Start Early
Think middle school is too early to start your college search? “No way!” says The College Board’s April Bell. “Starting early allows you freedom.” While you don’t have to start actually going on tours or applying yet, start asking around to cousins, siblings, and friends about their schools, and find out what they like about their universities.
Exploration
When you start your search, consider your likes, dislikes, and goals, and then search accordingly. If you know what major you want to study, search by that, but don’t let that be the only filter you use, warns Bell. Search by all types of factors, like location, cost, extracurricular activities, sports, setting (urban or rural), and student-to-teacher ratio. Oh, and of course male-to-female ratio!
Search On
The “exploration” part will require lots of research. Use free time to explore schools by checking out their websites, and spend time utilizing the search tool on sites like Big Future. You can filter searches by things that are specifically important to you, like a school having Greek life, a student newspaper, or having a population of under 10,000 students.
Freshman Year
First thing you should do freshman year (besides swoon over the hot upperclassmen!) is to start planning ahead with your classes. Sites like Big Future have credit calculators where you plug in all the classes you’ve taken, and it will show if you’re on track for certain types of schools. No worries if you don’t know exactly where you want to go yet—you can plan ahead based on the type of school you’re interested in.
Touring Schools
Use your first year of high school as time to begin visiting schools. Make a list of the schools you want to see, and then spend the next few years getting to them. If trekking across the country isn’t in your budget, don’t worry—many colleges have a “virtual tour” app on their site so you can see the campus in real time. Or, you can use the streetview portion of Google maps.
Sophomore Year
By sophomore year you should have a solid list of the schools you’re planning on applying to and visiting. Road trip! Also be sure you’re keeping track of your credits and the types of classes you take, so you meet the college’s requirement. For example, some schools mandate that you take two years of a language to be admitted, while others want you to take at least four years of math.
Junior Year
Your third year of high school is when you begin to really narrowing down your list. Consider things like how many schools you want to apply to, their locations, your likelihood of getting accepted, and the big one—cost.
The good news? All colleges and universities are now required to have a net price calculator on their websites. Sounds tricky, but it’s simple and user-friendly, we promise! You just put in your family’s financial information, and they’ll tell you exactly how much that specific school will cost for you.
Senior Year
By senior year, you should know what you want out of school, where you want to go, and where exactly you’re applying. Visits should be complete and the year—specifically the fall months—should be dedicated to filling out applications. Try to get your apps sent in with SAT scores, letters of recommendation, and a personal essay, before your winter break. Then you won’t feel guilty when senioritis sets in!
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