adventures of a typical high school student

Hello everyone!

I recently wrote a post on beginning my college search, and I realized there was one thing I could’ve elaborated on more. When you’re starting to find colleges that you’re interested in, you’ll want to create a form of list where you can keep track of them and their information. I think the best way to do this for most people is to create a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet can be very large (I know mine is right now!) when you’re first beginning to look at different schools, but it will shrink down as you go through high school and get closer to actually applying.

• Determine what platform you’ll use – I personally used Microsoft Excel for mine, but Google Sheets also works great. I would recommend either of these, but use whatever works best for you.
• Do some surface-level research to start – It’s totally fine to just put down the main schools you’re familiar with at first, or schools that your family members went to. Start by looking up schools near you, then starting to weigh options such as out-of-state vs. in-state or research universities vs. liberal arts schools. You’ll start to get an idea of the different things to look for in a college.
• Look up rankings of schools (**based on programs/majors you’re interested in!!) – Obviously you never want to make a choice based solely on rankings, but looking at these long lists of schools can help you discover some that you’ve never heard of. I also recommend only looking at rankings that are specifically geared towards certain programs/majors, since that’s what you’ll actually attend the school for.
• Use tools such as Naviance or College Board’s college search tool – Similar to looking at rankings, these tools can help you discover schools that you wouldn’t otherwise. You can put in certain criteria in lots of different categories and start to file down to colleges that have it all (almost!). There are tons of websites that do this out there, but I think Naviance and the College Board search are the most popular ones.
• Come up with categories of info you want on your spreadsheet – When you actually make your spreadsheet, you’re not just going to want to have a list of school names. For example, on mine I have the location (city, state), if it’s a state school or private school, if it’s a research school or a liberal arts school, if they have Greek life or not, and if they have some sort of honors college/program or not. Whatever your priorities are that you put into the search tools online, put these in the spreadsheet.
• Input everything and add or subtract schools as you go through high school – As you get closer to senior year you will be able to eliminate a lot of choices, and get a better idea of what you want in a school. If you can, visit your top choices from your list and/or talk to students who attend them about their experience.
• Sign up for the mailing lists of the schools on your spreadsheet – I wrote a post, “How to Get Mail From Colleges”, about this a while ago, so go check that out if you haven’t already! I suggest doing this because you will get brochures and emails about all of the colleges, which provides more information and gives you a better feel for the school. Be warned: your inbox may get spammed.

I hope this helped you guys out and encourages you to get started on your own college search. Remember, it’s completely fine to start out small and not knowing what you want- that’s natural, especially if you’re not an upperclassman. As always, I’m here to answer questions and take requests for future content!

-Brooke