How to Find the Best College Fit

Spring is a time when college planning is very top-of-mind for many rising high school seniors and parents/guardians. With these tips in your back pocket, you and your student can find the best college fit!

The best approach is to take a step back and view the process as though nothing has changed. In fact, a silver lining here is that you have time on your hands which can allow you to engage reflectively in college planning, rather than instinctively.

Many families tend to approach the process with tunnel-vision surrounding a list of colleges they perceive as the “best” when beginning conversations of college planning. When this happens however, the most important person - the student - in the process is often overlooked. Today, we’ll walk through strategies for identifying the student's priorities and a sense of purpose that are important to college planning in a "student-centered" way.

This narrative provides a high-level overview of the key topics discussed, along with the times that those topics are discussed within the video. We hope this helps you jump to the specific parts of the video that are of interest to you. 

If you have additional questions, we encourage you to reach out via our contact form!

The Conversation-Starting Questions

• Why do you want to go to college?
• How do you like to engage in learning?
• List three things you would like to accomplish by the time that you graduate from college

What is a Best-Fit College?

• Provide a program of study that meets your needs.
  
• Provide a style of instruction that is consistent with the way you enjoy learning.
• Offer you a level of academic rigor commensurate with your ability and preparation.
• Provide you with a community that feels like home.
• Be a place that values you for what you have to offer.

Understanding the Competitiveness of Your Credentials

• The Pyramid of Selectivity (illustration)
• The Enrollment Model (illustration)
• The Competitive Playing Field (illustration)

Where You Might Go Wrong

The best college fit will not be:

• The place that your significant other attends
  
• The most highly ranked institution
  
• The one with the most successful athletic program
  
• The place your parents attended
  

Final Pieces of Advice

Some final pieces of advice for parents:

• Manage your expectations
• Resist the temptation to “engineer” a perfect candidate
  
• Keep rankings in perspective
  
• Separate rhetoric from the reality
  
• Adjust to life in the passenger seat
  

Looking to learn even more specific tips? This article on the top 5 ways to find your college fit can help.