Overview

Many students begin the college planning process with an emotional attachment to colleges and universities for such reasons as publicity, nationally ranked athletic programs, colleges where friends or family have attended, brand such as the “Ivy League,” or reputation as the “Best State University,” or selectivity (e.g., Northwestern, Duke, MIT, Rice, Baylor, Vanderbilt, or CalTech). Rarely are such lists developed based on academic match or the school’s institutional financial aid policies. If you have embraced the activities and engaged in thorough research, your preliminary college list (e.g., state colleges and universities, private colleges and universities, and community colleges and technical schools) of institutions that meet your criteria and to which you will be a competitive candidate for being offered admission may be a very different list from your initial list. Your research may have introduced you to new colleges, removed some of your top colleges from your list, and developed a final college list that reflective of a collaboration with your parents, mentor, or college planning counselor. This activity will assist in synthesizing the information gathered from the previous activities and through such sources as college fairs, college visits, websites, counselors, coaches, parents, and other students.

Objective

Develop a comprehensive final college list (e.g., state colleges and universities, private colleges and universities, and community colleges and technical schools) of institutions that meet your criteria and to which you will be a competitive candidate for being offered admission.

Estimated time to complete: Undetermined. 

Guiding Question

As a result of college and scholarship research, what are the institutions that will: (1) meet my family’s financial needs; (2) allow me to pursue my educational/career aspirations; (3) and to which I am a competitive candidate for admission?