If you’re like my private test prep and college essay students who’ve been emailing me non-stop over the past week with their vast lists of acceptances—to U Chicago, Brown, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, USC, Oberlin, Wesleyan, UVM, UC San Diego, Penn State, Boston University, Lehigh, Northeastern, Drexel, RIT, Kenyon, Skidmore, Berklee, Ithaca, and Binghamton, among others—you may be asking yourself a stressful question right now:
How do I decide between all the colleges that admitted me?
I mean, it’s a good problem to have: I LOVE that my immense expertise with earning top scores on the SAT and ACT and with framing and capturing my students’ passion and persona in college essays gets them such phenomenal results! But getting accepted to all or most of your dream schools IS a cruel joke of sorts…because you can ultimately only choose to go to one.
And I get it—the question of where to go to college can seem daunting!! It’s the next four years of your life, after all. It’ll determine which lifelong friends you’ll make and which academic and professional opportunities you’ll have open to you. And you basically have about 3 weeks to mentally and emotionally reach your decision.
So, that’s what I’m going to coach you through today: how to make a final college decision you feel great about.
First, let’s make sure we’re clear on the basic logistics of the choice ahead of you.
When IS National College Decision Day in 2021?
National College Decision Day is the date by which most colleges need a firm commitment from you. You’ve hopefully been accepted to several fantastic choices, but in order to save your spot and actually attend, you’ll need to formally commit to your top choice school and send in your deposit. Though every school is different (including different degrees of flexibility around that deadline), most schools have historically adopted May 1st as their deadline to accept your spot in their matriculating class.
College Decision Day was unusual in 2020—but so far, it looks to be back to normal in 2021.
Last year, when Coronavirus toppled our lives, many, many colleges postponed their final deadlines to claim your spot in their freshman classes. Some dates were as late as September 1st! However, according to various colleges’ websites, and this thorough article, most schools are going back to tradition…including the traditional May 1st deadline.
Yes, some elite institutions, like those in the Ivy League, are giving a deadline of May 3rd, but that’s merely because May 1st falls on a weekend. Now, perhaps some other schools might postpone their deadlines again this year, but it seems so far that most have not.
That said, YOU need to be able to feel confident about your final college decision before you commit to one. So, here’s my guide to….
How You Should Pick a College in Spring 2021
1. Figure out what you still want in a college.
When you were narrowing down which colleges you should apply to in the first place, you probably had some kind of rhyme or reason to crafting your list. It likely wasn’t just a question of the school’s name (I sure hope not!). You probably considered these sorts of things:
The location (part of the country, big city or small college town, etc.)
The size of the college (big university with multiple colleges vs. small liberal arts undergraduate college, etc.)
Your academic interests (what you plan to major in or study and how you’d do that at those colleges)
Any VERY IMPORTANT activity you do that that college has a fantastic club/team/department in (Division I sports team, musical theatre department, farm-to-table initiative, etc.)
Other special opportunities that are important to your college experience (study abroad, internship opportunities, alumni network, vegan co-op housing options, support for learning differences, undergraduate research opportunities, inclusive student body, etc.)
Have any of these factors changed since you originally started looking at colleges? Do you no longer want to study Forensic Science, having shifted your interest to Biology more broadly? Have some priorities become more or less important to you? For instance, have you relaxed your “big city or bust” stance and are now ok with being in suburban Ohio?
2. Based on your current answer to these questions, do more research to re-determine “fit.”
The good news is that you don’t have to worry about researching EVERY college—you just need to do this for the colleges that accepted you! And yes, you probably did several of these things already when you were making your college list in the first place. The difference is that this time, we’re comparing a finite list of colleges to each other. We’re not thinking about the “wouldn’t it be nice” colleges.
Lots of this research can happen online, which is great, because we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic. Here’s where I’d start:
Do a Virtual Visit. Visit the college’s website and look at the academic departments that light you up (course lists, faculty bios, special department-specific opportunities, etc.).
Attend (another) Virtual Tour! You probably did this before you applied, but chances are you don’t remember all the details. Each college’s website has the info about how to watch a pre-recorded tour or register for a live one.
Attend (another) Information Session / Q&A. You can ask one of your prospective college’s admissions officers your burning questions! Again, each college will tell you how to register or watch on their website.
Attend any “Admitted Students Day” offered to you. These will likely still be virtual this year, if they happen at all.
Explore your colleges’ social media accounts. Everyone’s had to get more savvy in the wake of our virtual year-plus, and the colleges you’re choosing between are no different. Check out their Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, Twitters, TikToks, Youtube channels, and Pinterests.
After doing some digging, you may discover that a school you originally thought was perfect for you doesn’t align as much as you thought, or that a school you weren’t enthusiastic about previously actually fits all your needs.
3. Where’s the money?
If finances are a determining factor for you, then take a hard look at how much each college is going to cost annually and what types of financial aid packages or scholarships each is offering you. It could be that the ticket price is outrageously expensive, but you’ve been offered so much money in aid or scholarships that your net cost is low!
Talk openly with your parents about how much they can contribute, and ask yourself how much student debt you’d be willing to take on to afford the rest. If one school is too much of a stretch for you and your family, that might take it off the table for you.
4. Now that you’ve gotten the FACTS, let’s get a feel for your colleges’ VIBES.
Truth be told, unless there is a glaringly obvious mismatch between what you’re looking for in a college and the colleges that accepted you, you can be happy almost anywhere. You can always seek out the opportunities you need, or even create your own. You can find the people who feel like your “tribe,” even if you’re outnumbered by many students who you’d never be close friends with.
That said, it’s a lot easier to be happy when most of the people are “your” people, and when you have outlets for all your academic and extracurricular needs! The BEST way to get to the essence of a college and its student body is to visit in person. Since that’s still off the table for most of us, we have to be creative.
Here’s what I’d suggest you do for all of the colleges you’re still considering after completing steps 1-3:
Reach out to anyone you know (mom’s friend’s niece, dentist’s son, etc.) who attends or recently attended the college and ask THEM about their experience.
Register for a “student chat” on the college’s website. Some schools, like Brown, offer a way for you to chat online with a current student and ask your questions about life on campus.
Explore the social media accounts of the teams and clubs you’d want to join if you attended! These tend to be student-run, so you’ll get a feel for whether these are the types of people you’d want to spend four years with.
Check out websites like CampusReel.org that show you around campus through the eyes of actual students.
What does your gut say? Which type of people seem more like “your” people? Which schools make you feel excited by the prospect of spending four years there? Where do you think you could fully be yourself?
And this is the hard part: try not to be influenced by the school’s prestige or where your parents would want you to go. Where do you actually feel like you can be YOU?
A Final Thought: Your Happiness Matters.
When I was making MY big decision—between Brown University and MIT—my parents were shocked and horrified that I would turn down MIT to study at Brown. Didn’t I want to be an engineer?! MIT was the “best of the best” (I grew up in a Greek household, so MIT was a MUCH bigger name than Brown was!). WHAT was I thinking?!
The truth is, I was thinking about my own happiness.
See, I grew up in Dallas, TX, the daughter of a local politician whom everyone knew. I couldn’t grab a chai latte without someone recognizing me. I was ALSO coming out of the closet to myself—before being gay was as widely accepted as it is today.
I knew that, academically, Brown and MIT were both top-notch. I could find my opportunities at either. However, Brown’s campus was considerably more liberal and LGBT-friendly! And that was the big factor driving my ultimate choice.
My parents didn’t need to know that this factor mattered to me. No one needed to know. I just needed to feel right about MY choice and go somewhere I’d feel comfortable and find like-minded (and, it turns out, life-long!) friends. So Brown it was! And I have never once regretted that choice.
So, friends, I wish you sincere luck in making this big decision.
And—whether I personally helped you rack up your impressive list of acceptances or not—I’m proud of you! Go through these steps, and out of the colleges left, go with your gut instinct. It won’t steer you wrong!
(And if you’re a junior or sophomore or parent thereof who WANTS to soon be facing the “problem” of too many college acceptances, find out how you can work with me for test prep and college essay guidance!)
