Choose a List of Colleges

Consider the environment in which you learn best. Big or small? Public or private? East or West? Liberal Arts or Pre-Professional? Traditional or non-traditional? If you don't have a specific school in mind and need to explore your options, college search websites such as Big Future, Possibility U, Cappex, College Express or MES could be useful. The Early College Finder resourced (in the files section below) also has lists of colleges organized by major. Check out these sites and resources on your own, or make an appointment to explore them with your School Counselor.

Before determining you choices of colleges, review your achievements and your passions during the last four years. You may take an interest inventory as part of your self-assessment (see your School Counselor for these assessments). Give yourself options to pursue as many interests as possible.

Helpful Tips

1. Choose colleges with a range of majors because most college students change their major at least once -- even 70% of the freshmen who think they have already decided what they want to do!
2. Don't limit your choices to schools with one recreational factor, such as skiing.
3. Be cautious about choosing an undergraduate institution on the basis of its medical school or its business school. Admission to an undergraduate program does not assure acceptance into that university's graduate school.
4. To give yourself the most options, don't restrict yourself to colleges that rate highly on magazine lists of "the best colleges." If you examine colleges that are less well known, you will often find hidden treasures and schools where your accomplishments will be so much appreciated that you may receive unexpected financial aid, scholarships, and invitations to enroll in honors programs.

Narrowing Your Choices

1. Narrow your choices by visiting the campuses . Visits are one of the most important things you can do to gain an understanding of what it is really like to be on that campus.
2. Read each college's admission literature and consult its website.
3. Focus your selections by comparing colleges according to criteria that are important to you. These criteria might include distance from home, proximity to extended family, size, geography, academic environment, etc.
4. Determine the likelihood of your being admitted with your grades, test scores, talents, and preferences. You final list should include a range of admission possibilities:
   • 1-2 "reach schools" - these are schools where your GPA and/or test scores fall below the middle 50% of last year's admitted students
   • 2-4 "50/50s or targets" - these are schools where your GPA and/or test scores fall within the middle 50% of last year's admitted students
   • 1-2 "likelies or probables" - these are schools where your GPA and/ or test scores fall in the high range or above the middle 50% of last year's admitted students
5. Do your research carefully so that you would enjoy attending all the schools on your list. Make sure you provide yourself with "financial fallbacks," or colleges you can both afford and enjoy.
6. Applying to more than 10 colleges is expensive, heightens admission competition, and indicates that a student has not fully researched his/her college options. Think carefully about your college list and only apply to colleges that you have thoroughly researched, are genuinely interested in, and would be happy attending.
7. Students applying to highly competitive colleges should keep in mind that you also need academic and financial "fallback" schools. If each of the schools accepts 10% of all applicants, your chances of acceptance at each school are only 10%. In this case you run the risk of not being accepted to any of your schools. In addition, the distribution of financial aid is becoming increasingly more complex. Families that earn more than $50,000 per year are often expected to contribute substantially to their student's education. Apply to selective schools, but choose one or two "fallback" schools as well to ensure that you have plenty of options.