Hi everyone! I am back to discuss my tips on narrowing down the college search to find the right college for you. My advice is experience-based, so this might not be helpful for everyone, but here is a basic guide to making the big decision of where to go to school.
Step 1: Location. There are lots of factors to consider with location—such as where home is, the weather you are looking for, etc. For me, I am a SoCal native, and I knew that it was important to my family and me that I stay close to home, so I only applied to schools in a 45-minute radius from my home. In addition, I’m pretty used to the weather down here, and I was not willing to move anywhere colder. However, you might be looking to get away from your home state, or looking for a change in weather, and in those cases, it helps a lot to decide on a location or general area to look for schools in.
Step 2: Type of School. For me, I saw how great my brothers’ small schools were for them academically, and I knew that I also wanted to go to a small, liberal arts school. With these two requirements, my search narrowed down to about 10 schools in SoCal. You may be looking for the opposite experience, a large university or a big city environment. If so, that’s a good place to start. Talking to older friends and relatives about their college experiences, class size, etc. can be one way to begin to get a feel for what type of school will be best for you.
Step 3: Finances. This can be the hardest part of the college search—how are you going to pay for the school you want to go to? Some schools, like Scripps, promise to meet 100% of families demonstrated need. Other schools can cost a bit more. This is something that I had to keep in mind while applying and ended up eliminating some schools right away.
Step 4: Your College Experience. At this point, you have to decide what you want out of your college experience and figure out which schools can give it to you. For some people, it’s a certain major or program, but for me, it was water polo. I knew that I wanted to keep playing, and so I met with the coaches of the schools I was looking at. Maybe you want a school with Greek life or easy beach access or a marching band. Think about what is important to you and use that to narrow your search.
Step 5: Being on Campus. This can come during any point of the college search process, but if you have the means, I think experiencing a campus in person is super important. Even if it is a quick visit or unofficial, physically being on campus can give you a read on the school that nothing else can. For me, spending a day at Scripps and seeing up close the Scripps experience is what made the decision to come to Scripps easy. There’s something to be said for that gut feeling that this campus is right for you.
This is my personal experience, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all. In fact, for you these steps might come in a different order, and the actual process of applying and getting decisions might fall between any of these steps, but these are some of the things that I think are important to think about when you are deciding on a school to attend.
If you have any questions throughout your college search process, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]!