How Not to Craft Your College List
How Not to Craft Your College List
By now, many 11th graders (and quite possibly 9th and 10th graders as well) will have begun forming opinions about which colleges are right for them. Perhaps you’ve visited a few places, taken a virtual tour, or attended a summer program in the past at one or more campuses of interest. You’ve likely heard the viewpoints of friends and siblings who have already gone through their own process.As we settle into summer, it’s time to coalesce those opinions into the perfect college list for you. Getting this part of the application process right is the most crucial; if you’ve created a list full of ideal matches for you—from your reaches to your safeties—you all but guarantee your happiness with the outcome, and thus increase your potential to succeed in college.Further, it’s easier to write about schools that fit your personality and goals; and thoroughly articulating the “why” behind your application makes it easier for an admissions officer to advocate for you in committee. So while you’re in the thick of test prep and beginning to think about what you might want to say in an essay, take a step back and focus on the why behind all of this: finding the right college or university for you. Let’s make sure your list gives you the best chance to do that. Read on to learn more about common traps to avoid as you do that.
Avoid Creating Someone Else’s List
Is Harvard on your college list just because your older sister went there? Are you applying to UCLA because all your friends are? How interested are you really in the schools on your list? Your college process must be your own. Certainly, your friends and family will influence you, but ultimately you have to attend school for yourself and live with the consequences of your choices. If you shape your list based on other people’s preferences, you run a serious risk of not liking the schools that wind up on it. As you consider whether or not a school should make your final list, ask yourself if the connection you feel to it is based on your own wants and needs or someone else’s.
Avoid the “Spaghetti” Approach
Applying to college is not like cooking pasta. Throwing apps at the wall and seeing what sticks is not only a poor use of your time, it’s also poor strategy. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t take rejection too personally, you might be tempted to apply very broadly and “just see” where you get into, then make your decision. What is the harm? Some schools even make this particularly enticing by eliminating their application fee or not requiring additional writing. The problem with this approach is two-fold: firstly, you decrease the effectiveness of your application when you don’t have a connection to the school. Standing out from your peers requires more than having grades and scores in the admissible range for your school of interest. You must also be able to show why that college is ideal for you. If you haven’t taken the time to do that research or, even more to the point, if you aren’t that interested in the school, it will be nearly impossible to convince an admissions officer to support your application. Secondly, the more broadly students employ this approach, the more competitive they make the applicant pool overall. Just imagine how many talented students are applying to your favorite college on a whim or because they “just want to see if they can get in” instead of because they really want to go there. Each time this happens, your odds of admission decrease slightly. Consider that as you decide which schools make the cut on your own list.
Avoid Treating Safeties Like Afterthoughts
You should be happy to attend every school on your list. If you don’t feel confident saying that about your current safety options, it’s time to find new ones. So much of the application process is out of your control. That’s why it’s important to give yourself the best shot at general success by carefully selecting each school on your list and then creating meaningful, mistake-free applications. Hopefully you are admitted to your dream college; but this isn’t the reality for everyone, even students who do everything right. Take time to envision yourself at each school on your list and identify positives about that experience. Avoid carelessness, both with your decision-making and in the execution of your work. Doing so will keep more doors open for you.
Avoid Familiarity Bias
There are some amazing colleges and universities that you’ve never heard of. As you’re putting your list together, avoid dismissing schools too early because they aren’t household names. Finding the right fit for you will require some deep digging. You will have to get to know yourself better and remain open to new ideas or experiences that might not have seemed possible at a different point in your process. Try not to close yourself off from a place that may offer the exact combination of things you need just because you aren’t initially familiar with it. Embrace that curiosity and stretch your knowledge base. Likewise, try to avoid putting artificial deadlines on completing your list. It’s done when it’s done. You can make progress on your applications even if your list isn’t locked in stone by the end of summer. Control what you can and keep an open mind for the ways that you’ll continue to grow and evolve as your college search moves from cloudy to concrete.
The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.
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