Form A Custom College List For Free

As a high school student you hear many college names, but don’t know if that school would be a good fit for you. Too often students apply to a university for its sports teams, because their friends are applying there, or because it has a famous name. These reasons could end up costing a lot of money with application fees and worse, tuition for a school where you are unhappy.

Below are 5 free opportunities to dig deeper and discover which colleges may be a good fit for you.

Attend College Rep Visits: Admissions counselors visit high schools each fall to meet with prospective students. They usually take place during school hours in small groups. Learn where and when these visits are in your school and attend as many as possible. This is a marvelous way to uncover what you like about colleges and avoid what you don’t want in a college. Having access to an admissions counselor is a rare opportunity to ask questions which are not answered on the website.

Attend A College Fair: Free College Fairs are conducted in larger cities across the country. Often these are sponsored by NACAC and provide a chance for you to speak with admissions counselors representing many different colleges all in one place.

Contact Admissions Offices: Reach out by email or phone to admissions offices of colleges you’d like to learn more about. Their job is to help you envision yourself attending their institution and will be happy to converse with you. You may wish to arrange a free campus visit or contact a member of a specific department to learn more about their program. The Admissions Office can help you with all of that and be sure to get on their mailing list for announcements of information sessions.

Follow Social Media: Posts are from current students and not filtered by university staff. Get a sense of the student vibe on campus. You may even wish to attend a student hosted event.

Speak to Alumni: Who do you know who is a college graduate? Ask them about their experience. What did they like, what didn’t they like? Are these characteristics in line with the kind of experience you are looking for?

Your list of colleges will change as you learn more. That’s what makes it custom. Utilizing free resources to curate an informed list will cut down on the possibility of costly mistakes.

– Ann Voorhees is founder of Ann Voorhees College Consulting

ann@annvoorhees.com