Shortlisting Colleges: What Should You Really Look For?

“Fit” is, perhaps, the most frequently referenced word throughout the college admissions process. Identifying, understanding, and evaluating fit is one of the most important aspects of selecting which college you want to attend. Your success during your undergraduate career will be contingent on the environment in which you find yourself—and so naturally, it would be prudent to find an environment that suits you best.

Academic Fit — the Most Important Part of the Research Process

Before moving on, I’m going to assume that you have a rough idea of the programs you’re interested in pursuing—however wide that range may be—and you’ve already narrowed down your list to universities that have the programs you may be interested in pursuing. 

It’s important to understand Academics, and thereby “Academic Fit”, in a college context is drastically different to Academic Fit in a high school context. I found that in high-school, academic fit is primarily a function of course rigour and workload—a heavy emphasis is placed on the high school’s past academic achievements, average IB scores, average SAT scores, etc. In high-school, most of your studying is done individually, with occasional help from teachers and tutors. 

In college, I quickly realised I must play a completely different ball-game. Everyone around me was extremely qualified; as such, academic ability is more or less a given, and other factors start coming into play. Methods of instruction, work/stress culture, competition vs collaboration, etc. all begin mattering more than they did in high school. Different universities follow different pedagogical models, it’s up to you to decide what works best for you. 

The most important question you can ask yourself is what style of learning best suits you—lecture based, discussion based, or project based? Do you prefer the freedom of a university with few mandatory classes, or do you prefer the measured exposure to various academic areas that an extensive Core Curriculum can provide?

Note that none of these styles are mutually exclusive; most universities excel at all types of learning, it’s just that you tend to see stronger emphasis on a particular style from university-to-university. My university (Georgetown) for example, has an exhaustive set of core requirements—this does take up space for potential elective classes and minors, however, does guarantee structured, rewarding exposure to areas I may not have explored on my own.

Like most, I prefer discussion and project based learning. Discussion based classes tend to be smaller, allowing for more intimate relationships with your professors and your classmates—which, arguably, is one of the most important parts of your college experience. Project based classes are great ways to develop and refine your technical skills, while finding cool new applications for in-class material. 

Every college loves to say it prioritises discussion and project-based learning. An easy way to see if the college does indeed have the resources to provide such learning is to google the university’s student to teacher ratio, and see how many classes at the university have less than 20 people in them. These numbers can be skewed once taking into consideration graduate and PHD classes. However, a general rule of thumb is that anything around a 10:1 student-teacher ratio, and any university with >50% classes with less than 20 students would be conducive to your needs.

Another frequently overlooked consideration is whether the school has a competitive culture, or a collaborative culture—which in turn, determines whether or not there is a “stress culture” on campus. Asking current students and recent alumni this question is a strong indicator as to what you may expect from your peers. It is important to give this area of your college research process significant weighting; an overly stressful environment where very few of your classmates are willing to help will have a severe impact on how enjoyable your college career is. Ideally, you want to surround yourself with people who push you to improve, but will also support you when you’re being challenged. Too many students don’t give weight to this consideration and find themselves in intense, taxing environments, leaving them unable to enjoy other aspects of their college experience.

Location — Don’t Boil it Down to Rural vs Urban

To start with, there is a high probability that for the first 3 semesters of your college career you will spend very little time off-campus exploring nearby areas. Realistically, although you may be an hour away from a big city, you won’t be Ubering over to try new restaurants or visit museums as frequently as you may originally envision. 

As such, it’s important to take into consideration your campus surroundings. Simply phrasing it in terms of “rural versus urban” simplifies this discussion a little too much. Instead, you should be asking yourself how you typically spend your time, the food you like to eat, the places you like to visit, and researching to see if similar opportunities can be found within walking distance from the university. Most universities tend to be in sub-urban or rural areas—understanding how you like to spend your time is a great way to determine just how sub-urban or just how rural you want to get.

Location also does tend to influence a college’s social culture as well. Generally, campuses that are far away from cities tend to have stronger Greek life on campus—merely because there isn’t that much to do in and around the college town. Campuses in, or very close to cities, tend to have less of a focus on Greek Life, as students have the opportunity to leave the campus more often. Of course this is a generalisation, and most campuses do have some form of Greek Life if that is something important to you, but for the most part, this is a pattern that holds true. 

I've grown up in big cities my entire life, and am glad that I chose to stay in Washington DC for my undergraduate career. Oftentimes some students see college as a potential change of scene—students like me who've lived in big cities throughout may start wanting something smaller and more rural. Unless you are absolutely sure that this change of scene must be a fundamental part, I would recommend staying in big cities if that's what you're used to.

Campus Culture and Extra Curriculars

Some college campuses can have a strong “club culture”—referring to an environment where students focus lots of energy on their extra curricular activities. Versus high-school clubs, college clubs tend to be far more professionally run, with more students willing to pay greater attention to detail in the day-to-day running of the club. 

Personally, I find these environments immensely rewarding, as through these clubs I’m given the opportunity to work with and befriend like-minded students through club activities and projects. From personal experience, I also believe that extra curricular activities allow me to develop my interpersonal soft-skills in ways that classrooms cannot, and explore my interest outside of a classroom setting. My involvement in my university's student-run investment club, as well as my university's student-run credit union have given me incredible exposure to finance, and have allowed me to build my soft skills at the same time. I whole-heartedly recommend colleges that have something of a “club culture”; they are wonderful vehicles for self-enrichment and skill-building. 

However, I also understand why students may prefer colleges without a strong club culture. They can at times limit social interaction and group people together by their interests or club involvement. In that case, it would make sense to speak to current students to get an idea of how important a role clubs play on campus, and whether you can see yourself fitting into such an environment.

Career Support and Outcomes 

I do not recommend coming into college with a fixed idea of what you want to pursue as a career. Over my time in college, I've considered a variety of potential careers—and accordingly, a range of different majors. I've spoken to alumni working in NGOs, think tanks, banks, FMCG firms, governments and more to understand what they do on a week-to-week basis. Doing so has allowed me to understand not only what skill-set is required to succeed in different industries, but also, where I can see myself working at least for the first few years of my career.

College shows you that the possibilities, truly, are endless and so you want to keep as open a mind as possible to potential areas of interest. With that being said, if you’ve identified rough areas of interest—say, for example, you’ve decided you want to work somewhere in the private sector instead of the public sector—it is easy to determine if the college you’re evaluating is the best fit for you.

Of course, any good university will give you the foundation to pursue a career in anything you desire, however, certain universities may have more established networks in certain industries and areas of expertise. Different universities also may have a stronger standing with different employers too—and these are all factors you will want to take into consideration. My university, for example, has very strong networks in governments and think-tanks around the world—as well as in the financial industry. Both are sectors that as of today, I am curious to learn more about as well as sectors where my university's alumni can share valuable insights on recruiting and work in the industry.

An easy way to gauge recruiting and recruiting outcomes is to visit the website of the university’s career education centre. Somewhere on that website, you will find a page that outlines class-by-class, where graduates ended up and the fields/companies they’re working in. This should allow you to gauge recruitment prospects at your university, and identify if there are any areas in which your university recruiting system is particularly helpful for. You may be surprised at where the bulk of students from your university end up!

Wrapping It Up — But What About Ranking?

Deciding which college is a fit can feel overwhelming, and after all the CommonApp emails and campus tours, all the colleges start blurring together and sounding the same. And so, you may begin to think about colleges only in terms of reputation and ranking.

While important, beyond a certain point the reputation and ranking of your college is irrelevant. Rankings tend to include factors that don’t have much material impact on your educational experience; and rankings are perhaps more important for post-graduate or PHD students. In other words, after a while the rank of a college won’t make you a better or worse student. And from a recruiting standpoint, after a while the rank of a college also doesn’t have a material impact on your job prospects. 

Fit is what will impact your performance in university, your ability to thrive and extract value from your college experience, and set yourself up for future success.

For that reason, it’s important to narrow down “fit” to a handful of criteria that really matter to you—and to score the colleges you research accordingly. Prioritise these criteria throughout your college search, and the rest should all fall into place. 

One final piece of advice, a mentor of mine once told me that life rewards those who take risks and stand out, not those who move with the herd. Accordingly, finding a community that allows you to take those risks, and a university that arms you with the resources to stand out should be your primary objective in your college search.

I wish you the best of luck!

You should now proceed to seek an admission advisor's perspective on Shortlisting Colleges: Questions To Ask.