How to Go About A College Search

When you are getting your child ready to go to college it seems that you can get answers to almost every question out there. There is information that is provided to you about financial aid, how to apply for each college, the SAT’s, etc. But the one thing that doesn’t get a lot of attention is how to search for the right college for your child. Basically you are expected to pull all of this information out of a hat and choose the college that is best for your child. But the question is how do you even begin searching for a college let alone narrowing it down with how many colleges are already out there.

Difficulty rating: Easy

Step One:

The first thing that you need to do when doing a college search is to know about important questions and considerations about the colleges when you are looking for a college. Some of the questions and considerations are:

•Housing
•What type of housing is available
•Is student housing guaranteed for four years
•Would I have a roommate or live alone
•Admissions
•What are the admissions requirements
•What is the school known for
•What is the most popular major offered? What other major’s are offered

Step Two:

The next thing that you need to think about is what you are going to specialize in, or what your major is going to be. What you need to look for is what the colleges specialize in. Most colleges offer the most popular majors and departments as all the other colleges but some schools will specialize in certain areas, such as business, medicine, or they will have a department that is nationally known. So by knowing what you want to study you can help narrow down the choices of colleges.

Step Three:

Now you are going to need to think about what you are actually looking for, you are going to need to determine your preferences. Basically what this means is that you are going to need to create a list of the things that the college must have and the things that the college can’t have. Some things that you want to think about is how far away you want to go to school, is it a coed school, how much the school costs, etc.

Step Four:

When putting your list together you are going to want to make sure that you organize you list. What this means is that you are going to need to come up with some way of rating your list. You are going to want to determine what you favorite things are, the worst things and the things that you can tolerate.

Step Five:

Now you want to go through and make a list about the colleges that you are considering and write down what each college has to offer. You are going to want to write down the things you like about each college and the things you don’t.

Step Six:

Now you are going to want to get more information about the colleges that you are considering. You can call the colleges directly, you can visit them to get the information or you can visit the college online at their website and request more information.

Step Seven:

Once you get the information from the various colleges you are going to need to go through your list of likes and dislikes and then your preferences list to see what colleges will come off the list because they don’t match your needs or they have things going on campus that you don’t agree with. Basically you are going to need to narrow down the search field.

Step Eight:

Now you need to start planning college trips to the college choices that you have left.