College list building is one of the most time-intensive elements of the college application process. There are a lot of similarities between choosing colleges and screening dates for a serious, long-term relationship. Which qualities are on the top of your list? If you haven’t done a bit of soul-searching beforehand, how will you know what you’re looking for?

There are over 4000 different colleges and universities in the United States alone. As it turns out, colleges attract different types of students, share unique campus cultures, traditions, and personalities. What type of college environment is best suited for their academic and career needs? What about their social needs? Where will the student thrive as they take their first steps into adulthood?

Let the Soul-Searching Begin

Fortunately, not everyone is looking for exactly the same college characteristics or experiences, and certainly, there are more than enough colleges out there to begin to choose from. Finding the right fit will likely unfold across a series of conversations, even across a series of months or years, as adolescent students become more in-tune with their own academic and personal preferences.

When first devising a college application list, here are a sampling of questions to discuss with your student:

Academic offerings

• Do you have a clear idea of the career path you’d like to pursue? Or are you still open to explore?
• Would you attend a specialized college, where for example, all of the students are in the arts or science/technology-related field?

Academic priority/pressure

• How important is it to you to be academically challenged? Are you looking for a college with the most rigorous coursework?
• Do academics come before social life? Or do you envision more of a balance?
• How do you feel about a high competition, race-to-the-top of the class college environment?

Institution/class size

• Would you be happy at a college with the student body the size of a small high school?
• Would you feel completely lost in the crowd at a campus with over 20K+ students?
• Are large, lecture-style class sizes acceptable or do you prefer smaller, more intimate and interactive learning environments?

Geography

• In-state or out-of-state?
• East Coast, Midwest, or West Coast?
• How far away from home are you comfortable with living?
• Do you envision going to a college located smack dab in the middle of an urban center? Quiet suburban campus? Or is a small college town alright with you?

Social/cultural environment

• Co-ed or single sex?
• What about a college with a specific religious affiliation? Is this OK or a dealbreaker?
• Is diversity and inclusion important to you?
• Do you belong to a particular ethnic group? Is it important to attend college with a community of peers from your same group?

Student life/extracurriculars

• Would the student prefer to stay on or off-campus?
• Are there any extracurricular activities you’d like to continue from high school into college?
• What to do on the weekends? Is the campus a ghost town or full of student activities?
• How do you feel about a campus that revolves around college sports?
• Is the student body especially political, environmental, or social justice-focused? Is this important to you?

All of the factors listed so far represent students’ degree of choice or preference. Other elements involved in devising a college application list have little to do with choice – these factors are rather fixed, but nonetheless, important to consider. We’ll explore these issues in Part 2 of this series: The Science of College List Building