The College List: Do’s and Don’ts

Attention Juniors, the High School Class of 2011: Now is the time to create your initial college list. Where to begin? Don’t jump on the bandwagon with those considering only brand name schools. Instead, do start with an honest appraisal of your personal profile. Draft a resume and complete personality assessments such as the Do What You Are Personality Type and Career Interest Profiler. A clear picture of your academic and extracurricular achievements will emerge as well as recommended learning styles and majors/career interests. At the same time, do compile a wish list of college criteria to include preferences on academics, size, location, campus life, cost and more. Information generated from both the student profile and the wish list can then be matched with college resources (Peterson’s, Princeton Review, Fiske) or inputted into search engines (collegedata.com, collegeboard.com, Naviance) resulting in an early list of potential “right fit” schools. Do make sure that your list is balanced in terms of admissions probability. And, do keep in mind that a college list is not set in stone; rather, the list will change as your criteria continues to be fine-tuned by campus visits and research as well as updated profiles and goals.