For some students, the final decision regarding which college to attend is the toughest part of the admissions process. They find themselves riddled with doubt and unable to choose. If you’re struggling to make your final college choice, here are some tips to help you sort out your options.
Stay as calm as possible. While this is an important decision, allowing yourself to be overwhelmed with anxiety will not help you make a better choice. Give yourself some breathing room; you don’t have to decide today, or even tomorrow. You have until May 1 to make your choice. Sometimes taking a break from worrying about choosing a college to do something fun and relaxing can make it easier to decide. If you feel pressured by parents or friends to make a choice, ask them to respect that you’re still deciding.
Start with you, not the colleges. Being honest with yourself about your needs, preferences and goals for college is just as important now as it was when you were deciding where to apply. You may find it helpful to make a list of the top eight or ten characteristics you hope to find in your future college home. Be as specific as possible, and try to focus on both quantifiable factors (cost, size, location, academics) as well as intangibles (social fit, reputation, campus “feel”). Remember, this list is about what you think is important, not the factors your parents, neighbor, or best friend think matter most. After you’ve made your list, rank each characteristic by its importance to you. Don’t worry about which colleges match up best just yet. The point of this exercise is to spend time listening to your head and heart about how you visualize your college experience.
Evaluate each college separately. Our natural tendency is to want to jump in and start comparing colleges to each other, but try to resist. Before you compare colleges, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each school individually based on the characteristics that matter most to you. If you feel you don’t have enough information to assess a college’s strengths and weaknesses, do some more research. Try to visit campus, review the school’s website again, and ask questions of admissions, faculty, and current students. Don’t just gather external information; also look for internal information. Your gut instinct about each college is important to weigh as well.
Narrow your options. After mulling over what matters most to you and weighing each college’s strengths and weaknesses, you’ll likely find that at least a few of your options don’t resonate as strongly with you. It’s OK to let those colleges go. You can only attend one college in the end. While it may be hard to “let go” of options, it is a necessary step.
This is also the time to let go of the colleges that didn’t work out. Logically, you know that there are very good reasons why attending a certain college isn’t possible. You weren’t admitted, were placed on a waitlist with a cast of thousands, didn’t receive enough financial aid, or your family has had an unexpected change in circumstances that’s affected what is and isn’t possible. But, often, when we discover that a particular choice is no longer available, it’s hard to move on. The colleges that are possible may seem to pale in comparison to the one we can’t have. It’s always bittersweet to say good-bye to a college that you’ve dreamed about but now won’t be able to attend. Let yourself mourn a bit, but then try to quickly refocus on the great options you do have.
Compare your remaining choices in pairs. Still can’t decide? Here’s a good way to clarify your preferences. Compare your top choices in groups of two, rather than trying to compare multiple colleges all at once. Make a chart with the colleges’ names along the top and the qualities you seek along the side. For each paired comparison, write the name of the college that seems to best match the characteristic you’re looking for. Don’t forget to use both your head (logic) and heart (instinct) as you consider each pair of choices. When you’re done, add up which colleges received the most “votes” as you compared them to the others. Narrow your list further by eliminating any colleges that clearly don’t stand up to the other options.
There are no perfect college choices; there are only different ones. Deciding where to attend college is the last step in the long and tiring college application journey. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you must be absolutely 100% certain that you’ve chosen the perfect college to guarantee your future happiness and success. In truth, there is no perfect college, nor are there any guarantees of your success. In the end, your college experience will be defined more by the attitude with which you approach it than by the actual college you attend. After you’ve made your decision about where you’re heading next fall, go forward with confidence that you’ve made a great choice and that all will be well as you start this exciting new journey.
