Building the College List
This blog contains my top tips for learning where your student has the best chance of gaining admission. In our January parent workshops we delved into greater detail into all these topics. If you missed attending the workshops live and want more information, you may purchase any of the recordings.
1) Building the College List for Academic Fit
The first step when building a college list is to match your student’s GPA and course rigor with test scores (if applying with test scores), to a school’s acceptance rate to determine the level of selectivity that makes sense for your student. I recommend that most students build a college list of 8-12 schools separated into the categories below:
What is a Dream School?
A dream school is one whose regular decision acceptance rate is below 10%, no matter how strong a student’s record.
Who should apply to a Dream School? Generally, a student who is at the top 5-10% of the graduating class based on GPA and difficulty of coursework with commensurate scores and deeply involved activities can include a dream school or two along with reach (acceptance rate around 30%), target (acceptance in the 40-50% range), and safety (acceptance above 60%).
What do you mean by “course rigor?” How does that relate to “maxing out?”
A student needs to understand the level of coursework expected from the highest-achieving students at the high school. Do you attend a high school at which the highest achievers take eight or nine AP courses by the time they graduate? Six? Four? Does the high school not offer AP or IB courses but instead relies on teacher evaluations? Colleges assess the student on the degree to which he or she is “maxing” out available resources, both in the classroom and outside of it.
What is a Reach School?
A reach school is one whose regular decision acceptance rate hovers around 20-30%.
Who should apply to a Reach School? Generally a student who is in the top 20-30% of the graduating class with very strong activities and scores can apply to some reach schools (acceptance around 30%), target (acceptance in the 40-50% range), and safety (acceptance above 60%). These students may add in a dream school or two, knowing chances of success are very low but possible.
What is a Match or Target School?
A reach school is one whose acceptance rate hovers around 40-50%.
Who should apply to a Match or Target School? Generally, a student who is in the middle of the graduating class can apply to a mix of target (acceptance in the 40-50% range) and safety (acceptance above 60%). These students may add in a reach school or two, knowing chances of success are very low but possible.
What is a Safety School?
A safety school is one whose acceptance rate is above 60%. Note that in-state acceptance rates for some public schools can be much higher than out-of-state acceptance rates.
Who should apply to a Safety School? Generally, a student who is below the middle of the graduating class will build a list that consists mostly of safety schools (acceptance above 60%). These students may add in some target schools, knowing chances of success are low but possible.
As you develop your list, make a spreadsheet to start tracking your schools of interest. You will start wide and narrow down as you determine other factors that matter in your search. While you may begin with 20 or 30 colleges on a list, in the end you will want to refine the list to contain a mix of 8-12 reach, target, and safety schools.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Create a Spreadsheet for Your College List. You can copy this spreadsheet template and adapt for your criteria.
Special College Admisssions Cases
Early Decision (ED) can tilt numbers in favorable ways, so this option, which typically benefits those who know they will receive sufficient financial aid at meets-need schools and those who can afford full price regardless of financial aid, can really pay off.
Specialized majors can be more or less academically stringent: musical theater and visual art programs tend to care less about grades and very much about the audition/portfolio, whereas engineering and computer science will be harder to get into than other majors. Knowing whether you are a reach/target/safety candidate for these majors based on your audition, portfolio or transcripts is the key.
What Does it Mean to be “Hooked”?
Student athletes may have different standards to meet than other applicants, depending on the NCAA division, sport, and school priorities. At some schools, this hook will practically guarantee a spot in the class.
Legacy/Big Donors/Trustee Referral/Child of University Employee: All of these students can get special consideration in admissions. Some colleges do not consider legacy; others give it great weight. Some colleges will tip the scale for the personal recommendation of a member of the board, a professor, or the child of a big donor.
Race/Heritage/Ethnicity/Geographic Diversity: Remember that with holistic review, a school may turn down a student with higher stats for a student whom the school wants to recruit to fulfill a geographic or racial demographic need, wows with an essay, or has a stellar set of activities – this is most true at schools with RD acceptance rates below 30% and especially 20%.
2) Building the College List for Personal Fit
Once you understand which colleges are reasonable choices from an academic perspective, you can start building your college list for schools that are of interest to you personally.
FREE DOWNLOAD Ask yourself the right questions as you research and develop your school list, copy this template as a guide: CTK college research questions to ask yourself
First questions to ask yourself as you build the college list:
Geographic location, distance from home and ease of travel
Political, racial and gender demographics, and cultural (including religious) fit
Campus size/undergraduate population size
Urban/suburban/rural– do I want an accessible downtown area?
Prestige and level of selectivity
Curriculum: open, accredited (specific majors like engineering), core, semester vs. trimester
Greek life
Academic major
As you deepen your research, you should also consider questions like these:
Housing: Do I want to attend a college where all or most of the students live on campus? How hard is it to get housing on campus? Off campus?
Gender: If I identify as female, would I consider a women’s college? (Women’s colleges graduate per capita more women in STEM than do traditional colleges)
Research: What are the opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research?
Class Size: What percent of class time is spent in the first two years of college in classes that are larger than 30 students? ( a more precise question than student:teacher ratio)
Mental Health Services: How strong are the mental health services provided on campus? How long does a student typically have to wait for a first appointment? Does the school cap the number of visits a student may have per semester/year/total?
Graduation Placements: Where do students from my major place for graduate school/work after graduation?
Internship Opportunities: What resources exist for post-grad and summer internship placement?
What else matters to me about my college experience?
Take Your First College Campus Tours
Begin your campus tours by visiting some easily accessible locations, ideally by taking official tours. Attempt to see a few standard types:
Large (> 15,000 undergrads)
Medium (approximately 5000-7000 undergrads)
Small (<4000 undergrads)
Rural
Suburban
Urban
How to Have an Effective Campus Tour
Check the admissions page of each college for tour information. Many will allow you to register for a tour, an info session, or both.
Register for the type of session you want:
Some schools will offer additional meetings with specific departments, e.g. business or new media
You may be able to schedule an interview with a member of admissions, attend a class, or even do a specialized one-day admissions process, e.g. as at Bard
Some schools offer an information session before or after the tour. These can be very informative.
Some schools offer open house days in addition to tours.
Attend and take notes:
Look sharp but wear comfortable shoes
Ask questions
Don’t overschedule your day
Don’t let irrelevant details distract you
Don’t forget to pay attention to which schools track demonstrated interest.
CTK Blog: What to Consider When Touring Colleges
FREE DOWNLOAD: Copy this CTK template for college fit and modify it to focus on your most important factors for academics, personal interest, cost, career support, and admissions.
Chat up Your Tour Guide!
Do you live on campus (did you live on campus after freshman year)?
Is it hard to get housing off campus?
What is the social life like?
How is the dining hall food?
Are your friends all in your major/program?
Who is your favorite professor?
What is your best piece of advice for incoming freshmen on this campus?
How do you get around campus/off campus if you need to?
3) Building the College List for Cost
College should be affordable, and it is a crime that it is not for many people. I would never advise a student to go into more debt for undergraduate education than can be paid off in the first few years after graduation.
There are two types of aid that can reduce the total cost of attendance (COA) for families: financial aid and merit aid. Financial aid (needs-based aid) is determined under a federal formula at schools that rely on the FAFSA and by an institutional formula at schools that use the CSS profile. Merit aid (needs-based aid) is money a college gives the student as an incentive to attend the school. It is not tied to financial need.
Determine your College Budget
Determine your annual budget per kid per year of college based on cash flow and savings.
Ascertain whether you are at an income level where you would qualify for financial aid at the schools in which you are interested. You can run this through the College Board’s net price calculator, the cost calculator at an individual school’s financial aid site, and by confirming with the school’s financial aid office itself.
If you qualify for significant financial aid, be sure to familiarize yourself with which schools meet financial need and which do not. 75 meets need colleges
What if I Don’t Qualify for Financial Aid?
Build a college list that includes colleges and universities that have in-state options, colleges on regional exchange lists, and public colleges in other states that match in-state tuition.
Then search for colleges that provide substantial merit aid that can bring your cost of attendance down to your budget.
For high-stats students, learn about highly selective colleges that provide special scholarships for the most high-achieving students, including
College Transitions’ list of institutional scholarships by college/university.
National Merit Scholar Some of these colleges offer steep discounts to NMS finalists
College List Building: Tracking Estimated Cost of Attendance
Use my favorite chart from BigJEducational Consulting that collects data from the Common Data Set for a guide on per-student non-need-based awards at US colleges and universities, then build your list:
Aren’t There Really Great Scholarships Out There?
Most scholarship search sites are basically lotteries. Here are reputable scholarships for high-stats students:
Bryan Cameron Education Foundation (not tied to financial need)
Stamps Scholars (not tied to financial need)
Coca-Cola Scholars (not tied to financial need)
Companies that pay or match tuition for employees
Finally, all students should look into their local network, including these resources, for scholarships:
Parent employer
Student employer (see also Companies that pay or match tuition for employees)
Student high school
Local businesses and business organizations like Rotary Club
Scholarships sponsored for specific religious, cultural, ethnic, or racial affiliation
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