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Selecting a School

  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

Selecting a School

The Good News - Congratulations!

After submitting your applications and anxiously waiting for the mail to arrive, you have been admitted into one or more institutions. Congratulations! Now you have to spend some time thinking about which school to accept and how to pay for it.

Acceptance Letters

Read each acceptance letter fully and note the date when you need to respond by. If the letter asks you to provide the school with information about yourself, reserve a room, or pick a meal plan by a certain date, then make sure you note it. Create a calendar if necessary so that you definitely do not miss any deadlines! After all your hard work to get into the schools, you do not want something to go wrong now.

If you have been accepted at your first choice school, you should accept immediately. Then politely inform the other schools that you have accepted elsewhere and will not be attending. This opens up spots for other students who might have been wait-listed at those schools.

Almost In

Hopefully you got in everywhere, but if you have been wait-listed then consider politely following up. If the school is your first choice, then a short letter to the admissions officer who handled your application reiterating your desire to attend the school can help. Feel free to include any additional highlights, such as recent awards or high grades that you might have received. Do not inundate the school with phone calls or mail.

If you continue to be wait-listed and the deadline for responding to your second choice school is approaching, then it is appropriate to call your admissions officer and relay that information. Politely indicate that while you would ideally like to attend your first choice school, you have to decide by [XX] date on another school you were accepted at. If you do not hear back in a timely fashion, then accept your second choice.

Deciding

Unless you were accepted at the school of your dreams, you might have to choose between several of your second choice schools. A few criteria to focus on are:

  • Which school did you like more when you visited?
  • Which school has a better reputation?
  • Does the cost of attending the school make sense compared to the cost of other schools you were accepted at?
  • Which school is better for undergraduates in the areas you are interested in (literature, sciences, art, etc?)
  • Is the school close to home or far from home?

Cost alone should not be the determining factor. Rank the schools by location, cost, reputation, and your "feeling" about attending. This should help you have a more objective reason for choosing your college if you are unsure of where you want to go.


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