There are more than 4,200 colleges and universities in the U.S., so narrowing down choices for college can be challenging.
Try not to get too overwhelmed with the process and your progress. A good place to start when thinking about what you want in a college is to create a list of things that you really want to have, and things that are nice to have when it comes to college, or living on campus. For example, I knew I wanted a school that was located near family, so that narrowed my list down considerably to Texas, California, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. From there, I researched schools that offered majors that interested me - even though I was unsure what to study.
A college visit worksheet like this will help you begin to narrow down the what and why behind your selections. If you're unsure what you want (which is totally fine), you can start with a list of what you DON'T want in a campus. I also knew I didn't want to go to school in a cold climate. Schools in New York, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota would have never been on my list.
There's no right or wrong way to create your list. You (and your family) know you best, so try to include as much as you can. From there, it will give you topics to research for each campus and when you visit a campus, you will have some questions to ask.
Here are a few examples of things that may be a nice to have vs. must have:
Academic program(s) and areas of studies
Weather/Climate (humid, moderate climate, rainy, cold, snowy, etc.)
Curfew/Visitor hours
Laundry in-building
Number of eateries on campus/ special nutrition/diet-specific eateries/menus
Potential jobs/industry-post graduation
Service learning opportunities
Student parking/ car allowance
On-campus living requirement
Intramural sports and activities
Dorm/residence halls (roommate? communal bathrooms?
To help you on this journey, download our 'Nice to Have vs Must Have Worksheet', a fillable PDF with two columns for you to note what you want (or don't want). Check it out below!
If you want more details about what this could look like, check out our original blog post here.
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