Hi. This post is part of a series on finding the right college fit by doing college research. We’ve defined our parameters, looked at different colleges and noted their differences, thought about our financial situation, and now we’re going to analyze our data and select the colleges to apply to. If you want to go to the first post in this series, click here.
Selecting Your Targets
After you’ve done some research on each college, it is time to analyze your results and select your top schools for applications. You should really think about this in terms ot two categories:
- Schools that you can be admitted into
- Schools that you could get major scholarships for
The requirements for these two categories are different.
Now if you have tons of money, then you don’t need to worry so much about scholarships and can just go after any school you want. But if scholarships are important, then that should be a major factor in determining which schools you are applying for.
Here’s an example:
In Georgia, we have a state-funded lottery scholarship called the Hope Scholarship and one that’s more prestigious called the Zell Scholarship. Both of these scholarships are great and they allow a lot of kids to go to college who wouldn’t normally be able to. But if you do some research, you will find that the Hope and the Zell do not cover a student’s fees, housing, books, and meal plan while at college. They pretty much cover either part or all of tuition. So the rest will be on you.
In that case, if funds are limited, you might want to consider two things:
- Either going to a school with less expensive housing and meals (i.e. smaller schools in-state will typically have less pricey room and board)
- Applying to a college where your student might get even more money – up to a full ride so that more of the tuition / housing / meals is covered. In other words, your test score and GPA are better than their average admitted student.
So do you see how this really afftects which schools you put on the list? Suddenly it is very important what the school costs and what levels of scholarship they have available.
Select Your Colleges: Three Categories
In general, I suggest that students select your colleges by following this format (AT A MINIMUM!):
- One or two schools that are a perfect fit / match
- One or two schools that are a reach
- One or two schools that your student is over-qualified for
Let me define these terms I just used.
A perfect fit is a school where your student’s average SAT/ACT score and highschool GPA is in the middle of the range of their average accepted scores.
A reach school is one in which your student might be more on the low side. Or you are in the middle of their profile, but you know from your research that their acceptance rate is quite low and they are very particular about whom they accept. Because of this, they are a reach school.
Over-qualified means your student’s scores and stats are higher than their top posted levels in their admitted freshman class from the prior year. If you apply to a school where you are over-qualified and they offer good scholarships, then you have a chance of getting a really big scholarship at that school.
An important side note to all of this is: Do NOT let your student only apply to their dream school. They must have a backup. And if your backup is fairly selective, then I would, at a minimum, have a backup to the backup! The worst thing that could happen is your student could get into a pricy school that you can’t pay for and have no backup, or they don’t get accepted at all and you haven’t made a backup plan. It’s better to have a couple of schools on the plan that are not your absolute favorites, but you would go there if the other choices don’t pan out.
Also, I would not just plan to apply later if you don’t get in your top school. Even if they have extended admission deadlines. You would then be ruling out the possibility of qualifying for competitive scholarships if you don’t meet their priority deadlines from the beginning.
This is a huge discussion that you need to have with your student, multiple times even! Their desires and opinions are liable to change over the 11th and 12th grade years so discuss your options frequently, but not so much that they burn out on your discussion time.
Two Other Backup Options To Consider
Finally, there are two other options you should keep in your back pocket.
- Consider dual enrolling as many classes as possible in high school, with the goal of spending only 2-3 years at your main college instead of the full four years. This could reduce your college tuition price by $40,000 by year on average!
- Consider having a lower-priced, in-state school on your list where your student might go for the first two years and then transfer to a larger, in-state public university for the final two years. This will save you money for the first two years. However, if this is your only choice and you don’t try applying straight to others schools as a freshman, you may miss out on those big, out-of-state freshman offers that would have been bigger than what you will spend to do this choice. I highly recommend you try for scholarship offers first before choosing this option, unless your student is wanting to stay really close to home. Also, this option is not a good idea if your plan is to transfer to an out-of-state school. The scholarship dollars offered for transfer students are usually considerably less than what the offers are for first-year freshmen.
Once you have selected your top choices, if you have not been to the college before, you should be thinking about when and how you can go there. My daughter had a couple of colleges she wanted to see in person before she decided whether she wanted to apply to them or not. If you can go not go to visit the college, remember that many colleges these days have virtual tours either on their websites or on YouTube. Follow them on all their social media and you will learn a lot about them. Have your student do the same so she can see their posts. You also may decide to go see your top choices again in the spring of Senior year for a final look before you finalize your decision.
I hope this helps you in terms of analyzing your data and helping you select your colleges. Please let me know your thoughts! This is the last post in the college research series. If you want to start over at the first post, click here.
If you’d like a free checklist for what to do throughout the 9th through 12th grade years, click here. If you need a personalized plan, contact me for a personal guidance counseling session — we can do it in person or over the phone.
To go to the next post in this series, click here!
Blessings,
Michelle