The preliminary step of the college application is researching universities. Identifying colleges and universities that are a good fit for your academic and social needs is crucial to your college application process. You should create a balanced list of reach, target, and likely schools where you can be admitted and meet your requirements. Creating a balanced list of colleges and universities lets you personalize your applications and communicate your goals to the admissions committee more efficiently.
We recommend using the four-step strategy to build a balanced college list:
Research yourself
The preliminary step of university research is first to research yourself. You can start by examining your preferences, priorities, interests, and ambitions. You have to look inside yourself before you start looking outside. Before you ask which college is right for you, as yourself who you are and who you want to be.
Asking yourself “Who am I?” could include a lot of sub-questions to ponder about, including:
Your interests and activities
Your personality
Your school journey
Your Academics
Your preferred learning style
Research the colleges
Once you research yourself, you know your priorities and things to look for in your school. As you figure out what the schools have to offer, you’ll primarily be looking for the schools that meet your needs and wants you to begin to establish in the first step of the process. While researching schools, you’ll also discover personal priorities you hadn’t already considered. Here’s a list of some significant factors to look at when you research schools:
Location
Setting
Size
Academic Programs
Cost
Athletics
Extracurricular Activities
Diversity
Campus culture
Make some matches
Once you know your own set of priorities and researched schools, you’re halfway there! In this step, we aim to shortlist colleges that are a good match between your grades and preferences. Herein, make sure your list has lots of variety, particularly about size, location, and private vs. public schools. You do not necessarily have to know what you will ultimately want.
Balance the list
You must now begin objectively evaluating your academic records because it’s crucial that the list you develop includes schools you are genuinely interested in but is also realistic about where you can be admitted. Your list must span a range of selectivity and cost – how hard it is to be accepted and where you will be able to afford to attend.
Make sure you build a balanced list with colleges from different categories. Here, you can refer to our resources on building a balanced college list.
As you look for what colleges offer, you will be looking for those that meet your established needs and wants. Your goal will be to find at least three to five colleges for each listed priority. You might eliminate many of these colleges as you learn about schools, but it’s a good idea to start with enough on your list.
Online Research Resources
There’s no shortage of resources to seek and research information from when it comes to colleges and universities. The real challenge is exploring through abundance and finding meaningful data from this information. Here’s a list of resources you can resort to while researching universities.
College Websites
One of the most reliable sources of information is the college’s website. Almost anything a student wants to know – from the choice of majors and programs to dormitories to application details – can be found on the website. Not just this information, websites are generally illustrative of a school, its students, and its mission. Still, it is also practical: a definitive source for admission requirements and application deadlines, dates and times, and contact information for getting straight to the source of your questions. Therefore, we recommend visiting the official college websites before visiting other websites for information.
Review-and-discuss sites
These websites are social networks that offer a little bit of everything – college databases, search tools, admission advice, and financial aid resources. In addition, there’s some good insider information at these sited in the form of student reviews that give you the scoop on aspects of campus life you might not learn about from the admission offices. However, you need to monitor your intake to discern the facts from the gossip. These sites could include:
Unigo (unigo.com) – This social network allows college students to post reviews, photos, videos, and other candid commentaries about their schools for prospective applicants. The site’s strength lies in its student-generated reviews.
College Prowler (colleges.niche.com) – It is a student-generated guidebook that issues a report card for colleges. This site paints a helpful – and sometimes unusual – broader picture for the applicants. It has helpful tools like online index cards that allow them to track schools they’re interested in.
College Confidential (collegeconfidential.com) – It is best known for its discussion forums, used by students and parents.
Matchmaking Sites
Social networking meets up with college recruitment in online matchmaking sites like Zinch (Zinch.com) and Cappex (Cappex.com). Students can create profiles where they can upload videos and audio and creatively showcase their extracurricular activities and talents. Colleges that have contracted with these websites can then search the databases to find and recruit students with specific interests or abilities. These sites also include matching programs for financial aid and scholarships.
Sites like Parchment.com are data-driven matchmaking sites that predict admissions. You can input your GPA and other information; these sites generate a target list of schools. These sites might recommend schools and colleges that you wouldn’t otherwise have considered.
Web-Based Portal Programs
Many high schools offer online portals that allow students to research, track, and plan their college admissions. These are usually free of charge to students and families. The most common and widespread program is Naviance, Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority sponsors (Waytogori.org). However, remember to consider the source and be mindful of the drawbacks of surfing for information on the Web. These sites sometimes offer additional services like essay preparation or scholarship finders, for which they might charge an additional fee.
Social media
Groups and pages on Facebook, Twitter feeds, blogs, Pinterest pages, and videos on YouTube – colleges and universities are now creating content for their social media platforms where prospective students play. These can be entertaining ways to expose you to information and campus culture. For example, you can follow a school’s Twitter feed on Tumblr, ask questions at an admissions office blog, and add colleges to your Facebook News Feed.
Search Tools
College search tools on the internet are an easy and fun way to do your research. These sites offer a large number of databases of comprehensive information on thousands of colleges and universities. Some sites also act as portals with direct links to the home pages of colleges. Other sites also allow students to help identify schools by inputting different criteria, such as location, academic interests, affiliations, GPA, etc., Some of the most widely used sites are:
The College Board (collegeboard.org)
The US Department of Education (nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator)
The Princeton Review (princetonreview.com)
US News and World Report (colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges)
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