Guide to Finding the Best College for You

Going to college is a life-changing event. You’ll more than likely be on your own for the first time and having to pay bills and take care of yourself. You’ll be studying a field that you’re interested in and pursue a career you’ve only dreamed of. Even so, getting to that point can be difficult. All of the talk is about the admissions process and paying for college, but seldom do students get solid advice about how to choose a college.

So, for students struggling to find direction, here is a step by step guide for selecting the perfect college for you.

Important Questions and Considerations You Should when Searching for a College

Admissions

  • What is the school known for?
  • What are the admission requirements?
  • What qualities should prospective students have?
  • Which standardized test scores do they require?
  • What majors are offered? What’s the most popular?
  • What are the application deadlines for admission?

Financial aid

  • How much will tuition and expenses cost?
  • What financial aid options are offered?
  • When is your financial aid deadline?

Classroom

  • What is the average class size?
  • How accessible are professors outside of class?
  • When must I choose a major?
  • What student services are offered (tutoring, career
  • counseling, study workshops)?
  • How are the libraries, computer labs?

Housing

  • What type of housing is available?
  • Is student housing guaranteed for four years?
  • Would I have a roommate or live alone?
  • What is the cost of renting apartments near the campus?

Student life

  • What special interest groups, activities, fraternities/sororities are available?
  • What’s it like on campus on the weekends?
  • Are any programs offered to help students adjust to the college life?
  • Are intramural, club, and varsity sports offered?
  • Are meal plans available?

Choose a Major

A lot of colleges have specialties, if you will. While they usually offer all of the main majors and departments as other colleges, their main focus or have an emphasis in one particular area. Or, they may have one department that is nationally recognized. If you are going to major in English, U.C. Berkeley would be a good choice, right? So, by coming up with things you’d like to major in, you automatically narrow down your list of prospective colleges.

Determine Your Preferences

So, once you have a major (or a couple) picked out, you need to start figuring out what aspects of a college will make or break your choice. How far away are you willing to go to school? How large of a college do you want to go to? How much money can you spend on tuition? What is the student/professor ratio? These are just some of the questions to need to be thinking about when selecting potential colleges.

Make A List and Get Info

So once you’ve figured out what’s absolutely essential to you in a college, then you can start compiling a list. Be sure to organize them from your favorite to your least favorite and make notes to yourself about what aspects you especially like or dislike about each college. With this list in hand, you can begin to request more information from these colleges. You can usually request these materials online, or even browse the campus website to find out more info. If something seems very unappealing to you, check that campus off of your list and move on. The key is to narrow the list down to a manageable amount. Try to get the list under 10 colleges, if you can.

Visit What Interests You

Once you have a smaller list, you can begin to schedule campus visits to your choice colleges. You will probably be in a small group of people interested in attending the college and get to see the major sights on the campus and even meet with students. This is the time to ask questions and really get a good look around. You may even get to sit in on a class and stay overnight in a dorm room. That would really be the best way to get a sense of what the campus is like and what your home would be like for the next four years.

After the campus visits and tours are over, it’s decision time. Which colleges appealed to you the most and felt like the best fit? Those are the ones you should apply to. A number around five is a good, solid number of colleges to apply to. More can cost a lot of money on application fees and less could make it so you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to come up with a fitting list of colleges to apply to that suit your choice of major and your personality. You should feel at home at your college of choice. Investing this time in the searching process can ensure that you’re comfortable with your decision.