A few ideas:
Make a spreadsheet (and possibly another document with more extensive notes). Keep track of a variety things, so it can help when the colleges start blurring together. Some things you may want to include:
- Distribution of class sizes (general categories of many schools can be found in this aggregator, but more detailed info is available in section I-3 of a school’s Common Data Set) and it’s always best to verify info from any aggregator with the CDS.
- Clubs of interest (and whether the club is open to all or if it requires an application…and if so, how competitive it is to get in)
- Living learning communities of interest
- Requirements for entry into the honors college, and the benefits and requirements of being in the honors college
- The type of schedule (i.e. quarter, semester, 4-1-4 or 4-4-1, etc)
- How many classes/credit hours are typical per term for your proposed majors
- Any other factors that are important to you, whether it’s availability of football tickets or places to rock climb or flexibility in dorm contracts for doing a co-op, ease of getting to a drugstore/movie theater/Target, etc.
One thing that might be able to help you narrow down your focus is to do a few 4-year schedules for colleges with different types of schedules. For instance, maybe you do a 4-year plan for Amherst, Georgia Tech, and U. of Chicago. This means seeing how many classes students usually take per term and then filling in the schedule with whatever distribution requirements are needed and major requirements. Are there way more classes to fulfill distribution requirements that you’re interested than you need? That’s great! Or are you having a hard time finding classes of interest (or you hate the distribution requirements all together)?
Additionally, the reason why I keep harping on the number of classes per termis that a number of people end up having definite preferences. Some people like having fewer classes at a time because they don’t have to spread their focus too thinly on an array of subjects at the same time. Others, however, feel that being limited to, say, 4 classes/semester is way too limiting to be able to take as many classes as they’re interested in. At some schools the expectation is that they will take 32 classes over their 4-year career. At other’s it’s 40 classes. What’s your preference? There is no right or wrong answer with the preference, but if you have a preference, it can eliminate a good chunk of your list, one way or the other.
Additionally, if you’re on social media, you can subscribe to some of the school’s accounts (including the accounts of clubs of interest, etc). Pay attention to how often they’re doing things that interest you. You can also ask to speak to a student and/or faculty member with particular interests and then get a better idea of what the feel might be like as well.
It’s great that you are focusing on finding a safety you would like to attend. That’s the most important school on your list. If, after reviewing the colleges that have already been suggested, you still can’t find a school you like, please let us know what you didn’t like about the other schools and more of what you’re hoping to find so we can try and give you better suggestions. Ditto for targets.
Good luck with this whole process; we’re rooting for you!