Choosing Your Best-Fit College for Success

 

How to start your college search

Once you are ready to begin researching the best college, follow the valuable tips we share below. However, before you jump online to use college search tools, you need to do a few things first.

What do I want from college?

Some basic actions should happen at the start of every college search. One of the first things to do when looking for the best-fit college is to sit down and write your ideas while brainstorming.

(Do not worry about any barriers during the thought process.)

While you brainstorm, some important questions and items to think of are.

• What’s important to you in the perfect college?
• Where would is the college located, distance from home?
• How big are the campus and classes?
• What type of school is the college?
• What does the college offer in majors and other academic programs?
• What is the college’s social life like for those attending?
• Are there extracurricular activities for students?
• Do graduates get career search and planning assistance?

Your outline will help later as the research begins and the time to choose the college to attend arrives. If you have difficulty getting started, you should talk to your parents, friends, and neighbors to learn more about their experiences. Be sure to ask them what the deciding factors were that help them make the college choice. However, you just need to keep writing your ideas down to revisit later.

These questions are vital for finding your best-fit college. In fact, the preliminary thought process may lead you to the college you already are interested in, or in some cases, to one that is better for your future. After you answer the questions, you are ready for the next steps.

Things to do when you know what you are looking for in a college?

Start by making a list some Colleges of interest

You should list between 10-15 schools that you are interested in have heard about from others. The list will be essential later when we start the narrow-down process.

Making a spreadsheet can be useful for listing schools and criteria your seeking.

What to look for in your college choice?

You’ve made a list of potential schools that includes the following information:

1. Academics and majors
2. Cost, financial aid, and affordability
3. Location and distance from home
4. The campus community and social life
5. Athletics and other extracurriculars
6. Campus and classroom size
7. Career services and additional support
8. Admission and graduation rates

As you have undoubtedly heard from others, there are a lot of factors to consider while researching the college match for yourself. Therefore, it is time for us to look deeper into what these categories mean to you.

Academics and majors 

There may be a major you are interested in, so this will be helpful to the college search. The major is important, but statistics show 58% of college students change their majors or minor after starting school. Therefore, it’s highly recommended to understand how difficult changing a major is at the colleges you are researching.

Cost, financial aid, and affordability

Often among the most influential part of choosing a college is the cost. During the college search, you should think about the average cost of each institution. Financial aid is available to help make attending college more affordable. However, you should inquire how much tuition would be covered and how much would be paid out of pocket.

When you are ready to check what federal financial aid is available go fill out the FASFA.

Location and distance from home

The location of a school is a deciding factor as well. While attending college, you may want to go back home on holiday breaks or even for the weekends. Consequently, distance is a key point to think about in the college selection process.

The campus community and social life

A consideration just as important to the location is what type of school culture you want. There are several different types of cultures when we investigate colleges. For example, the culture could be a heavy research campus, full of school spirit, and even have firm commitments in athletics, Greek life, and the arts. Your success in college will be influenced by the type of atmosphere that you will be happy with while attending college.

Athletics and other extracurriculars

Many colleges have extracurriculars that interest a majority of students. Some of these include school clubs and athletics. The activities offered can include campus clubs such as cultural clubs, student government, theater groups, and intramural sports. Many employers look for applicants with skills that campus clubs help you develop, like teamwork and creative problem-solving.

If you are a student-athlete, you should talk to your coaches about what schools they recommend and what school divisions would be while searching. Then, realistically assess your abilities and consider which schools will most likely give you a spot on the team. It also helps if you also talked to some coaches at the colleges to let them know of your interest. This way, the collegiate coaches can evaluate your chances to join the team in college formally.

Campus Size

There are different sizes of college campuses students attend. Some concepts to ponder while searching for the right college for you are which size will be best for your success. Big universities are great because of the variety of majors and classes offered. Still, professors may be less accessible outside of classes. However, smaller campuses have a much lower ratio for student-faculty. This means the professors would be much more available to help students when needed. Many other schools are in between the large and small-sized campuses. These colleges have a mix of both varieties of academics and student-faculty ratios.

Besides the campus size, you will want to ask questions to understand the class sizes. For example, you may think that all college classes are set in large lecture halls. However, in the current times, many colleges have classes that range from small to large lectures. So while you filter through the list you made earlier, ask yourself: would I learn best in a smaller class or a large lecture-style?

You are the person that knows your best learning environment and will find your niche at any of the campuses. Just remember to be to think about the answers that will help you achieve your future goals.

Career services and additional support

All students who continue into college for higher education have one ultimate goal of finding a great career when they graduate. Most of today’s colleges have a career services department that assists students in planning to reach that goal. Career services help with resume writing and review, career research, interview preparation, and more. In addition, many of the programs can be utilized by alumni from the colleges. Therefore, it is great for potential students to know what assistance is available.

Other services to look into are if the campus has disability services and how to connect with them if needed. Disability services assist students with any accommodations that a student needs to help them succeed through their education. For example, students with a learning disability such as ADD may do better-taking tests in a private room verse the class with other students.

Make sure you ask questions when you talk to the college and do online searches. Well-informed learners do their best while having the comfort of knowing there is always assistance from their school.

Admission and graduation rates

Why is it a good idea to know about the admission and graduation rates? Let us start by looking at the admission rate.

Colleges have specific requirements that a potential student must meet. The requirements include GPA (grade point average), college admission test scores, and possibly community volunteer hours. When you are researching schools online, the university will post the minimum requirements for admission. An example would be if the college says the minimum ACT composite score is 30, but you earned a 27, you may need to try the test again or cross the school off of your list.

What about the graduation rate? Students want to learn for their future success, but the degree is proof of education. Therefore, if a school has a low graduation rate, it could hinder you from reaching the ultimate goal.

You are not alone in the search for the best college!

High school students and their families will be thinking about many relevant aspects to narrow down the choice. Choosing the best-fit college seems cumbersome. But remember that from start to finish of the process, counselors, teachers, family, coaches, and friends are your best resources to make it easier. So if you need help, ask for it from those available.

Once you send the applications to your choice colleges, the wait for the “offer of admission letters” will be worth the work. Then, the easy part is to make your final college decision and enroll in the college of your dreams.

Remember that finding the best college for you will be its own reward, and the time put into the college search is entirely worthwhile.

Tools to help find the best college for you:

1. College Board’s BigFuture -> https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org
2. College Insight -> https://college-insight.org
3. Niche -> https://www.niche.com
4. College Navigator – https://nces.ed.gov