The college hunt: How to begin?

Most high school students feel baffled and overwhelmed by the intensity of the college search process and prefer to put it off for as long as possible. I started the summer before my junior year, but only at the urging of my parents. They asked for a potential list of colleges around mid-July, and I went on my first college tour in the last week of August. Since then, I’ve visited thirteen schools, with about three more visits to make this summer. I’ve added and discarded many colleges from my list as I went, and learned a lot about the most effective strategies to utilize when you’re starting to look at colleges.

Here are a few important tips if you're starting to look at colleges:

•    Start early. My classmates thought I was crazy, going on college visits before junior year had even started, but in my opinion the earlier you start, the better off you are. It’s no joke trying to plan out how to visit all the schools you want to see over a couple of three or four day weekends during the school year. If you can knock out a school or two the summer before junior year, you have to weave one or two less schools into your college visiting trips.

•    Do your research. If you’re unable to visit schools this summer, poke around on college websites and start a list of schools that you’re interested in. This U.S. News Best Colleges Road Trips website gives a really good look at many popular colleges that you may be too far to visit. If your high school offers Naviance or other similar college-search databases, use them. You can search the name of a school and see all the important statistics, how you measure up to their standards, and the link to the college’s own website. Based on all of this, start thinking about what you want in a school in terms of size, location, programs, sports, etc. You want to find the schools you’ll be happy at and forget the rest; don’t waste a college tour on a school that you already know you won’t apply to because of certain characteristics.

•    Actually visit the colleges! The best way to find your perfect college match is to see the campus in person and experience the student body as it functions in day-to-day life. A college might look great online, but you might not actually love it as much as you think you will, and vice versa. Keep an open mind and take advantage of all the opportunities you can find to visit schools.

    Parents, if your son or daughter is going to be a junior this September and hasn’t begun thinking about college yet, gently let them know it’s a good idea to start. Discuss various options with them and provide suggestions; they may have no idea where to begin looking. Don’t put too much pressure on them, though. They probably already feel overwhelmed, and more stress from you is exactly the opposite of what they need.

    Rising juniors, start considering which colleges you might want to go to.  Explore college websites and read up on the available tour dates and hours. Figuring out where you want to go to school can be a daunting, scary process if you get too far behind. The earlier you start, the less stressful it will be.

Have you or your kids been looking at colleges? If so, do you have any college-search tips to add?