Here are the steps for helping your teen choose a college

• Get to know their interests and preferences

• Discover what specific qualities they want in a college

• Create an initial list of colleges that match this criteria

• Research their chances of getting into each of these colleges and organize the school list by “reach,” “maybe,” and “likely.”

• Narrow down those results into a final list of colleges

• Apply away!

MAPPING INTERESTS, PREFERENCES, AND COLLEGE QUALITIES

Ideally, a student can go somewhere quiet, like the top of a mountain, and really think about two things: Who are they and what do they want?

This also offers a way that parents and students can grow closer through this process—help them think through what they value (maybe even do this Values Exercise together; we’ll recommend it for essay brainstorming anyway) and what kind of life they want to live.

For a brief breakdown of differences between different types of schools (Public v private, in vs out of state, etc), please check this section of the Paying for College Guide—we’d highly recommend thinking through financial aid as your family builds a college list.

We also recommend the 80-question “Self-Survey for the College Bound” in Dr. Steven Antonoff’s book The College Match. If you’re unable to buy the book and just want the worksheet, Steven gives it away on his website.

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Action Item: Download the Self-Survey Worksheet for the College Bound

And to further explore, students can use these:

• College Planning Values Assessment

• Self-Knowledge Questionnaire

• Qualities That Will Make a College Right for You

• Activities and Experiences Worksheet

These aren’t meant to be exhaustive, says Dr. Antonoff, but instead are meant to start a conversation. Complete these exercises over the course of an afternoon, and you’ll have begun that conversation.

Another way is to start with the key characteristics that might differentiate colleges from one another. For this, Corsava offers tools to sort and rate preferences.

WHERE TO START FINDING THE RIGHT COLLEGES?

After some self-discovery with the above exercises, we highly recommend using collegexpress.com to search according to interests. There, you can type in anything from “Schools for the Free Spirit” to “Great Private Colleges for the B Student,” and you’ll get results.

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Action Item: Download and make a copy of our Ultimate College List Research Tracker

Go to “File” and click “Make a copy...” so you can have an editable version.

As students research, notice which colleges are coming up repeatedly.

Type the list of schools into that document.

Like this:

At first, aim for 15-20 colleges on an initial list, and whittle it down over time through further research.

A student can share this list with anyone helping them (a counselor, friend, or parent) using the “Share” button in the top right corner.

WHERE SHOULD STUDENTS RESEARCH COLLEGES?

Here are a few of our favorite places:

• Stay on www.collegexpress.com, and type in the school name. Then click “Lists” to see what other lists that school is on.

• For the pro perspective, check out the Fiske Guide to Colleges, which is the go-to guide for college research.  It has great 2- 3-page summaries of hundreds of colleges and is a great starting point. 

• For the student perspective, go to unigo.com to read real students’ opinions on their schools. But don’t just read 1-2 reviews; read a bunch of them.

• For virtual campus tours, check out CampusReel.org, led by real, current students, usually in selfie-mode on their phone.

• Students can participate in virtual college fairs through StriveScan, and here’s a guide to how to make the most of an in-person college fair.

HOW MANY COLLEGES SHOULD STUDENTS APPLY TO?

A good range to aim for is about 6-12 schools, but we like to recommend 10 schools. Why 10? Because that allows students to divide a list like this:

We’d recommend building from the bottom up, rather than top down: Find schools a student would be happy to go to at each level, rather than pinning emotional hopes on schools that are long shots for every applicant.

HOW CAN STUDENTS KNOW THEIR CHANCES OF GETTING IN?

In general, it’s tough to perfectly predict someone’s chances of getting into any college. Why?

Colleges often have institutional goals they have to meet that you have no control over and are tough to predict, including ensuring that they admit students to certain majors, from diverse backgrounds or geographic areas, like in state vs. out of state. This is why it’s super important to have a balanced list of colleges, and the four categories above are a good guideline.

With that in mind, to find out generally whether a school is a Wild Card, Reach, Maybe, or Likely, it can help to look at three main factors:

1. The school’s general acceptance rate

2. Average weighted and unweighted GPA for last year’s incoming freshman

3. Average SAT/ACT scores for last year’s incoming freshman

There are other factors that can impact chances of acceptance and become important factors for very selective colleges, including:

• Whether someone has a “hook” or unique story that helps them stand out among thousands of other applicants

• The popularity or competitiveness of a major (e.g., computer science or other STEM majors tend to be much more competitive)

• A school’s institutional priorities

• What students are doing outside of class (extracurricular activities)

• Whether students are applying Early Decision, Early Action, or Regular Decision

But rather than spending endless hours debating whether a school is a reach or a wild card, it’s best to use general acceptance rate, GPA, and test scores as a good guide in deciding whether a school is a Wild Card, Reach, Maybe, or Likely. 

Here are a few of our favorite tools for assessing your chances

• Mark Moody’s Quick and Dirty College List Builder is a great tool for helping students get a rough idea of their college admissions chances.  

• Cappex provides a great tool that allows students to input weighted and unweighted GPA, test scores, and college preferences, and it will match students with schools that meet those preferences but will also provide a rough sense of chance of admission. Bonus: Cappex also will give you the average Net Price paid by students (which is different from the sticker price) as well as the merit scholarships that are available at each school to which you are applying under the “Scholarships” tab. 

• CollegeData, as its name suggests, has TONS of data on the average test scores, general acceptance rates, and average GPAs of incoming college freshmen. But it also provides great data around average financial aid packages offered, specific financial aid packages offered to students who were admitted, and loads of other numbers that might help your family plan for college costs. Keep in mind that this is mostly self-reported data, so use it with a grain of salt.

For first-generation low-income (FGLI) students, we’ve built a doc with some of our favorite resources for building a college list.

And for students in the American west, the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) is… well, they say it nicely:

WUE is an agreement among WICHE’s 16 member states and territories, through which 160+ participating public colleges and universities provide steep nonresident tuition savings for Western students.

Through WUE, eligible students can choose from hundreds of undergraduate programs outside their home state, and pay no more than 150 percent of that institution’s resident tuition rate. 

Since full nonresident college-tuition rates may exceed 300 percent of resident rates, WUE increases affordable higher-education choices for students, and minimizes the adverse impacts of student loan debt.

There’s a list of WUE four year universities here, and you can check on eligibility here.