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Finding the Right College

  1. Preparing For College
  2. Finding the Right College
  3. Applying to College
  4. The Application Essay
  5. The Interview
  6. Selecting a School
  7. Paying for School
  8. Scholarship and Award Essays

Finding the Right College

Compiling Your List

Every college is different, and only you can know which school will be right for you.

Start by focusing on schools that meet your needs. Useful criteria in this process might be:

  • Reputation -- not every school is Ivy League, but many excel in specific academic niches that may be important to you. Find out which schools are known to be the best in the fields you are interested in studying. This is especially important if you are looking to pursue graduate studies!
  • Quality of Students -- take a look at the scores that define an 'average' student. This includes the SAT and GPA averages. Knowing these numbers not only helps you know who your peers are going to be, but also shows you how qualified you are relative to other students.
  • Curriculum -- make sure your schools offer the courses, majors or other degrees that you are interested in pursuing.
  • Size of School -- know if you want a large school or a small one
  • Undergraduate or Graduate Focus -- some schools are more focused on ensuring the quality of their undergraduate education than others that may have more emphasis on their graduate programs.
  • Class Size -- don't just find out the average class size. Also ask about the size of required intro classes which is where many colleges save money on teaching staff. More advanced classes are almost always much smaller.
  • Location -- if location is important, then start here and then focus on the other criteria.
  • Neighborhood -- determine how important safety in the local area is to you. Some schools in bad areas are fairly well isolated and secure, while others require that you spend more time off campus.
  • Social Life -- everyone has a different 'ideal college experience' and it usually involves the level of social activities (think parties) they are comfortable with.

U.S. News & World Report is a very good online resource that can get you started on your search.

Cost

A lot of students make the mistake of focusing on cost as one of the criteria for choosing a school. Don't make this mistake. GradeSaver purposefully excludes cost from its list because a lot of options are available to you to finance your education. Pick the best schools that will help you succeed in life and worry about financing your education once you have been accepted. (That is where GradeSaver Student Loans can help you!)

That does not mean apply blindly, however. You should find out the annual tuition, boarding fees, food fees, textbook costs, and add in extra funds for furnishing your room and traveling between home and school.

Talk to the financial aid office to find out how they can help you and what level of financial assistance you would likely qualify for. Topics to discuss with them are:

  • Federal loans (The Perkins loan program, Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) or the Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP)
  • Scholarships (merit, need-based, heritage-based or otherwise specialized)
  • When tuition payments are due
  • Work study or other jobs on campus

Campus Visits

Once you have your initial list put together, start planning the campus visits. Start by going to the college website and finding out as much as you can about the school.

The standard method is to visit the school and take a tour of the campus with a current student. While this is valuable, it is the bare minimum that you should consider doing. Prepare questions about the school to ask the tour guide, and try to stay behind after the tour ends and talk to the student. Often you can get more information in this less formal setting than you would otherwise.

If you have the time, call ahead and see if your schools offer an 'overnight' stay option. Current students will often volunteer to host visiting students for a night and let them experience dorm life. You can see the dorms firsthand, eat in the cafeterias, and use the campus facilities. This is a great way to meet current students and get to know the campus much better than you will by taking the standard campus tour.

Try to sit in on a lecture if it is allowed. That way you can assess the quality of the professors and the level of interaction with the students. Many universities are now offering lectures online for free (MIT for example). Visit their website and watch a few lectures on subjects that interest you.

Take notes if you are visiting a lot of schools. Schools are really good at marketing themselves while you are there, and you will want to remember what really impressed you about each place (and what didn't). Your impressions at the time are very important so write them down -- you do not want to only remember the last school you visited because they all started to seem the same after a while. A camera can be useful if you are going to a lot of campuses and need to remember what they look like.

Making the Right Decision

Once you have a list of schools you want to apply to, make another appointment with your guidance counselor. Sit down and discuss the merits and drawbacks of each of the schools on your list. Often your counselor will have insights about the schools that you might have missed. If talking with a counselor is not an option, call on friends and relatives to assist you in discussing your list of schools.

Try to narrow the list of schools to around four to six. You should have one school in each of the following categories:

  • 'Reach' Schools -- If you dream of going to Harvard, put it here. These are the schools that you really want to attend, but you are not sure if your grades are high enough.
  • 'Good' Schools -- These are colleges you would be happy to attend and know that you would succeed at. Your application should be competitive.
  • 'Safety' Schools -- Put the college that you know you are likely to be accepted into in this category.

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The lender for Gradesaver Student Loans is RBS Citizens, N.A., Member FDIC and Equal Opportunity Lender. RBS Citizens, N.A. may sell your student loan to a third party. RBS Citizens, N.A. will only sell your student loan if the third party agrees to honor all of RBS Citizens, N.A.'s promises to you, including all promised benefits that you will receive or might become eligible for during the loan repayment period.