How to Make Your Final Decision on College

The 3 Big Issues to consider when making your final choice on which college you will attend.

It always amazes admissions professionals how the decisions about university selection are made. Just as often as students make careful, reasoned, decisions about their matches, they make rather whimsical decisions based on unpredictable events: they visited campus on a rainy day and it colored their view about the school’s atmosphere, or perhaps they have a friend of a friend currently studying somewhere who says that a college is “cool.”

You’ve applied many criteria in narrowing down your application choices. Now that you are choosing among admission offers, though, broad categories such as academic level, and possibly size and location, have been decided. This next decision round can become more a
matter of gut feeling than logic. Nonetheless, there are some rational tools you can use to evaluate the choices.

ATMOSPHERE: First and foremost, you are seeking to place your child where he will be happy and therefore succeed. Academically, you want to choose the school offering the necessary majors, as well as a range of academic strengths in case, as so often happens, he wants to change his mind. Your child may want a place where he is among the smartest, or a place where he is challenged by his peers and may have to work harder; achieving academically will be easier in the right classroom. The school should also be a match for your child’s personality. For example, if your child likes crowds, don’t push the tiny suburban or rural school. Your child needs a core group like himself and the comfort to feel free to
express himself.

COST: After weighing the pros and cons of your financial packages, and/or the pros and cons of the state school at the lower cost versus the private school, choose a school which you will be able to afford without making such a sacrifice that it hurts too much and adds too much pressure on both you and your child.

LOGISTICS: Consider what you value as a family in location and communication patterns. How far away is the school? Is it OK to fly between your home and the college? Does your child need to be close to home and want to come home on weekends? What is the comfortable distance you want between yourselves: a car ride, a phone call, or a couple of time zones away? Be clear about this factor—it can color the whole family’s experience for four (or more) years.