College Selection & Visitation Strategies

College Selection & Visitation Strategies

 College Selection & Visitation Strategies

(College Planning Series)

By: Krystal W. Abbott

The whole picking a college thing is so overwhelming!  Too many choices!  Too many career and major options!  Too close to home . . .  too far away from home . . . too big . . . too small . . . too cold . . . too hot . . . too many strangers . . . too many friends . . . a great athletic program . . . an average or lousy athletic program . . .  too many people from my culture, race or ethnic background . . . not enough!  Let’s start with the below bullet points to get started.

●  List career path(s) or area(s) of interest.

● Begin with 25 colleges

● Rank according to major factors and what characteristics of a college that are important to you

● Analyze & select 4 - 8 schools

● Visit each of the 4 - 8 schools

● Schedule your visits on a weekday

● Ask about admissions, career placement, faculty, students, financial aid, work-study, etc.

● Rank the colleges based on the evaluation

● Determine which college best fits 

You will need to stop, be still and take some time to think about this whole college choice thing!  You don’t want to find yourself in the 25% of incoming freshman who transfer to another university, only to  find themselves taking 5, 6 and 7 years to graduate because of lost credits and additional adjustment time. You also don’t want to find yourself among the 60% of incoming freshman who have no career goal, no plan and no thought of what they want to major in come the fall of their freshman year.  Because of starting college lost, undecided, and confused, 25% of incoming freshman ultimately just drop out all together at some point in their college career. DON’T BE IN THESE STATISTICS!  Just take some time from the high school homework, activities and socializing to stop, be still, and think about your college future.  College is an exciting four year stop in your  journey of success.  Don’t make being a college student a never ending career of confusion!  Just take the time now to stop, be still and think about all the future holds for you!