One of the most common responses on this subforum is something along the lines of “you’re focussed on x when you should be focussed on other factors such as fit.” How do I do this?
“Not all Ivy’s/T-20s are the same, find the one that fits you best-- one that you will enjoy the most”
How and where do I find this crucial information that is seemingly the biggest factor in admissions?
Start by thinking about what you want out of your college experience. What is your budget? What do you want to major in? Do you want a small school or a large one? Are sports important to you? Greek life? Being in a city or more rural area? What part of the country do you want to live in? What kind of student vibe do you seek? What kinds of activities do you want to continue in college? Do you want more competition or collaboration? Theoretical vs hands on learning?
Once you can articulate answers to those questions, you can start narrowing your list.
My question was more about how I answer these questions. e.g. how would I know what schools are vibrant student life? What about their competition vs collaboration? Some of these questions can be answered with quick google searches, others are difficult to answer (from my experience). Also…
What if there was something with the following answers, and was looking to pick their dream school:
I still wouldn’t know where to begin here. And wouldn’t this limit me to like 30 of the ‘top 50’ schools?
Another concern I have is in regards to the major, and why it matters. One might want to major in business, but their chances of getting into a world renown business school-- say, Penn-- is far worse than their chances at another great school with fewer business options-- say, Dartmouth. Is that to say that I shouldn’t apply to Penn or Dartmouth, and instead focus on good business schools in my range? Wouldn’t Dartmouth give me just as many opportunities as something like Notre Dame (a great business school)?
Thank you for the info
Have you been on any college visits yet? My D found making visits very important. You can learn a lot by watching the dynamics between students and profs in the classroom, relationship between students in the cafeteria, etc… She learned very quickly that she didn’t love city campuses and didn’t love the elitist vibes at some of the schools we visited. There were also a few schools that talked a good game about collaboration but when she talked directly to students, it felt much more cut throat (huge turn off to her).
I think major matters a lot, especially if you know what you want to study. You need a school with good industry connections, where getting internships is straight forward, and they have good job placement rates post graduation. (In your example I would pick ND over Dartmouth in a heartbeat - for business, don’t underestimate the importance of a strong alumni network).
If you would consider ND (not in the NE), look at IU Kelley as well.
@FakeName1332 Get a Fiske or Princeton guide which will provide summaries for the top few hundred colleges in the US. The descriptions are partially based on student survey data (for campus vibe) as well as popular majors, stats of admitted students, cost, availability of scholarships, etc. That should enable some narrowing down. From there, you can look on the school-specific threads here for more information or to ask questions.
Have you met with your college counselor at your school?
It’s not like there is just one school out there for each person. It’s looking for schools that will give you what you want in academics, what to do in the next 4 or so years, and the environment. But it also takes work on part of the student to make it go well. I’ve seen lots of kids get on their “dreamboat” and it literally becomes a “shipwreck”. You have to make it work. Most kids to give it that effort where ever they go.
I planned to visit the schools I got into, and then make my decision from there. I have visited (not toured, just drove around) schools like ASU, Chapman, UCSD, USD, and others like that. I loved the campus feel of ASU and Chapman, which were near polar opposites.
I get that touring schools would be really helpful for making a list, but I don’t think that is possible with my parent’s schedule and all the cost. I hope you will understand that asking my parents for travel costs and time is not something that I want to do when they are full-paying for college. Asking for more seems so cruel, personally speaking.
@mamaedefamilia
That sounds awesome!
I do online school, so my counselor is extremely uninvolved. I have sent her like 50 emails over the past two years but I hardly get the response/information I need. This person actually hurt my high school process 
That’s assuming I want to know what environment I would like and I know what schools would cater to that well. My question is more focussed on how to find what schools fit my criteria rather than on determining what my criteria should be.
Regardless, your information is really helpful in other aspects! Thank you.
@FakeName1332 , take some virtual tours. It may not be the same as visiting in person, but it does provide a much better understanding than photos alone.
My oldest liked large schools and small LACs. To most, there was not a correlation, but the consistency was water features (large fountains, lake or river) and common green areas that were used, not just manicured lawns.
Is there anything else I should add/remove to this checklist? I’m making something to constantly refer to on my search…
-State
-Curriculum (e.g open vs core)
-Urban vs. Rural vs. Suburban. To what extent?
-Is it more collaborative of theoretical studies?
-Class size?
-Student characteristics (preppy? progressive? happy? hard-working? find traits that are similar to mine)
-Any cool stuff? (really nice dorms, good sports, recently updated campus, etc.)
-Can I see myself potentially living there after college?
-Would I be excited to take a specific program there?
Run some top schools in my major through this list and see what happens? Virtual tour some of them and see if there’s anything else to note.
My original question is most concerned with how I can apply this checklist to the search. e.g. How do I find student characteristics?
@Longhaul Good advice! I’ll do that right now 
Good idea to do virtual tours. You can also find youtube videos for almost any school that show everything from dorms to school traditions. You can also find student newspapers on line which can give you a sense of what is happening on campus.
If your parents are planning to be full pay, then all the more reason to spend a few dollars on campus visits. You want to make the most of the money they will be shelling out. Since you are studying online, you should have lots of flexibility for visiting campuses. You needn’t visit evey possible place on your list, just a few that will help you with your crieteria - e.g. one big, one small, one rural! One with a reputation for collaboration, etc.
@happymomof1 That makes a lot of sense. I just don’t like asking my parents for more when they’ve given me so much 
I’ll think about looking at some colleges this summer, but I’m pretty happy with my list. I have driven around a lot of schools, so I think I have a general feel for enough factors to make a pretty good list. Talking with my parents and really thinking about what I liked and didn’t like about the campuses I saw really helped me figure out a lot of stuff.
We’ll see how my other thread does; I might need to reevaluate some schools and then I will probably have to tour some this summer 
Read anything from Niche to looking up Facebook on each college and as stated you tube and the like. No one can tell you what “fit and feel is”. It’s more personal. Since you didn’t go to a traditional high school it’s hard to compare but a lot of smaller liberal arts colleges to some can feel like high school to them and they don’t want to repeat that. My daughter likes schools around 2,000 students but my son likes larger big ten universities. That was their starting points But both went to their opposite colleges just to see . We also did just walk around campus visits and had lunch. If you have local colleges by you do a real tour or a walk around but talk to students. Ask basic questions and let them know your child considering the school for next year. Listen to what they tell you. Yes, read their local papers. Research the colleges on their website. Research the clubs and activities. So they have things that seem interesting to you.
Also call the schools and or advisors.
If you have colleges near you, that’s a cheap and easy way to look around and see what characteristics you like (large/small, urban/rural, dorms/commute/off-campus housing, etc.).
Eat in the cafeteria. Read the campus paper. Go to the departments you’re interested in and read the bulletin boards. We went to one school in August and not only was there a list of where the graduating seniors were going, but profs came out of their offices to chat. YMMV, but that was huge to my sons.
@FakeName1332 “I loved the campus feel of ASU and Chapman, which were near polar opposites.” This is, overall, good news, because it means that you will likely find a large number of colleges where you will feel comfortable and thrive.
Overall, looking at your list of features to check out and your summer plan, it looks, to me, like you have a good plan in hand. There is also good advice on this thread to further focus your search.
Good luck!
Thank you all for the super helpful comments!
Although it was a really short period of time (on this thread), I’m really happy with my list (included at the bottom)! I case someone is going through the same thing I am, here are my notes
-Find the programs that interest you the most, and then go from there.
-Remember any and all thoughts about colleges that you’ve visited before.
Think extremely realistically. Would you want to pack your bags and head to this place alone? This ties in with rural/urban/suburban a lot.
-Who would be there? Would you get along with a typical student?
-Seriously consider the core requirements vs open curriculum. I realized that taking a lot of general courses would be terrible for me, considering I always work best doing what I love and I know what I want to do. This immediately crossed off a lot of LACs and universities.
-How easy is it to get back home? For me, I need a place that won’t cost me a lot of money and time when coming home for holidays.
-Urban, suburban, or rural? For me, I realized that a big city would be a huge leap that I wouldn’t want to take, but rural wouldn’t be as fun for me, so I settled on suburban.
-Is there anything that makes you really want to go there? Maybe it’s a cool college town? Nice dorms? Cool program? I found that having these things really makes me want to go to every school on my list. There’s something to be excited about regardless of where I get in.
-Virtual tours really help (thanks for the comment!). Can you see yourself being there for four years? Or is there stuff that is really off-putting?
-List out your priorities… for me, it was: 1. Major/program, 2. Academics* 3. Campus, 5. People there, 6. Location, 7. Ease to travel home.
*ranges from dream to safety, so not a big deal in the end. Just shows that I would prioritize academics over location, campus, etc.
From there, you can figure out what you want–and don’t want-- in each. For example, I wanted to major in something with influence from entrepreneurship/tech/design/psychology, so I looked at programs like Brown’s Behavior Decision Sciences, Northeastern’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and many different school’s industrial design majors. I found schools from dream to safety that offers a major I would like because that’s my top priority. I also limited it down to campuses that I would enjoy being a part of, and locations where I would enjoy daily life.
I know everyone’s experiences are different, but here is mine! Thanks for your help, everyone!! I’m really happy with my list
Stanford- Product Design
Brown- Behavioral Decision Sciences: Early Decision
Babson- Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Innovation
Northeastern- like 5 diff majors I love from here
U Washington- Industrial Design
Penn State University Park- Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Waterloo- Global Business and Design Arts
McGill- Entrepreneurship
ASU - Industrial Design
U San Fran - Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Simon Fraser - Interactive arts and technology
Chapman - Behavioral economics
some other Canadian safeties