Juniors, It’s Time to Pick Your Colleges. Choose Wisely.

So you just finished up your junior year in high school and you’re a senior now. Hooray! You kinda remember the college-picking hell your senior friends went through last year and promised yourself that you won’t do that yourself. And now it’s the summer before your senior year and you still haven’t started the process  Don’t worry – you’re not alone.

With over 4,000 colleges in the United States, there IS a perfect college for you.  Every college has its own unique programs and the best way to determine which ones are best for you is to think about your future career options.  You don’t need to definitively decide what you want to be when you grow up but you SHOULD choose between 1 and 5 career options.

Then take those options and make a list of possible majors.  For instance, if you want to be an elementary school teacher, you will probably major in Liberal Arts.  If you’re interested in becoming a stock broker, you’ll probably major in Business Finance.

After you’ve narrowed down your list of careers and majors, rank them from 1 to 5 (1 being your top major). Then dust off your Google-fu and find colleges that have excellent departments with a variety of concentrations and degrees for each of your top 5 majors. By selecting colleges that have the programs you’re interested in, you’ll increase the odds of finding your perfect major. You don’t want to end up on a campus that doesn’t offer the majors or minors that you’re interested in, right?

To be thorough, you’ll want to find around 50 colleges.  Check out their social life, extracurricular activities, and location. Cut about half of the colleges that don’t offer exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re not into wild parties, stay away from colleges known for their party scene. If you’re not into the Greek society, stay away from colleges that have large fraternities and sororities. If you’re not religious, stay away from conservative colleges that require religious worship and courses.

Once you have a great list of about 25 colleges that have everything you need, check out their average GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and selectivity ratings to see where you stand. Now cut 50% of the colleges using this criteria. One third of the list should be “Reach” colleges (institutions that normally select students who have higher GPAs and SAT/ACT scores than you have), one third should be “Target” colleges (those that have similar GPAs and SAT/ACT scores), and one third “Safety” colleges (colleges that you’ll definitely get into).

Finally, it’s time for a road trip to check out your top colleges. You’ll find that you’ll have a much better understanding about how you can benefit from each college or university by walking around the campus, sitting in on classes, eating on campus, and visiting the dorms. By the time you visit the colleges, you’ll have a great list of about 7 to 15 colleges that would be perfect for you.  Apply to several colleges to ensure that you’ll get in.  We’ll discuss essay topics, letters of recommendation, and other important topics soon.  So get started now!