In my role with high-ability student recruitment, I work with bright, talented, and high-achieving students who are exploring future options. The college search is difficult for every student, but high-achieving students often feel additional pressure in this process, with the added expectation from parents, teachers, and peers about what their future will hold. Here are a few tips that I often give to these students as they navigate these choices.
Decide what you’re looking for. As a talented student, you have a whole world of options available to you! At the beginning, all of these choices can be overwhelming. Before you start narrowing down your list of colleges, spend some time thinking about what kind of college or university experience you want. Do you want a large school or a small one? Do you want to be close to home or further away? What types of co-curricular activities do you want to get involved with? What are you interested in majoring in? Answering these questions can help you cross certain schools off of your list.
Explore your options. Once you have a few ideas about what kind of college experience you’re looking for, it’s time to do your research! Websites like College Raptor can be great resources as you search for schools that fit your criteria. Some other great search tools that I’ve heard students talk about are Colleges That Change Lives, Cappex, and Big Future by the College Board. These tools can allow you to sort by the characteristics that you’re looking for in a college, including distance from home, size, ranking, major, or co-curricular activities.
Visit campus and talk to current students. As a high-ability student, it’s likely that academic life is going to be especially important to you. If that’s the case, be sure to maximize the time you spend learning about academic life on your visit. Call the admissions office and ask if it’s possible to sit in on a class, meet with a professor or an academic advisor, learn more about the Honors Program, tour a research lab, or have lunch with a current student in your major area of interest.
Understand the timeline. Many highly selective institutions offer a variety of different admissions option. Some colleges admit on a rolling basis, others may offer early decision or early action. This can be tough to sort out, so be sure you have a solid understanding of the timeline for each school you choose to apply to!
Rankings aren’t everything. High-achieving students will sometimes get caught up in the rankings game, and feel as though they have to attend an institution that has a high national ranking. Remember that fit is a lot more important than ranking. It doesn’t matter if a college is in the top ten if it’s not the right fit for you.
Make the decision that’s right for you. Every high school senior feels a lot of pressure when it comes to making their college decisions, and many students feel like their parents, teachers, or peers are trying to make this decision for them. My best piece of advice is to block out the noise, don’t be swayed by peer pressure, and make the decision that’s the best fit for you. The college decision is all about fit: academic fit, financial fit, social fit, etc.. Once you’ve gathered all of the information, it’s up to you to decide what campus is the right one.
Don’t look back. Now that you’ve made your decision, make the most of it! Let go of all of the other schools that you applied to, or thought about applying to, or didn’t get in to. Focus all of your energy on the experience you’re about to have at the school you chose, and go be an incredible student.
