Demystifying The College Process

College. Even the word is intimidating. Like many people reading this article, I intend to go to college (it is the next step after high school, right?). However, the question many others and me beg: which college is right for me?

My first instinct was to take one of those online personality quizzes that would tell you which college was right for you. However, after my results told me that I, a male computer science major, belong in an all-women’s liberal arts college in Massachusetts (yes, Mount Holyoke), I knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy. After that failed attempt, I made my next mistake: looking at only the first page of the U.S. News & World Report university rankings. I thus took the clichéd approach of “I’ll just apply to all the Ivy Leagues, M.I.T., and Stanford.” Yeah…no, this isn’t Hollywood. I cannot pull an Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and amaze Harvard with my pseudo-lawyer skills and expect to get in. Nor did my parents go Harvard or were willing to bribe admissions officers. No. I had to think smarter about where I know I can see myself going to school.

Today, there are approximately 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States. You are probably only going to go to one of them, two or three if you choose to transfer or go to graduate school. To many of those who are struggling with finalizing their list of colleges and universities to apply to, I offer my perspective and process of picking which colleges I will and will not apply to and how I came to my final list. This is a long article, but I promise you that I’ll help you understand the applications process, even if it’s just a little bit. First thing’s first:

1. How Many Applications is Enough?

A general consensus among many people from this country is that college is expensive (thanks, Ronald Reagan). Remember, while it may be expensive to go to school (I’ll get to this later), it’s also expensive to apply. Each school that you apply to has its individual cost of sending your application in, sending your scores in, etc. This does not mean to restrict yourself to only applying to one school. This means the opposite: do NOT apply to thirty universities. Simply stated: only apply to a school if you know that you can see yourself going there. I would never in my life go to some school in Texas or Virginia, so I just choose not to apply to those schools. Simple as that. It’s like a movie – if you don’t want to see it, don’t buy a ticket.

However, you probably do have a list of thirty schools that you are looking at – I know I did. But that’s what this article is for, to help you narrow that down. If you don’t have a list, this will help you find colleges to apply to.

While applying to too many schools would cost too much and applying to only one school is risky, the question arises: what’s the magic number? For me, somewhere between five to eight applications is good. This does not mean narrowing your choices from the start – we’ll get to that later. This just means less trouble for the future. For example, if you only apply to one school and don’t get in, that’s going to cause some complications. However, the opposite extreme is also bad: if you apply to thirty schools and get into twenty of them, you now have the inconvenience of scrambling to pick one of those twenty to be where you get your education for the next four years.

Also, know how much money you are willing to set aside for applications. Remember, it’s probably around $50-$75 for the Common Application (if the schools you’re looking at are even on the Common App), $11.25 to send your SAT, and $12 to send your ACT. That’s $73.25-$98.25 to send just to one school. Now imagine 30 of them. Not as pretty, so unless your fees are waived, I suggest only applying to schools that you feel are necessary. Each school you look at will generally fall under three tiers: safety, target, and reach. 

The first tier: safety schools. These types generally fit into two sub-categories: academic safety and financial safety. Academic safety is a school you know you are going to get into with your current grades. Financial safety is a school that you know is affordable for you and your family. Financial safeties are generally closer to home, as you do not have to pay as much for room & board and transportation. Financial safeties are also generally in-state public universities and/or community colleges. Therefore, safeties are a must. If anything may happen to your or your family academically or financially, these safeties are the backbone to ensuring that you will still receive an education after high school.

The next tier: target schools. I like to call these my most realistic schools. These are the schools where you have a really good chance of getting in, but not as good as the safeties. While for safeties you may be way above average in terms of getting in, these target schools are where you probably fall into the average middle range of applicants. Generally you’ll have two-to-four target schools. Not much can really be said for these types of schools, only that you fit their general admission criteria.

The last tier: dream/reach schools. Their names are self-explanatory; these are the schools you really want to go to but have a low chance of getting in, whether it be lower than their standard accepted GPA, SAT and/or ACT scores.

Now, do not let these scores affect you. Most universities read their applications holistically, meaning that they read every essay and resume and letter of recommendation that you and everyone else sends in.

Here is a random piece of advice that a lot of people do not know: the college application process is extremely random. Duke’s admissions committee won’t throw out your application just because you’re 10 SAT points below their 50th percentile. They will read your application, just like how they read everyone else’s. This is where your character comes into play. The job of the college admissions’ officer is not only to admit students who are academically able to join that certain college/university, but also to pick students who have the right character and personality to thrive in that school. I can have great scores all around but have the most boring personality ever and be rejected while someone else with slightly lower scores and shows passion and motivation gets in. It’s a random process and you shouldn’t be discouraged from applying to certain schools just because you may be a little below average points-wise. They look for character, too, and if you have the character they’re looking for, they’ll admit you. Have at least one dream/reach school – you miss all of the shots you don’t take.

Summary: Definitely have an academic safety and financial safety, find target schools that you meet their academic standards, do not be discouraged from applying to a dream/reach school. Have 5-8 applications (they’re expensive, after all).

2. Location

Location of the school(s) you wish to attend is very subjective and is generally up to you. You have to ask yourself: Transportation costs? Commuting? Will I see my family a lot or not at all? Do I want to see people from my high school or not? Think about what you like in terms of environment and the people around you.

For me, I like to stay in the Northeastern region because: (1) it’s relatively liberal here, (2) the city is great for job employment, and (3) I’m terrified of planes. Not only that, but I want to stay close to my family and friends from Long Island and thus I’m staying in this region.

However, other people may think differently. Some people want to be as far away from their family as possible and never see anyone from high school ever again. That’s totally fine, but if that’s what you truly want, you have to find schools accordingly. I thought going to Philadelphia was far, but one of my friends wants to go to Seattle because he wants to experience something new. I could never fathom that idea, which proves that this whole process is relative to the person.

Location is probably the best way to narrow down schools. Think about who you are and what environments and people you want to be surrounded by. Are you liberal/conservative? Do you hate the South? Do you hate the North? Will you be racially/economically/politically accepted where you want to go to school? Do you not care? Do you want to go where it’s warm? Do you love the blizzards of the Great Lake region? How much money will it cost to travel from home to school and back again?

The fundamental principle is: make rules for where you will allow yourself to look for schools. This will prevent you from looking up schools to apply to in Nevada when you know you hate warm weather. It will save you a lot of time if you restrict yourself to places where you know you would actually enjoy living in. Simply cross those places off of your list. Colorado School of Mines looked cool to me, but I don’t want to live in Colorado for four years. Off my list. Simple as that. Also, did I mention I hate planes? I don’t like the South. That’s like a dozen states off my prospective list. East Coast or West Coast? East Coast all the way. Goodbye Stanford and UCLA. University of Michigan looks cool. I have to land in an airport in Detroit?! Off my list (also planes). Ohio State is in that awkward middle region where it’s too close to fly to but too far to drive to. Off my list.

Now, this is only the process of how I did it. It’s not a guideline for everyone, it’s just a template that I recommend how people look for schools as I found this gave me my best possible options. In the end, I concluded that I would only be attending schools in the Northeast region of the United States: from Maryland to Maine. However, I made sure that I would have at least one school nearby (Stony Brook University), and I would advise you to as well.

Summary: If you don’t want to live there, don’t go there. Also, make sure you have at least one local college that you know you can go to.

3. Too many schools!

One of my favorite parts about the college application process is that I found so many school I never heard of that actually ended up replacing the schools I was originally going to apply to. Sure, we all know the prestigious, somewhat brand-name colleges of America: Harvard, Stanford, Ohio State, Duke, Rice, etc. Even New York and Long Island has its brand names: Stony Brook, Binghamton, NYU, Adelphi, etc. But newsflash: these aren’t the only colleges in America. There are around 5,300 colleges and universities, and these prestigious, elite ones are just the ones you’ve heard about.

But what about the college that you know you would fall in love with? You’ve probably never even heard of it yet. I fell in love with my dream school, Northeastern University, and I hadn’t even heard of it until about two months ago when I found it randomly looking at schools in Massachusetts.

Now, this part of the process is probably the most tedious, and I absolutely hated it. I do not advise this to anyone, but this was how I found my dream school among the sea of obscure colleges I knew I wasn’t going to attend. Find a list of schools from five to eight states that you know you’re going to be fine living in, and briefly look at some from each state. Look at its website or Niche.com profile for maybe thirty seconds to a minute (again, this was my process, it doesn’t have to be yours), and if you think you would like it there, the look of the campus, the ratings of the school, put it on a list. Watch a few videos too. All you have as a deciding factor is location, and if you only want to attend a school in two-to-four states, that’s forty-six to forty-eight states you don’t even have to look at!

This part took me the longest, but it made sure that I possibly didn’t skip out on an unfamiliar but amazing college that I’ve never heard of (*cough* Northeastern). In the end of this long process, I looked at five states, ending up with 58 schools to look at, most of them totally unfamiliar to me.

Summary: Don’t confine yourself to only brand name schools, you might find a really obscure school that you would love to attend. Look at a lot of schools in the state(s) you wish to go to school in.

Now comes the fun part, which I love to call: The Elimination Round.

4. School’s Reputation

Okay I admit it – I do care about the school’s reputation if I’m applying to it. Northeastern isn’t obscure, I just neglected to look at all the prospective schools around me and thus never heard of it until now. I’m not denouncing obscure colleges, they’re totally fine, but if a school is reputed for something terrible it does consistently, I’m not going to go to it. If I hear news stories all the time about X University’s grade deflation policy or Y University’s empty promises about financial aid, I’m taking those off of my list, regardless of them being in the states that I’m looking at. It is elimination round after all.

I actually had fun during this round. It was as if the tables turned for the college admissions process – instead of colleges looking at hundreds of thousands of applicants and rejecting ones they don’t feel are a good fits, I, the applicant, am looking at dozens of colleges and eliminating ones I don’t feel I would be a great fit for. This is how you should think the process through.
Yes, I found a list of 58 schools from the states that I would be fine living in, but I can’t apply to all of them. I have to eliminate some. For me, a school’s reputation comes first. Therefore, you must do research on these schools.

Syracuse University was one of my prospective colleges. It was in New York and it wasn’t too far. I’m going to apply! I thought. After five minutes of research, I found that Princeton Review awarded it #1 Party School in America. Off the list. I don’t drink or party. UMass Amherst? Research. Party school. Arrests. So much that it was nicknamed: “ZooMass Slamherst.” Not for Hans.
Okay, I may have been a bit too harsh on Syracuse but I definitely wasn’t going to “ZooMass Slamherst.” Just remember, if you’re going to a school, you’re affiliating yourself with that school. If that school is constantly in the news for students getting arrested or participating in generally terrible things, I do not feel that it is a great fit for me.

Summary: If you’re going to pick a school, pick one that isn’t infamous for constantly being a bad place. Also, I think ZooMass Slamherst is a funny nickname for a school.

5. Do they have you major/field of study? How good are they in it?

Boy, was I surprised when SUNY Geneseo does not have a computer science program. This is a really essential but simple factor in eliminating colleges from your fifty-something list. Simply: if they don’t have the major that you intend to get a career in, don’t go there. This crossed three more colleges off of my list.

Also, if they do have your program, check to see how well renowned they are for it. Are they nationally recognized for having a good program in X major? Or are they bad? Sure, education is better than no education, but good education is better than sub-par education — especially for the subject that you might get a job working in for the rest of your life.
I did some research on my colleges’ programs in computer science and mathematics, found ratings on how well they are taught and chances for internships, career opportunities, and other factors to determine whether they have a good program or not. To my surprise, a lot of the schools I looked at were not good for my intended major (computer science) but are amazing in other majors (psychology, English, etc.). This also takes off most the liberal arts colleges from my list as they are not usually recognized for their engineering and technology programs.

This is another relative section of the applications process: your major determines whether a school is good for you or not. And it doesn’t mean that a school is good or bad, it just means that it may not be a good fit for you. SUNY Geneseo is an amazing school, but they just do not have the right programs for me and thus I am not applying there. Likewise, an art history major may have no business applying to the MIT. I may not be applying to any liberal arts colleges but the art history major may be applying only to liberal arts colleges. It’s all relative, but find a school that will enrich you in the field of study that you choose.

Lastly, if you intend to go in undecided, find schools that are pretty good all-around and have a wide variety of majors. It would be terrible to find out that you want to major in engineering but be stuck in some art school in the city.

Summary: Find out if the school has your major and how good they are in it. If you are going in undecided, look for schools that have a wide variety of majors.

6. Environment and Surrounding Setting

Nope, this is not environmental science. This is how the general atmosphere and mood is over the campus and student body. Are the students generally happy? Do they work together? Or do they compete with each other? Are the students all united? Or is school spirit generally low? This factor was actually the reason why I chose not to apply to the Ivy Leagues. Yes that’s right, I just put Harvard on the same tier as ZooMass Slamherst. I read student blogs, watched documentaries, and even watched student vlogs about how campus life generally is. I found out that the Ivy Leagues are generally extremely competitive and very stressful. I knew that I would definitely not fit in or do well in that type of environment and thus I took it off. The same goes for MIT.

Now, this is only for me, and I know some people would love to be in such competitive schools. On the other hand, I hate having no one to talk to while other people may prefer to go to a campus where everyone just minds their own business.
Generally, think of who you are and who you want to be surrounded by. Do you want to go to a school where everyone is competing against each other? Do you want to go to a school where everyone is extremely spirited about the school? Or do you want to go to a school where everyone is just minding their own business and going their own way?

I found that the best way to get a feel for the environment for the school is to find videos on YouTube or the Internet of the school. And no, I don’t mean the flashy advertising videos from the school’s official YouTube channel, I mean videos from the students themselves. Not just them in their dorm rooms, but videos of them around campus–the atmosphere of the place when there aren’t fancy cameras taking videos to market the school for its website. After watching several vlogs, I found that the best-fit schools for me were Northeastern and Binghamton. They had the personality that I was looking for and my type of humor. R.I.T. and Rensselaer were not for me after I watched videos of their students – I just feel I would not be a good fit in those schools as my personality clashes with them. Remember, you will be with these people for the next four years. If you’re a shy kid and you go to a party school (*cough* ZooMass Slamherst), you’re going to have a bad time. If you’re a loud, party person and you go to an engineering school where everyone is locked up in their dorms studying all the time, you’re going to have a bad time. Pick a school where you know you’ll find people you can be with.

Lastly, remember that there’s a world outside of your college. Your college is probably in or next to a city or a town. If you don’t think you’ll leave campus too much or at all, that’s fine. However, if you think that you will be traveling frequently, do research on the area around the school. Is it safe? Would it fit for you? With this, I took out Johns Hopkins (I don’t like Baltimore), NYU (I don’t like the city), and UConn (I don’t do rural campuses).

Summary: Watch videos on students from the school, the school’s general personality, its mood, compared to yours. Check out the city/town/farmland around your schools and see if there’s anything to do (and if it’s safe enough to leave campus).

7. Cost

College is expensive (again, thanks Ronald Reagan). Students are known for spending years, if not decades, paying off their student loans. Will this be an issue for you? Do you/your family have the money to go to certain schools?
Cost is a very iffy topic for me. Remember, there’s always chance for financial aid and scholarships. The most expensive of college prices you find on the Internet can be cheaper than in-state public universities with the help of financial aid and scholarships.

Look at you and your family’s financial aid opportunities and what the school can offer you. Does your family meet the standard for needs-based financial aid? Are you in the awkward middle class situation? Do you have the grades for merit-based scholarships? Look at all of these factors, because costs can fluctuate and change and you would be surprised how much a school will give you if they really want you to go there. When I found out Northeastern gave out full and half-tuition scholarships each year, I knew that I was definitely applying. In contrast, when I found out that Tufts University does not offer any sort of merit-based scholarships, they were off my list (even below Slamherst). The cost also goes into whether to apply to private and/or public universities. Public are generally cheaper while private does give leeway for financial aid.

Also, look into costs that are not there that may make it a lot more expensive than you think. Sure, UC-Berkeley may give you a half-tuition scholarship, but that does not cover plane tickets or the moving of your entire bedroom from Long Island to California. Do research on travel costs, financial aid, and any/all opportunities to lower the price of school.

Summary: Do not immediately put off schools due to price; look for financial aid opportunities. However, think about the prices and costs about things that are not listed.

With all of these factors, I turned my 58 colleges list down to 15. 15 was still too much, so I did some more research.

8. Campus/Student Size

A huge factor in me going to school was the campus. Firstly, I want there to be a campus. I actually want to get lost within the school. I don’t want to go to a school where it’s just buildings and nowhere to walk. This is why I took off NYU and Boston University, as there was a lack of any campus.

Student size is another factor. The larger the student body, generally the less intimate they all generally are with each other. You could get lost in the sea of students. I was generally fine with this. I couldn’t think about going to a university that has less students than Whitman, and I already thought Whitman was a bit small.

However, a large student size and small student size have its advantages and disadvantages. A large student size has more clubs, more diversity, and more potential people to meet and befriend. However, you sacrifice gaining a personal connection with your professor and counselor as you are just one person in a sea of students. On the other hand, going to a small school means less clubs and less diversity but a much tighter student community.

Summary: How big does the campus have to be (if there is one)? Do you thrive in a school where no one knows each other but there are so many different activities? Or a school where everyone knows each other but sacrifices that wide range of clubs and activities?

Some Parting Advice – It’s not the End of the World

    Now, I know that since you have been in the K-12 educational system, adults have been shoving the same message down your throat: you have to get good grades to go to a good college to get a good job to get money to be happy. Well, here’s my stance that no one really teaches any kids: No you don’t. One of my favorite New York Times Op-Ed columnist, Frank Bruni, wrote a book entitled Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. In this book, Bruni gives eye-opening statistics on whether what college you go to matters. And statistically, it doesn’t. A large majority of top CEOs according to the Fortune 500 did not go to the Ivy Leagues, but to modest state schools. Only one CEO in the top 10 richest CEOs went to an Ivy League – the rest went the state school route. Only a third of U.S. senators went to Ivy League schools, and the rest went to state colleges.

Bruni recaps a story where one of his friends went to a local community college while the other one went to Yale University for the same major. After several years, the two of them ended up working the same job at the same firm, despite one going to an elite, prestigious private university while the other went to community college. Both took different paths only to end up at the same destination.

In the end, it’s all about drive. Motivation. What makes you tick and gets you going. Whenever I hear the word “code” or “computer” or “programming” I turn my full attention and I’m reminded about what I love to do and what I want to be: a programmer. And if I truly believed that I could become an amazing programmer one day, I knew that no matter what college I end up in, whether it be in New York, Texas, Ivy League, community, private, public–it doesn’t matter. Education is education. Some schools may sound amazing, but just not be the right fit for me as they do not offer the programs I am looking for (ex. Geneseo). People from community colleges could become CEOs. Students from Ivy Leagues could become burnouts. And vice-versa. Bruni showed that there is no significant median salary difference between students who graduate from Ivy Leagues and students who graduate from state schools.

I wish to challenge the convention that if you do not attend the perfect university, you will not succeed. That is absolutely not true. It all depends on how you put yourself forward in life. Even if you end up not getting into your dream school or your target school, if you have the same drive or even a greater drive than that person who got into Stanford, you could both end up working at Google. I once worried about the college I would be going to, until I did my research and found that it truly does not matter. Your character matters and your self-motivation matters.

Lastly, I just want to emphasize on another misconception that has been wired into our minds since we entered school: you don’t need to go to college. Well, that is not entirely true, you need college to be qualified for certain jobs, so I’m going to change my last statement: you don’t need college to get an education. Some people are just incompatible with college as a whole: the sit-down classroom setting, receiving hours of homework and assignments, studying endlessly for exams to eventually get a degree. I love education, and I think learning is as essential as breathing. But I don’t need an oxygen tank to breathe. I can find ways to learn online, at the library, maybe even hands-on or self-taught. Not everyone is compatible for the college setting, and that’s totally fine. Some people cannot afford to go to college, and others just do not feel that it is the right type of education and/or investment for them. In general, we have to stop, as a society, drilling into children’s heads the notion that college is the deciding factor of whether you are a success or failure in life–or whether you are worth receiving a higher education. Everyone is deserving of a higher education, but some people simply cannot afford it or just learn in ways that our society finds unconventional. I know so many people who I consider successful without a college degree who have built themselves up from studying and taking courses online.

Here’s a parting tip: you will love wherever you end up. If a school rejects you, it has nothing to do with your self-worth, it just means that you may not be a correct fit for them at that time. There are always opportunities to transfer in, and there are always opportunities to do well. You just have to find them. And if you can’t find them, create them.