When we started helping D20 research college and create her primary list - we asked her to think about what she wanted in a college, what her ideal image of a college was. We didn’t ask her to give a list of college names, but rather what kind of campus she thought she wanted: size, states/regions, urban/suburban/rural, etc. What she thought was important in a college: specific academic programs, study abroad options, rah-rah spirit, clubs/activities, etc. How long she was willing to travel, how often she saw wanting to come home, etc.
As she shared her thoughts, we used them to help her find colleges that fit her parameters and, importantly, our budget. College visits helped her refine her list, making her realize some of her criteria totally unimportant while other, new criteria was added after certain visits (both positive and negative visits helped this process immensely).
I agree with @blossom that figuring out your budget is one of the most important steps. If your budget is unlimited - congratulations the world is your oyster, and college choice is limited only by where your child is accepted. If you have a more limited budget, figure it out now.
Our budget was limited, and I knew non-need based merit was D20’s ticket to finding the right, affordable school. D20’s final list consisted of excellent schools that fit her parameters and our budget, all schools I had never heard of before she started her search.
As we’ve been assisting D23 this past year with her college search - we asked the same initial questions, received completely different answers, and shockingly - her final college list was made up of excellent colleges I had never heard of before she started her search, even after going through this process with D20 only three years earlier.
We started putting together S24’s junior year spring break college tour trip a couple months ago. Again, we went through the question process, ran his answers through research tools we’ve become extremely familiar with along side our trusty budget information, handed him the Fiske guide to peruse and well (finally!) I had heard of some of the schools on his list…discovered mostly from reading fantastic threads on CC and my own deep dives into the less well known areas of that trusty Fiske guide. But there are still a few I had never heard of before helping him find schools that match his personal parameters.
All of this is to say - we live in a country which truly does spoil us in the amount of excellent choices we have in higher education. There’s almost no way for most people to have a thorough understanding of how many schools really are out there waiting to be discovered as a good to great match for their child.
The worst thing, in my opinion, is to start a college search/discussion by coming up with a list of college names that have been collated through word of mouth and prestige name recognition or by test score averages on a website or the number of APs you think a student is going to be expected to have. It’s easy enough to do - a student is strong in STEM and you can guarantee friends, family members and possibly even teachers will be asking if they are planning on applying to MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Princeton, Stanford, etc.
Fewer people will be asking if Rose Hulman, Olin, WPI, RIT are on that student’s list. But maybe one of those would be a better match for the student in question. We don’t now and may never know if the search starts and stops with names people immediately recognize/already know.
Same goes for a student saying they want to attend a SLAC. Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Colgate, Davidson, Wake Forest, Denison are easy names to come up with. I mean just look at which schools automatically create links on this site as I type them in my post here.
But also very good are Clark, College of Wooster, Beloit, Earlham, Juniata, Gettysburg, Whitman, University of Puget Sound…and only one of those automatically highlights into a link once typed.
I don’t know who coined the phrase on college confidential, “Love the kid on your couch” but I still think it is one of the most profound pieces of advice given on this board. Having gone through/currently going through this process - that advice helped remind me that the college search is meant to find the right college for each one of my children; each of whom is totally their own person with specific interests, needs and preferences.
Helping them through this process is, in my mind, helping them figure out who they are, supporting their preferences as they are the ones going to school not me, searching for schools matching them and their needs and reminding them that ultimately they are the ones who are going to be dropped off at the school the August/September after graduation…so what Hamish in gym class thinks about the name of one of your colleges isn’t going to matter in about 6-18 months.
Don’t make choices based off Hamish’s comment, or a friend’s idea that the state flagship is high school 2.0, or an idea of how many AP/honors classes other people have taken and what schools they apply to. Bring this process back to your specific child, to their specific needs and wants and try to realize the rest is a lot of noise. The AP classes they take (or don’t take) have almost nothing to do with figuring out great college options. Your child’s parameters are what matters. And your budget.