How To Build A College List And Make Sure Your Child Chooses The Right School

The college your child chooses to attend will have a profound impact on the rest of their life. The university your child chooses will be where they meet lifelong friends. It will inform their perspectives and opinions on life, and will be where they develop into the adult they ultimately become. This is in addition to the place where they will be educated. The institution of their choice will be responsible for providing career advice, internships, and job opportunities. The professors who educate them will influence their career trajectory. It is understandable why both parents and teenagers put an enormous amount of pressure on the college selection process.

However, despite knowing how important the right college is, most students and parents use an imperfect process when selecting a university. They may make their choice based on where the parents went to school, or perhaps they base their school selection based on schools they are familiar with in their area. Or students and parents might get swept up in the “prestige” of a certain school, even if it is not the best fit for the child and the child’s career goals.

In this article, I will be discussing how students and parents can find their perfect school by building a college list the right way. I will explain how students can find schools to put on their list that they might not have otherwise considered, why choosing a school based on natural aptitudes is important, and why selecting a school that fits with the student’s needs and personality will help ensure success.

Students can’t effectively select a school until they know what they want from their college experience

There are thousands of colleges in the United States alone. This is why I encourage students to begin their list-building process as early as possible. The more time they have to explore their college options, the more likely they will be to find a school that is right for them. In my coaching services, I begin by giving students questionnaires and surveys to help them think about what they want from a school. Do they have a school in mind? Do they want to stay in-state, or apply to schools further from home? How often do they want to come home during breaks? Are there activities, clubs, or sports they want to participate in? How much individualized attention and support are they hoping to have access to in college? These are just a few questions that I will ask your child to help them begin to build their college list.

For most students, a goal of eight to twelve schools is appropriate. Each school on the list should meet the needs of the student in all areas– academically, socially, and financially. In my college admissions consulting service, I begin with questions to get students to begin imagining the various possibilities. Once students begin to think about what experience they want to have in college, we can begin to research schools that might be a good fit, and put them on the list of universities to potentially apply to.

Students should research schools based on academic and cultural criteria

Once a student has completed their aptitude test, and has a better understanding of their career goals, researching programs that fit their needs becomes a lot easier. Students can immediately eliminate schools that do not have programs that meet their career goals. Once a student knows what they want to study, they can narrow down their research by asking more pointed questions. Are there certain professors a student would like to study under? Are there geographic locations in the country that are naturally beneficial to what the student wants to study? Is your student interested in a specialized degree that can only be obtained by certain programs? Is your student interested in working for a certain employer following graduation? These are the types of questions that can help your student look ‘outside the box,’ and can perhaps lead them to finding a school they might not have considered otherwise.

But academics are not the only criteria students should consider when building their list. On the aptitude test, students will learn a wealth of information about their personal style. Some students may find that they are more likely to thrive in smaller classrooms. Other students may feel strongly that they wish to rush a fraternity or sorority, and want to ensure that a school has a strong Greek life. It might be important for other students to consider schools that align with their personal values. Many students choose to attend a university with a religious affiliation so that they can continue to practice their faith and be surrounded by others who hold similar beliefs. Other students may value activism and wish to attend a school that offers opportunities to get involved with the community. Whatever a student’s values are, they are more likely to find the group of individuals they fit in with best, if they select a school that fosters the type of environment they are searching for.

Students should apply to schools that are realistic, both academically and financially

Once students have a list that meets their academic and cultural requirements, it is time to start looking at a less fun aspect of applying to colleges– can they get in, and can they afford it? An important aspect of building a final college list is to ensure that your student does not spend a great deal of time crafting the perfect college application, only to find out that the school is completely unrealistic.

If your child is applying to eight to twelve schools, which is standard, one or two of those schools may be a ‘reach’ school. A ‘reach’ school should be a school that is competitive, or difficult to get into. But it should not be completely unrealistic either. For example, Ivy League schools have notoriously low acceptance rates, even for very good students. If your child has straight A’s, very good test scores, and one or two strong extracurricular activities, applying to Princeton or Yale would be considered a ‘reach.’ Your child can’t be confident that they will be accepted, but they have many of the same credentials other students who attend have. On the other hand, If your child has average grades, and average test scores, they are unlikely to be considered by an Ivy school. It would not be the best use of your child’s time to apply to schools in which their grades are much lower than the average grades of accepted students.

Likewise, students also need to consider the financial aspect of schools prior to applying. In my coaching package, I help students make spreadsheets, tracking how much tuition is for each school of interest, along with what academic and financial aid packages are available. Prior to applying to schools, students need to know if the school is financially attainable. If the price of the school exceeds what a student can take out in loans, and acquire in financial aid, then it is best for students and parents to focus their efforts on schools within their price range. There is no worse feeling than being accepted into one’s dream school, only to be forced to decline due to finances. I believe the financial piece should be taken into consideration prior to applying, so the family has all of the information ahead of time.

Students should visit all schools they are seriously considering

So, your student has spent months researching schools. They have narrowed down their field of study, found a school with an excellent program, and interesting extracurriculars. The school is located within driving distance of home, and the photos online look beautiful. On paper, everything about the school seems like the perfect fit. Only for your child to go on a campus visit– and not like the vibe.

There is an intangible element to finding the right school, that can only be determined by visiting in person. Your student must feel comfortable in the school, and sometimes the only way to tell that a school isn’t going to work, is by visiting in person. It is important for students to walk the campus, see the dorm buildings, eat a meal in the food hall, etc. They need to see other students going about their day-to-day lives, and determine if it is a life they want for themselves.

Students need to visit as many of the schools they are applying to as possible. Once students can compare and contrast campuses, they might learn that they have non-negotiables they never knew about. Things like weather, the campus layout, or the town surrounding campus might not have sounded important when they were building their list at home. But once a student is on campus, small things that sounded trivial in theory, might be very important in reality. While the internet is a great tool for research, it cannot replace the value of an in person visit.

If a student follows these steps, they are far more likely to have a satisfying college experience than they would have had they picked a college university at random. My college coaching services help students with the end to end process of building their list and applying to schools. I begin with aptitude testing, assist with list building, ensure that students understand the financial obligations, and assist students with tracking deadlines and applying to schools. If you would like a customized quote, contact me and my team today.