How to Build Your College List

Creating your college list is an important step in figuring out which schools are right for you and where you should apply. It can help you determine if you have the right mix of safeties, targets and reach schools and is a good way to keep track of your college research all in one place. 

When to start a college list

You can start a college list at any time and it will likely ebb and flow throughout high school as you learn more about the schools, go on tours and see how your grades/test scores start to match up to a school’s profile. It’s a good idea to have a college list by junior year (or earlier if you know what schools you’re interested in and are starting college tours).

What to consider when putting together your college list

When thinking about that initial list, here are some questions to help you narrow it down:

• Do you want a large school or small?
• Do you want to be in a city or more suburban or rural area?
• Do you prefer small class sizes or large?
• Do you care about sports or Greek life?
• Do you know what major? Is it available at the school? If not, look for a school that has a variety of majors or a liberal arts school.
• What is the housing like? How many years do they guarantee housing and is there off-campus housing?
• Do they offer study abroad, research or internships/career services if you are interested in them?
• Do you want a religiously-affiliated school or want to have active religious groups to get involved with?
  

Most of this information can be easily found on their website or you can learn the answers to these questions on the college tour or through the admissions counselor.  Once you start visiting schools, you can start to refine what you’re looking for.

How to narrow down your list

Once you have a list of types of schools, make sure you are the right fit. For this you’ll want to go to the Common Data Set for each school. Simply Google Common Data Set and the name of the school. Once you access the data you can find the acceptance rate, average GPA and SAT/ACT score ranges of those admitted and more. These data points are how you will determine if a school is a target, reach or safety. Generally if your stats are 75% or higher, that school will be a safety, around 50% range is a target and below that is a reach. Your list should have 1-2 safeties, 2-4 targets and 1-2 reaches. You can apply to fewer or more, but that is a general guideline. 

Another way to narrow down your list is to take into account the cost. Note that Ivy league schools do not give merit money and only provide financial aid if you qualify. Some private schools give quite a bit of merit money that can bring the cost to a state school, so do your research. The Common Data Set will list the amount of non-need-based aid in the form of scholarships and grants they provide. 

If you need help building your college list, contact us and we’ll create a list for you.