Thanks to TCC team member Kristi Ramey for this post!
Students sometimes apply to colleges thinking, “I’ll visit once I get in.” After all, it takes time and often money to travel to a school. But it’s also worth taking the time to be sure that each college you apply to fits your academic, career, social and personal needs.
Begin with the end in mind
As you think about potential career paths, look at actual job postings to use as a guide for the knowledge, skills and degrees you will need. How does each college on your list support these paths? For example:
- If you’ll be entering the workforce right after college, do faculty and career center staff help guide students to find meaningful internships that will strengthen your resume?
- Does the college offer accelerated paths to graduate degrees such that you can obtain both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in 5 years? These are sometimes called 4+1, combined degree or BS/MS programs. (There are also a few accelerated programs for law school, medical school and other professional degrees.) This may save you time and money. Sometimes the tuition for the master’s degree is waived and the application process is simplified.
- If you think you’ll be pursuing graduate school, does the undergraduate college support and help you find engaging research in your field? Can your academic advisors in college help prepare you to apply for grad school?
Academic fit
To assess whether a school is a good academic fit, you need to look beyond name and ranking. Explore the available courses in the majors you’re considering and what you will actually be learning. Which courses are required to graduate? Read the course descriptions, and compare them across the various colleges you’re exploring.
Assessing the strength of learning supports
If you are on an IEP or 504 plan in high school, examine the support available at various colleges. What specialized programs are available to support your social, emotional and academic success?
Virtually all colleges in the U.S. are required to provide “reasonable accommodations” to students with documented disabilities, but the staffing and quality of disability services may vary. When additional services such as learning support programs are available, they may be fee-based. Consider looking for transition-to-college and pre-orientation or “summer bridge” programs as well.
When touring colleges, we recommend scheduling a separate meeting with the disability services office. To prepare for these meetings, evaluate what accommodations are working and helpful for you currently in high school – as well as what adjustments potentially need to be made for you to learn most effectively. If you’re looking for specific questions to ask the disability services office, see our article here.
Our sortable database of neurodiversity-friendly colleges, containing information on learning support programs at nearly 250 institutions, is another helpful resource at this stage in the process.
The goal isn’t merely “getting in” – it’s thriving
One important and often overlooked point of evaluation is how the academic pace is likely to feel for you. Students can get so concerned with getting into a particular college that they overlook whether they can truly thrive there.
Many colleges publish a “freshman profile” that shows the level of academic preparation of the most recently admitted class, with data points like average GPA and SAT/ACT score ranges. If most admitted students had unusually high GPAs or test scores, the environment may move more quickly and feel more competitive, which can be motivating for some students but overwhelming for others. The goal is to identify a setting where you can keep up, learn deeply, and feel confident asking for help.
What else matters?
Beyond looking carefully at how the college is going to support you academically, think about other criteria that are important to you. These might be things like:
- Total cost of attendance, including tuition, housing, travel, books and fees – as well as taking into account anticipated financial aid
- Distance from home
- Size of undergraduate student body
- Campus layout and design, as well as proximity to nature and outdoor activities
- Extracurricular clubs, activities, communities, sports culture, and social activities you would want to be a part of
- Opportunities in the surrounding community/town – where do students go on the weekends and what do they tend to do?
- Factors that affect your daily life, like how easy it is to get around on campus and quality of food and housing
- Greek life (fraternities and sororities)
- Diversity and inclusion – are there particular groups you identify with that you want to be sure are part of your college experience?
No criterion is too trivial to put on your list for consideration if it matters to you.
How to do virtual research
Now it’s time to see how the schools align with the criteria that are important to you. But how do you go about researching a college to even determine if you want to visit?
- Start by exploring the college online through its official website, virtual tours, and YouTube videos to get a feel for the campus, academics, and student life.
- Go a step further by following the college on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
- Sign up for admissions email updates and read them.
- Attend virtual admissions information sessions or webinars, as well as admissions information sessions given by regional representatives that come to your high school.
- Browse the college’s subreddit to see what students are really talking about day to day.
- Attend local college fairs, which allow you to learn about multiple colleges at a single event.
As you research majors, courses, clubs, housing, and support services, take note of whether the school’s culture and surroundings feel like a place where you could see yourself living and learning for four years.
Many schools consider “demonstrated interest” in the admissions decision; by researching in some of these ways you will be demonstrating interest in the school, which may help your application.
Visiting in person
If you have the time and resources, it’s helpful to visit each campus you’re seriously considering in order to confirm your impressions from your virtual research. If possible, try to visit when classes are in session so that you can have as much interaction as possible with faculty and current students to gather additional insight. Many high schools have spring breaks that are offset from college schedules, and these are excellent times to visit for that reason.
When you visit is also key – ideally the list of colleges you will apply to is near final by August as you enter senior year, when supplemental essay prompts for most colleges are final and published.
Documenting your impressions
Whether you are researching virtually or visiting in person, take careful notes of your impressions. After visiting many schools, the details can blur together, and careful notes now will pave the way for a solid foundation later on, when it’s time to decide what colleges go on your final list. Many colleges also have a supplemental essay question asking why you’re interested in attending the college, making detailed tour/research notes all the more valuable when you feel the crunch of writing multiple supplemental essays during the application process.
Choosing with intention
Researching a college is not about building the most impressive list possible; it is about making thoughtful, informed choices that set you up to succeed. When you take the time to look closely at academics, learning support, campus culture, and daily life, you move beyond the question of “Can I get in?” to the more important one: “Can I thrive here?” Virtual research, campus visits, and careful reflection all work together to help you answer that honestly. A well-researched college list is ultimately one that reflects who you are, how you learn best, and where you can grow with confidence in this next phase of your life.