Hi there! I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from this video on Youtube recently, so I wanted to provide some writings on it as well for those incoming undergraduate students. (Congratulations to you!) Just expand this post to see my full article and the video.
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First off: two pieces of quick advice before we get into how to decide.
breathe. relax. making the “wrong” choice won’t be the end of the world
two: take and pass as many AP tests as you can in high school – it’ll save you so much time and money in college
Dream School: ED, EA, shoot your shot —> if you get in, fantastic! You’re done 🙂
Let’s talk about why it’s important to choose the right school
Social life, your personality, your friend groups
Your future: the city you’ll be based in, the career path
your experiences shape you —>
Step 1: Search within, do a personal evaluation
so do an inventory check on what you’re excited about for college, before evaluating certain options
Do a SWOT analysis: I always think you should understand yourself, your goals, your needs and then apply it to your environment
Step 2: Consider the Basics
Some of the most important factors to consider:
Cost: Tuition price, cost of living, meal plans- student loans —> also compromise by doing community college for a year first before attending your expensive dream school
Majors + academic environment
Campus culture: conservative/liberal, party culture? artsy diverse culture?
Friends: some people go somewhere where a lot of friends are going or best friends going, some like to go somewhere where not a lot of people are going, because it pushes them out of comfort zone
Location: it’ll be your city, it’ll also be the base for many opportunities
Intuition: do you have a gut feeling?
Prestige Biased: don’t be prestige biased, it really doesn’t matter that much in the long scheme of things
Step 3: RESEARCH
Research, research, research: niche, youtube videos, call people who go there—> best way is to visit the campus (if you can’t travel far, maybe go to a local college and walk around and feel it out) (take videos of the campus so you can rewatch when you get home)
Benchmark/compare it to experiences you’ve had in the past: It’s a big decision to make at an early point in your life— I could barely decide what outfit to wear to school, much less where I’d be spending the next four years of my life. But most of us have probably gone to high school, camp, programs, think back to those experiences and recall what you liked or didn’t like about those environments.
Step 4:
sleep on it- you don’t have to decide immediately
Make pros and cons lists
Step 5: Ask for advice
your friends and family
do this last so that you’re not too influenced by their opinions
Step 6: Accept and pay your deposits:
use the paperwork in your acceptance packet or portal, pay the deposit —> graduate high school and don’t fk up too much
Step 7: College
Enter college- know that these next four years are going to teach you so much!
There’s no such thing as a perfect choice or knowing the future, but know that no matter how things pan out, if you’re exactly what you hoped for, or maybe different from your expectations, know that you can still choose to have a great time in any college you go too! The choice is yours.
Good luck and all the best,
-Ally
