Questions To Ask When Choosing Colleges

Mar 2024

7 Minute Read

If you’re reading this, you may be a high school student (or perhaps the parent of a high school student) starting to think about which universities to apply to. This is the first of many questions you’ll likely have during the college application process and it’s a big one! For one, there are so many options for you to choose from: According to US News and World Report, there are over four-thousand colleges and universities in the United States. The options are overwhelming. (For all your college-related questions and to help you stay organized during this busy time, we created Wend, which you can download for free here. It’s like a college admissions counselor in your pocket!)

Questions To Ask Yourself

At Occam, we know a lot about college admissions and we ask our students a lot of questions to help them narrow down their college options. Below is a list of some of these questions and what we hope to gain from asking them of our students. Hopefully they will also be helpful to you!

What do you want to study?

If you have an idea of what you’d like to major in, this can eliminate many schools if they don’t offer that program of study. If you don’t know what you want to study, you may want to consider a liberal arts education, where you can study many subjects before deciding on a major.

Where would you like to study?

This is really multiple questions. We want to learn if a student wants to study in a particular area of the country, if they would prefer a larger or smaller school, and if a suburban, rural, or urban environment fits their needs.

Do you learn best in small, hands-on classes or are you comfortable in large, lecture style classes?

Usually larger schools and common majors will have large, lecture style classes, particularly for freshmen and sophomores. Smaller schools and less common majors are more likely to have smaller, more intimate classes.

What is important to you in terms of campus life?

Whether you are interested in athletics, greek life, religious activities, community service opportunities, or a semester abroad, knowing what you want to do on campus is really helpful!  Listing activities you want to participate in can help you choose or remove schools from your list.

What are your financial aid considerations?

Different schools have different financial aid profiles. For example, some schools may be more likely to give scholarships, or may special grants for students who choose particular majors. State schools are significantly cheaper if you live in-state.

What is your résumé like?

While last on this list, this question is arguably the most important. Your grades, test scores, extracurriculars and activities will all help determine what schools may be a good fit for you. All together, think of this as your body of work, and this body of work dictates what’s possible for you and what’s not, admissions wise. For example, if you have a 30 composite score on the ACT, then you will have your pick of many schools but may not realistically get into schools like Harvard, Stanford, or MIT. If you’ve spent many summers at coding and software development camps, you may be more likely to get into competitive technical schools like Georgia Institute of Technology or CalTech.

In closing:

At Occam, we know that there's a great school option out there for each and every student; one that fits each person's criteria and will offer them a rich education and positive social experiences. Still, deciding where to apply can be a tough decision!

For more college admissions advice and to explore our free résumé tool, download Occam's app, Wend, on the App Store!

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Use code OGWEND before Dec 31 for 50% off our annual membership!