Scared of making a mistake

intparent
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 10:35:54 +0000

You need a systematic way to approach this. Some suggestions:

Use a “Fiske Guide to Colleges” and a pack of post it notes to identify colleges that appeal to you. (If you aren’t clear on your major, a step back to the “College Book of Majors” with a pack of post-its is a good idea before doing the Fiske process).

Discuss finances and geography with your parents. They have to be on board with whatever you are doing.

Run the Net Price Calculator on the website of the colleges you are interested in. Your parents should help you with that, and take a look at the results. If a college does not appear to be affordable, drop it from your list no matter how great you think it is. Note that if your parents have a small business, trusts, or are divorced, your cost is probably higher than the NPC shows.

If you can visit, arrange that if possible. It sounds like you are a rising senior and may not have much time left to visit. Do what you can…

If you can’t visit, review the college website carefully, go on the “virtual tour” if they have one, and read up on the colleges out here on CC. Look at the visit comments out here and go back through old postings on the specific college forum. It will * out if I type it regularly, but c-o-l-l-e-g-e p-r-o-w-l-e-r is another website I like to get a flavor for a specific school.

Split your list into reach, match, and safety schools. Generally a match is one where your test scores fall between the 50-75% on both Math and CR (if you took the SAT) or ACT overall score. Also a match usually accepts a reasonably large % of their applicants. A safety is a school you are almost sure to get into and are certain you can afford. Reaches are those where your test scores aren’t above the 50% mark and/or the % of students accepted are low. Try to shoot for a list that looks something like 2 safeties, 4 matches, and 2 reaches. If you can only visit some – honestly, my advice is to focus on matches and safeties. You are a lot more likely to end up at one of those schools than a reach school, so you want to make sure you have seen them in person if possible before making a final decision next spring.

It is good to keep a spreadsheet tracking the key information about your schools, application deadlines, costs, scholarships, etc. We also kept a paper folder on each college as well with their mailings, notes from visits, a copy of the application once it was sent in, etc.

If you take a systematic approach like this, you are less likely to “make a mistake” in the process.