How to find the college with the best fit?

[Anonymous]

Serious question. What is a good resource where we can look at various factors beyond admissions rates, GPA, and test scores? Size of classes, dorm life, social activities, rural/urban setting, safety, etc? Would prefer a written guide so we can flip through and look at all the options, but the USNWR and Princeton guides seem a bit spare on the variables we are interested in.

[Anonymous]

Fiske Guide to Colleges

[Anonymous]

Fiske. One friendly amendment, though: Look for "good fit"--for most kids, there are lots of those (and "best fit" is a mirage).

[Anonymous]

Fiske guide - but you also need to visit schools -
a big one
one in a city
one that is in a suburb of a city
a small one
one in a small town

These can be close to where you live -but it will give your child a better sense of what they like and don't like

[Anonymous]

Agree that The Fiske guide To Colleges is good. However, it is important to understand that the Fiske Guide doesn't criticize. In order to review colleges with a critical eye, one needs to consider a variety of sources.

[Anonymous]

Any college book - Fiske, Princeton Review etc has all this information on every college. And the rest you can google (if the college doesn't make the book).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. What is a good resource where we can look at various factors beyond admissions rates, GPA, and test scores? Size of classes, dorm life, social activities, rural/urban setting, safety, etc? Would prefer a written guide so we can flip through and look at all the options, but the USNWR and Princeton guides seem a bit spare on the variables we are interested in.

You need to go an visit and try things on - it is like shopping for jeans on-line. It is one thing for the measurements to match - but how they actually fit is something else.

[Anonymous]

Remind yourself there is no ONE best fit. There are a lot of colleges your kid could be happy at.

[Anonymous]

Fiske Guide and Princeton Review "349 Best Colleges" (or probably previous editions) are both good. They can seem a bit terse, but especially once you're comparing schools, you can see where they are differentiating between them. (They can be pretty subtle in their judgements, but they are there if you look!) I like the Fiske descriptions as well as the Princeton Review survey information, which really shows how different schools stand out.

Niche
Unigo

[Anonymous]

look at niche

[Anonymous]

Honestly, stay away from DCUM. You can research and visit and love what you learn about fit, and then have it shot down.

[Anonymous]

College tours are necessary but can be misleading. You really want to engage with actual students in some way to understand the school culture. It’s a tough one.

[Anonymous]

Agree with Fiske + early visits to a range of types of schools. In addition, I like the lists at Collegexpress.com as search starters if you have an idea of something of interest, including things like majors, ECs, student life, etc.
https://www.collegexpress.com/lists/

[Anonymous]

This online "card sort" exercise can help start the conversation about factors your student may or may not care about
https://corsava.com/for-students

I wish it would take the sort results and suggest colleges but it doesn't go that far. Still it's helpful to raise factors your student may not have considered. Then you can approach resources like Fiske and Collegexpress with more focus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, stay away from DCUM. You can research and visit and love what you learn about fit, and then have it shot down.

+1

Too many sour grapes trolls and misinformation. Beware of "lists" and OPs that "inquire" about comparisons with certain colleges. There are certain colleges mentioned repeatedly on DCUM. They pop up regularly, usually by the same poster.

Literally, start backward OP - decide if your DC wants small school, big school, football team, Greek, weather, distance from home, etc. Consider major, and go from there, according to what you can afford. Then break out the books mentioned above, and start visiting. You have choices, good on you, OP - that is very important in life!