Graduating high school and moving into the next phase of life can be an exciting yet scary time. If college is your next step, choosing the right school for you is imperative. Where to enroll in college is probably the biggest life decision most 17 or 18-year-olds make in their lives.  Instead of enrolling in the most prestigious or well-known college, successful college students focus on “What College is Right For Me.”

The choice can be daunting, with over 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States. However, this article will give you five steps to finding your best-fit college.  These steps won’t necessarily help you find the “best” or most prestigious school.  They won’t help you find the coolest or best college town.  These steps are about finding what is right for YOU and only you.  The right college for me may not be the right college for you. We are all unique and have different needs and comfort levels. 

Before we jump into the five steps to find what college is best for me, let’s consider IF college is right for you.

• Are you successfully completing high school?
• Are you mentally/emotionally prepared for more intensive academics and living independently?
• Have you ever held a job or a leadership position within an organization?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years, 10 years? Is a career that requires a college degree part of that vision?
• Are you applying to college because you aren’t sure what else to do after high school?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. They are “food for thought”. If one or more of these questions makes you squirm in your seat or feel very anxious, you should explore why and be honest with yourself about how you feel.

If, however, you are sure that college is your next step (and hopefully, you are excited about that), then read on to learn how to find what college is right for you.

Step 1: Use Online College Search Tools

This is the research phase of your college search.  If you have never had to research anything before, be glad that now you will learn how before entering college (where you will inevitably do a lot of research).  Many college search engines online will help you find what college is right for you. Most of them sort through the basic criteria with their own unique twist. 

I recommend the following search tools and have used them all with my students:

• www.collegeboard.com
• www.niche.com
• Naviance (subscribe through your high school)
• www.collegesearch.com

To get the most out of your search, use these tips:

• Start by using the same criteria across more than one search engine in order to compare results. 
• After you have built a list of 10 or more schools you are interested in, vary your criteria (i.e., change locations or distance from home, variations on your major, or be open to another setting)
• Keep a running list of schools you are interested in with data to compare them side by side. Download our College Planning Worksheet to do this easily.

Step 2: Use clear goals and preferences:

This can be the biggest challenge for any prospective college student.  And they are right to be unsure. How can someone know what they want from a college without ever setting foot on a campus? (this will be addressed in Step 4). 

Before you ever do a college visit, there are other ways of gaining college experience.  For starters, talk with an older friend or family member who is attending college or recently graduated.  Ask them what they liked about their college or university and what they think is the most important thing to consider when picking a school. They will likely have some great advice and even surprise you with details of picking a college you never thought of. 

One criterion that is important to a college student but often overlooked by college search engines is the school’s social life. I’m not talking about whether a college is a “party school” or not.  Alternatively, what is the student body’s makeup in race, gender, and economic background? Your daughter might fall in love with a beautiful southern campus,  the right size, and the right major. But if the student body is 70% female, she may cross it off her list fast!

By talking with other college students or recent grads, you will get a sense of what was important for them in their search and what they found out after attending college for a year or two. 

Step 3: Know Your Stats: GPA, SAT scores, Resume

In any great list of colleges and universities, you should have some that you are academically on target for, some that you are well above their admissions criteria (aka safety schools), and some that would be a reach to get into. You must know your stats to develop your list appropriately and estimate where you fall from an admissions standpoint. 

Despite the test-optional explosion necessitated by the pandemic, college admissions is still a numbers game.  The reality is larger universities especially receive thousands upon thousands of applications yearly.  They use the numbers to weed out the outliers immediately and then dig deeper into those closer to their academic standards.

Knowing your stats means that you can search for a school’s admissions range (generally advertised as the middle 50% of the previous freshman class).  If you land within that median range, you can consider yourself relatively “on target” for that school.  If you fall below the media, that school should be labeled a “reach” and well above the criteria, and you can call it a “safety school.” 

It’s also important to note that while many students fall in love with a reach school, you need to ensure that you can handle a school’s academic rigor before applying. Colleges aren’t rejecting you because they are mean.  They are rejecting you to protect their yield rate.  If they feel you won’t be able to cut it academically and will eventually drop out or transfer, they will deny you admission. 

Step 4: Visit the campus

This is the best way to know if a school is for you. Sign up for the official tour through the admissions office (remember this counts as demonstrated interest).  Ask questions, take notes, and pictures. You’ll be sure to get a first-hand look and feel for the campus and the student body.  Wear comfortable shoes and dress appropriately for the weather; you will walk quite a bit.

If you can’t travel to the colleges you are interested in, get to local colleges that are similar in size and attributes.  Even getting on a local campus that may not be top on your list will help you discern what you do and don’t like in a college.  When you learn about certain programs or opportunities provided by one school, you can then search to find out if other schools you are interested offer something similar.

Step 5: Virtual Deep Dive

This last step is best done once you are very serious about a school.  Like any person or company today, we leave a digital footprint in many online and searchable areas. Use this online information to learn all that you can about a school. From “get ready with me in my dorm” videos on TikTok to following the sororities and fraternities at the college on social media, you can learn a lot if you are willing to do the research. 

Some examples of good online information are:

• Parent pages for the school on Facebook
• Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels for the school
• Search those same social media sites for the college and find clubs and organizations posting their activities
• Join the accepted students’ pages on these social media pages
• Google Maps to find real-life pictures taken by average people (not marketing photos curated by the university)

These five steps to finding “what college is right for me” are the ones I use with my students year after year. My students who do the research and organization necessary make the best decision and find their best-fit college. 

Keep your college search organized by using our College Admissions and Planning Bundle. 

The documents in this package were created after 20 years of experience helping students research, compare, and choose the right school for them. Download it today and start to find the school and community waiting for you!

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