify your preferences regarding how spread out campus is, how many hills you have to navigate, & whether you want stores & restaurants to be right next to campus or u want a secluded campus.

Some colleges have a number of non-students & street people whom u will encounter on way to class; other campuses will be in their own little isolated world.

Once you see several campuses, you will start to clarify your preferences. These, along with financial issues, admission likelihood, geographic limitations, & academic majors you want, will quickly allow you to narrow the field.

5

This ordering, which correlates roughly with general selectivity, can be useful for this purpose (note that the SAT scores themselves have since been superseded by a newer version of the exam): https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9.