college fit

How to Research Colleges

Researching colleges is a large part of the college planning process, but it can be confusing! Thorough research helps students and their families make informed decisions about the future, but how are you supposed to research colleges?

What is important to know? What should you be looking for, and where should you be looking?

Choosing a college is about finding a place where students can thrive, grow, and achieve their goals. This guide will teach you how to navigate your college research effectively. Continue reading to ensure you have the tools and knowledge to select your best college fit.

Understand Your Needs and Preferences

The first step in researching colleges is self-reflection. Take some time to determine what you want and need from a college experience. We recommend looking at three areas of college fit: academic, social, and financial.

Consider factors such as the size of the institution, cost of attendance, location (urban vs. rural, distance from home), majors and academic programs offered, campus culture, and available extracurricular activities. 

As you consider the different aspects of college fit, keep a list of the criteria you want your college to have (or not have!). Once you have a list of your unique college fit criteria, decide which factors are your “must-haves” versus things that would be “nice to have” in a college but are negotiable. 

At the same time, make a note of anything on your “no way” list—criteria your ideal college would not have. 

While you research colleges, keep your fit list handy. Compare what you learn about the college to your college fit criteria and ask yourself, “How well does this college fit me?”

Online Research

Start with official college websites to get an accurate sense of that institution. Explore the college website thoroughly, including pages for academic departments that interest you, student and residential life, admissions, and so on. 

Dive deep into the opportunities that interest you. For academic interests, review the curriculum, faculty qualifications, and the availability of learning opportunities related to your field of interest. For extracurricular interests, browse the list of student organizations on campus. Visit the webpages for student services that interest you, including career services, study abroad, residence life, and financial aid. Don't hesitate to contact admissions counselors with questions that pop up along the way.

Often, colleges will have other associated resources outside of the official website. Check to see if the college you are researching has a YouTube channel (Pro Tip: Specific departments may also have their own channel!), an online student newspaper, or social media accounts for various departments or student organizations. These are trustworthy resources that can give you an idea of what daily campus life is like.

Additional online resources are available to help you with your college research. Some provide statistics on costs, demographics, graduation rates, and post-college earnings. Others are opinion-based sites that can provide useful information. However, keep in mind that people typically only review things they feel strongly about (whether positive or negative), so take reviews with a grain of salt!

Here’s a list of websites to get you started:

A note about college ranking lists:

We intentionally did not include any college-ranking sites that you may be familiar with because there are better ways to measure college fit. 

We understand why ranking lists are appealing, but college fit should start with the student’s needs and priorities instead of with an outside opinion. 

Understanding the metrics and methodologies used to generate the rankings is also critical. Often, what is measured to determine ranking doesn't include many factors students and families identify as important to college fit. Rankings are just one piece of a very large puzzle.

Campus Visits

Nothing compares to the insights gained from visiting a campus. These visits give students a first-hand impression of the college's atmosphere, community, and facilities. 

Virtual tours are a great starting point, especially for colleges that are far from home! 

For in-person visits, plan ahead to make the most of your trip. Students should try to attend official information sessions and tours, but they can also sit in on classes, arrange to meet with professors, and explore the campus and surrounding area on their own to get a genuine feel for student life.

College Fairs & High School Visits

College fairs and high school visits let students connect with college representatives away from the college campus. 

College fairs help prospective students learn about many different colleges at once. Typically, participating colleges set up booths or tables where students can ask questions and pick up information about the school.

High school visits are when college representatives come directly to the high school to meet students and share about their college. Many of these visits happen in the fall of senior year and are often a good chance to connect with the admissions officers. Sometimes, the admissions representative who reads applications for that high school will be the one to visit, so it’s a great opportunity for students to introduce themselves and put a face with a name. 

College fairs and high school visits give students direct insights from college representatives. Prepare a list of questions to ask at these events. Make notes during conversations, and collect contact information for follow-up questions. And don’t forget to send a thank you email to anyone you connect with at these events!

USE Your Network

Do you know anyone who attends or has recently graduated from the colleges on your list? These people are great resources!

Connecting with current students and recent alumni can give students a unique perspective on the college experience. Ask about their personal experiences, challenges, and what they love most about their college. This firsthand information can be incredibly revealing and may highlight parts of college life you hadn't previously considered.

If you don’t have any direct connections to a college, ask your college counselor or contact the college’s admissions office to see if they can connect you to a current student.

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Financial fit should not be ignored as you conduct your college research! 

While you are researching academic programs and exploring social fit, also make sure you understand each college’s total cost of attendance. Research the various types of financial aid available, including scholarships, grants, and loans. Look up additional details like the average debt of graduates. 

Including financial factors in your research lets families assess the affordability of a college and avoid unwelcome financial surprises down the line.

Staying Organized

With so much information to process, staying organized is key. Figure out the system that works best for you!

You may use spreadsheets, digital folders, or notebooks to keep track of your research findings. As you collect information about the colleges you research, you can begin to narrow down your list of potential colleges based on how well they align with your criteria and priorities. 

Staying organized will help focus your efforts on the schools that are most likely to be a good fit.

Pro Tip: Hold onto your notes even after you’ve finalized the list of colleges where you will be applying. 

When you start applications in your senior year, many colleges may have an additional “Why this college?” supplemental essay. Work smarter, not harder, by returning to your notes that connect the dots between your interests and the college.

These notes can also be a helpful tool when it comes time to make your final college decision!

Now, go research!

College research can sometimes feel like a homework assignment, but think of it as the foundation of choosing your best-fit college. Solid college research supports students and their families in making informed decisions that are based on a deep understanding of what each college offers and how it aligns with the student’s needs and goals. 

Remember, finding the right college is a journey that requires patience and an open mind. Approach your college search with curiosity and enthusiasm! The effort you put into researching colleges today will pay off when you find a school that feels like home!

3 Steps to Finding Your Best College Fit

When it comes to building balanced college lists, one thing drives our process: fit.

College fit is how well an institution meets a student’s unique wants and needs for their best college experience. It’s entirely student-driven and entirely individual. If I’m working with a student on their college fit, we aren’t talking about what their older sibling, their friends, or even their parents wanted in a college experience. It’s all about that student. Their unique wants and needs.

We’re big believers in college fit for many reasons, but a few of them are:

  • Fit gives you a place to begin the college search - There are thousands of colleges out there, and searching can get overwhelming if you don’t know where to start! College fit gives students criteria to look for when learning about different colleges. In that way, fit can help guide college research beyond the admissions website.

  • Choosing a good fit saves time, money, and resources - Too often, students have a primary reason for choosing a college and haven’t fully considered its other factors. It could be an academic major, a sport (that they will be playing or enthusiastically supporting), name recognition, location, or some other reason. But when they get to campus, something changes. A student may want to change their major (most do!) or no longer wish to continue playing a sport. If the college is not a good fit for other reasons, they may need to consider transferring, which can add additional semesters or years, additional tuition, and so on.

  • A better college fit leads to happier students - And happier students are more engaged on campus! They’re taking advantage of opportunities, pursuing experience, and having a fulfilling 4 years.

So how do you find this elusive “best college fit?” This blog post will walk you through 3 factors—Academic, Financial, and Social—to find your best college fit.

But first, a disclaimer: the three areas of fit will not be of equal importance to all students and families. And that’s perfectly normal! One student may know that the cost of college is a key factor in their search process, so financial fit may outweigh social or academic fit in this process. Another student may be interested in pursuing a major not commonly available at many colleges or need support from their college with a learning difference, so academic fit may matter more. To give you an experience from my own college search: back in the day, I attended what was then the largest high school in North Carolina. From that experience, I knew I wanted a small college, so social fit was a significant factor for me.

No part of college fit is more important or valuable than another, but just to drive that home, we’ll tackle each piece alphabetically!

Step 1: Assess Academic Fit

When considering academic fit, start by asking yourself how your academic profile matches the average freshman at this school. Is the school an academic fit for you right now?

But don’t stop there! Will the school still be an academic fit for you after you enroll? Do they teach the way you learn best?

Here are some things to consider when you assess your ideal academic fit:

  • What is your ideal class size?

  • How much access to your professors do you want/need?

  • What level of career and/or academic advising would you like?

  • What major(s) and/or minor(s) are you considering?

  • Would you like to have academic support or tutoring available?

  • What’s your ideal class style: lecture, discussion, hands-on?

  • Are you motivated by a competitive academic environment?

  • Do you want to pursue research, an internship, or study abroad in your major?

Before you start looking into what colleges offer in relation to these kinds of questions, determine what your unique answers are. Then, when you do your college research, you can assess if a college is a good academic fit.

Step 2: Find Financial Fit

While college fit is specific to a student’s wants and needs, financial fit is often a family conversation. For many, college is a family investment. Money can be a tricky topic to discuss in some families, and often, there can be a lack of communication about financial fit between students and parents.

These conversations look different from family to family, but I encourage parents and students to talk about how your family plans to pay for college at the beginning of the college planning process and not at the end so that everyone has realistic expectations about how financial fit should play into college fit and, ultimately, into the student’s college choice.

Here are some key factors to think about as part of financial fit:

  • What is your family’s budget for one year of college?

  • Will your family qualify for any need-based financial aid?

  • Are you, or your parents, willing to take out loans to pay for college?

  • Do you think you might qualify for any merit-based financial aid at certain institutions?

  • Have you considered what else beyond tuition will cost money (for example: room and board, transportation if the college is far from home, books, club dues, etc.)?

Financial fit can really influence a college list because the cost of college can vary so much from school to school. It can determine if a student keeps their college search closer to home to benefit from in-state tuition at public colleges or how balanced that final college list is. A student hoping to receive a lot of academic merit aid offers should be aiming for more Likely schools.

Here are a few more resources as you find your financial fit:

Step 3: Specify Social Fit

We invited family to the table for Step 2, but Step 3 is back to a student’s unique wants and needs.

Many students identify this step as “the fun part” because we talk about football and weekend life. And while yes, these will be some of the most social years of a student’s life, and we do want students to have fun, social fit is important because so much of the growth students experience in college takes place out of the classroom. College is more than waking up, absorbing knowledge like a sponge, and going to sleep. That’s where social fit comes in!

As you consider social fit, ask:

  • What does your “dream college” environment look like?

  • Do you prefer a smaller college with a close-knit community or a larger college where you can constantly make new friends?

  • How important is the college athletic scene?

  • Do you want to attend a faith-based college?

  • Is campus diversity important to you?

  • Do you want many campus clubs or activities to join, or do you see yourself pursuing other social outlets?

  • Are you interested in fraternities or sororities?

  • Is the campus environment: Creative? Outdoorsy? Full of school spirit? Political? Social justice-minded? Regional? International?

The complete “college experience” happens in classrooms, dorms, the dining hall, the student center, the football stadium, and beyond. Consider the environment where you want to spend an exciting four years and the types of people you want to be around!

Next Steps

As you go through academic, financial, and social fit, make a running list of the things that are important to you. Once you have a list of your unique college fit criteria, decide which factors are your “must-haves” versus things that would be nice to have in a college but are negotiable.

(A quick tip: if you have too many must-haves, you might end up looking for a college that doesn’t actually exist!)

At the same time, make a note of anything on your “no way” list—criteria your ideal college would not have.

Keep these lists of college criteria—must-haves, would be nice to have, and no way—by your side on college visits and when doing college research. Before you add a college to your college list, compare it to your fit list and ask yourself, “How well does this college fit me?”