Building a College List

Finding the Right “Fit”

Deciding where to spend the next two or four years is important, and it’s an individual decision with many influencing factors. It’s important that a student consider the right “fit” in selecting their destination.

We can think of fit as a pie chart, with three areas. For some families, those areas are equal - and for others, they aren’t. Each area can be more (or less) important, but they all need to be considered.

Below is a starter list of factors that might fall into each category. You can probably think of a few more that are important to you and your family.

Constructing the College List

In considering college options, it’s important to know that your college list will get longer before it gets shorter. It’s not a bad thing to have 20 schools on your list at the end of junior year! This means that you are keeping your options open, and hopefully considering a wide variety of institutions.

By the start of senior year, though, the hope is that you will have narrowed your list to a more reasonable number. The average Hillsborough High School student applies to 8-10 schools. In the end, your specific situation may dictate that you have less, or a few more, but this is a good guideline. A well-crafted list means that a student will not spend all of senior year completing applications, writing supplemental essays, and stressing about making a final decision. The student will also have the time to craft specific, intentional applications to each of the schools to which they apply.

Remember, this isn’t about collecting acceptances like trophies - it’s about finding a great fit and “home” for this next step of life!

A well-structured list is going to have 2-4 schools in each of the categories below:

• Probable Schools: Student academic profile surpasses the college or university admission criteria. Chances of admission are highly likely. (Note: these schools may offer you the highest merit scholarships)

• Match Schools: Student academic profile is a match with the admissions criteria of the college or university.

• Reach Schools: Admissions criteria surpasses the student’s current academic profile. Those most selective colleges and universities (e.g. schools with admission percentages below 25%) are reaches for everyone - if you have a matching academic profile.

How can you find the information you need to determine which school fits in which category?

This is where SCOIR comes in. Look at the Analysis for each school to see where you Fall. If you're using scores, also check out the averages and mid 50% ranges. Finally, use the Compare tool to look at your schools side by side.

Additional school-specific data can often be found on the college web site, under a heading similar to “Freshman Class Profile”. Here are two examples:

Rutgers University: https://admissions.rutgers.edu/applying/admissions-profile

Cornell University: https://admissions.cornell.edu/pdf/entering-class-profile

It’s important to understand how you compare to both students from our high school school and all applicants, but to remember that this reflects only statistical academic data (GPA and test scores). It does not take into account other academic information, such as course rigor, grade trend, senior year grades, major choice, elective courses taken, etc. that impact the admission decision, in addition to the myriad of non-academic factors.

Search Tools

There are countless search engines, but we’ve constructed a list of the most reliable, data-driven tools for research:

• SCOIR: https://app.scoir.com/signin

• College Board – Big Future: http://bigfuture.collegeboard.org

• College Data: http://www.collegedata.com

• CollegeXPress: http://www.collegeexpress.com

• College Navigator: https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

• College Results Online: http://www.collegeresults.org

• Niche: https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/best-colleges/

Books:

• K&W Guide to Students with Learning Differences

• Fiske Guide to Colleges 2021