Omniac Attack!

College Consultant Tip: 5 Notes on Building a College List

Hey Juniors! 

It's that time of year.  Spring Break is just around the corner and your parents are pushing you to start putting together the list of schools that you want to visit and/or apply to in the fall. 

With over 4,000 two and four year institutions in the United States, this is no small task!  It's likely that any attempt you've made to get your list together has left you frustrated, confused, and no closer to your list of schools than when you started.

Want to make some progress?  Here's a few quick tips:

1) Get 15-20 schools when you start...
There's no need to be picky at the beginning of the college process.  You don't have to know where you want to apply when you first start looking.  Spend your time selecting 15-20 schools that you think might fit and then do some research on those schools to get an idea of what you want.  Visit!  Go to their website!  Read about them in college guide books like Fiske's Guide to the Colleges, Princeton Review's 368 Best Schools, or College Board's Guide to the College 2009.

2)...finish with 6-8 schools at the end.
While you want to have a broad perspective when you begin applying, you need to wrap things up by the fall and get focused.  My previous blog article, "Stop Applying to Schools You Hate," sums up the general breakdown.  In short, one or two Safety Schools, two to three Target Schools, and one or two Reach Schools.  Applying to too many schools just spreads your attention too thinly!

3) Promise to love every school to which you apply
Many students spend most of their time looking for their dream school.  That's fine, but you shouldn't ignore the research you should do on your safety schools.  In fact, you may need to put in extra time to find a safety school you really love.  Too many students decide to apply to schools they hate because they treat their safe options as "schools of last resort." 

4) Throw out the lists of best ranked schools.  They don't help.
Stop obsessing over the list US News or USA Today puts out.  Yes, there's some value to the list as a whole, but it doesn't tell you much about the school that you, the student, actually want to go to.   I strongly recommend "Rugg's Guide to the Colleges" for anyone who wants to know about good programs at US Schools.  It's much more reliable and even-handed than a list of 100 schools.

5) Location, Location, Location
Please don't forget that whatever school you attend is located in a physical place.  If you love Harvard, but hate Boston, it's going to be difficult for you to be happy at that particular school.  Think carefully about the parts of the country you would be happy living in and focus on those areas.  Unless you are interested in living in the Arctic, there are almost always schools near the places you love most!

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Got tips we missed?  Give us your hints in the comments!