by Joanne Apesos
5/8/2014

What You Need to Know About College Admissions: Coming Up with the College List

Last week was spring break for most public high schools in Massachusetts, and many juniors and parents spent much of the week visiting colleges and universities.   Visiting is the best way to determine whether the school is a good fit and spring break visits allow you to observe the school in session with students around!

Now what do you do? 

1. Write!  Put your thoughts on paper.  At the end of each visit while the experience is still fresh in your mind, write down what worked for you at the school and what didn’t work.  All the  colleges you’ve visited may become blurred in your mind and this way you can refer to your notes when you create your final list.  Taking photos with your IPhone or IPad will help jog your memory too.
2. Eliminate some.  You visited the campus, spent some time there, talked to students and decided that a school just wasn’t right for you.  Don’t be disappointed.  That’s great!  Taking a school off the list is just as important as putting one on the list.  Now determine why the school is off the list.  Was it the location, an extracurricular they didn’t have or was it just a gut feeling?  
3. Revise what’s important.  Maybe what you thought was important really isn’t as important as you originally believed. Perhaps you visited a campus, spent time with the soccer coach and team, and then realized that playing soccer wasn’t as essential to you as you thought.  Or maybe the school was in a city and you realized that you missed green grass.
4. Go back to the drawing board.  If your priorities have changed and you have a new interest in majoring in Viticulture because of your recent visit to Napa Valley or Environmental Science because of your summer work experience in working on an organic farm, go back to the college search tools.  If your school has Naviance, you can use that search tool or use The College Board or Princeton’s search tools to find the school that has what you’re looking for.
5. Visit more schools.  Over and over again, I see my students change as they visit campuses.  They begin to discern what they like and what they don’t like—often much faster than students who don’t make campus visits.  Although the best time to see a campus is while school is in session, it is okay to visit schools during the summer too.  You can always visit again while students are there.
6. Shoot for 6-8 schools that work for you.  That is the average number of schools students apply to these days.  In that list you should include more schools where you are the typical student, meaning your academic credentials match those of current students (a target school).  Always include at least one safety and one reach school.  If you have 20 schools on your list do your homework and make that list smaller.  The application costs alone could be in the hundreds of dollars.
7. NPC the schools you like.  Go to the college’s website and find the Net Price Calculator to determine the actual cost of attending the school. (You can usually find the NPC in the Financial Aid section of the site)    You can’t factor in tuition hikes and other unknowns but it will give you an estimate of the actual cost of the schools you do like.  Now multiply if by 4 since you’ll be there for that long. Is it doable for your family?

Your goal should be to have a firm list of colleges by September of your senior year making some adjustments as you approach application deadlines.  Remember:   it’s difficult to visit schools once you’re a senior since there are so many activities and commitments that you don’t want to miss out on.

Joanne Clary Apesos is the owner of College Pursuits, a college counseling business in Holliston.  She has advised high school students and their families in planning their college experience for many years and has presented HEF workshops for students and parents about the college selection process.  Prior to assisting high school students she worked in higher education for 20+ years as an admissions counselor, adjunct faculty and director of student activities at both public and private colleges and universities in the Northeast.  She holds a master’s degree in Higher Education from Columbia University and is currently enrolled in UCLA’s College Counseling Certificate Program. She can be reached at joanneapesos@gmail.com.