Questions to ask yourself as you begin your college search

It is up to you to decide what you want in a college. Your goals, values, interests and preferences will be important factors in determining which colleges belong on your initial list.

You must also become a good consumer in the college market. If you are reading this blog, you are probably the target of college public relations specialists who will send you reams of advertisements in the hope of getting you to apply. Unless you begin with some framework about what you are looking for in a college, you might become overwhelmed when you begin your research.

• Why do you want to go to college?
• What is essential to your well-being?
• Are there certain places, activities, particular terrains, or weather conditions that make you happy?
• Do you prefer a fast-paced environment where something is happening most of the time?
• Do you prefer an organized environment where you can join a wide variety of planned activities?
• Do you prefer a more serene and relaxed environment where you can go your own way? What degree of academic challenge is best for you?
• What balance of study, activities, and social life suits you best?
• How interested are you in the substance of intellectual life: books, ideas, issues, and discussions?
• Do you want an academic program where you must work and think hard or one where you can make respectable grades without knocking yourself out?
• Is it important to you to be at the top of your class, or would you be satisfied to be in the middle or bottom of your college class?
• How well do you respond to academic pressure and competition from others?
• How important to you is contact with faculty?
• Do you enjoy interacting with your current teachers and speaking with them outside the classroom?
• Do you like a lot of attention from faculty or do you prefer to fly under the radar?
• Do you like lively classroom discussions in which you are an active participant, or do you prefer the idea of being anonymous in large lectures?
• How would it feel if your teachers did not know your name?
• How do you want to grow and change in the next few years?
• What kind of environment would stimulate the growth you would like to see?
• What kind of environment would inhibit the growth you would like to see?
• What interests do you want to pursue in college?
• Do your interests require any special facilities, programs, or opportunities? Consider all of your interests, such as fields of study, activities, community and cultural opportunities.
• Are you more interested in career preparation, technical training or general knowledge and skills of inquisitive thinking?
• How would your feel about going to a college where you were rarely told what to do, or what courses to take?
• How much structure and direction do you need?
• How would you enjoy living in a different part of the country?
• How often do you want to be able to go home?
• What kind of changes in your lifestyle and perspective might be exciting?
• What kind of changes in your environment might be distressing and overwhelming?
• Where would your family like to see you go to school?
• What kinds of financial considerations exist?
• What amount of risk do you want to assume in your selection of schools?
• How will you feel about yourself if you are rejected at one or more of your top choices?
• How do you plan to select your colleges so that you set yourself up for success in the admissions process?