With application deadlines around the corner, the time for firming up colleges has finally arrived for high school seniors! While doing this amount of research can be a daunting process, it is also an extremely important one because where you choose to apply will probably end up being where you spend the next 3-5 years of your life!

However, if approached in an organized and thorough manner, you can actually make this process fun, whilst ensuring that your college list is well researched, balanced and most importantly a great fit for YOU!

One common misconception is to blindly follow rankings and rank tables. Even though they may give you a wider sense of where a college is placed, a lot of times you will find that rankings change from year to year and differ amongst different surveyors. More often than not, rankings could depend on factors such as the number of students who go on to do a PhD, which hardly have an impact on your undergraduate experience. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that while you could use rank tables to broadly categorize universities, it is not necessary that a university ranked at #18 will provide you with a better experience than one ranked #29.

This probably leads you to wonder, “What should I be looking at when finalizing my college list?”. To answer this simply I would advise you to focus on ‘fit’ more than anything else. And what we mean by fit, is, how does this college provide you with the opportunities and resources that best suit your needs, aspirations and goals?

Fit can be determined using a wide range of criteria. Then again, different criteria could pose different levels of importance for different students. For example, if you are a squash player, then squash facilities could be one of your top priorities whereas if you are really interested in learning how to ski, going to a college that has close access to mountains would be important to you! Similarly, if you perform much better in small classes then ensuring smaller class sizes could be a very important factor for you.

Regardless of which countries you are applying to, doing research on the criteria listed below will allow you to ensure that the colleges you apply to are the right fit for you and will give you what you are looking for.

1. Course - Does your university provide you with the course that you want to study? If you are still undecided or want to study an amalgamation of different academic areas, does your college offer you any flexibility?
2. Entry Requirements – Are you fulfilling the entry requirements for the university/course? Is your list well balanced with enough Dream, Target and Safety schools?
3. Location – Would you rather be on a traditional campus in a suburban setting or in a college town, or would you rather be in a big city?
4. Weather- Does climate matter? Would you rather be somewhere warm, moderate or very cold?
5. University/Class Size – Do you perform better in smaller learning environments, or would you rather be in a much larger university with lots of students? You could also opt for something mid-sized.
6. Student Diversity – Is being around lots of international students from all around the world important to you?
7. Cost of Education & Living – Does the overall expense required for the university align with the amount you are willing to spend?
8. Scholarships Available – How important are scholarships for you? Does the university offer any that you might be able to avail of?
9. Study Abroad – Do you want to spend some time in another city/country other than where your university is located? Does the university offer study abroad programs or semesters abroad that you find exciting?
10. Internship Opportunities – Does the university place students at internships or do they offer any co-op programs?
11. Research – As an undergraduate student, will you have adequate opportunities for research?
12. Course related facilities available – For example, if you are interested specifically in the natural sciences, what sort of lab facilities are offered by the university?
13. Extracurricular Activities – Outside of the classroom, does this university offer you the activities that you are passionate about? This could be anything - Music, Sports, Debate, Theatre, Community Service etc.
14. Personal Criteria – Any other criteria that are important to you/ without which your college experience would not be as fulfilling!

Please keep in mind that you can change the order of these criteria in any way that appeals to you- keeping the important criteria right at the top and ending with the ones that you find have the smallest impact on your learning and university life. Also note that not every college will offer each and everything that you are looking for, so you will also need to be flexible to some extent whilst short-listing, in order to have a balanced list.

We hope you found these guidelines helpful and that you end up with a comprehensive college list that you are very happy with! If you have any further questions, feel free to get in touch!