Decisions, decisions: Choosing a College

college by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Sean MacEntee

“college” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0

There is always tips, and tricks to help pick the most important decision aspect in your life, college. This is going to be the next four years of your life, and what will set up up for your future. Multiple aspects must be considered what determining this choice. However, to make it easier I’ve created a checklist for things to be on the lookout for. This checklist will guide you into the right direction for either the start of journey of picking your dream college, or making the final choice.

For me, picking my college was easier than I expected. I wanted to play soccer in college, but when COVID hit, I didn’t know if I would. Recruiting was all thrown off, and I accepted that I wasn’t going to. However, I still knew I wanted to go to a small school, and go somewhere that was either D3 or D2. Yet, things for me fell into place. A small school that D2 recruited me to play soccer, and it was perfect. So for me I was lucky, yet the checklist I created was something I still used. I modified it to my situation, but still had to check for these things.

Here’s the checklist:

  1. How big of a school do you want to go to?
  2. How far do you want to move away?
  3. Where would you go, hot or cold?
  4. Would you play a sport, if you play one?
  5. Is college even the right option for you?
  6. Is community the best option at first?
  7. What would you major in?
  8. Does your school offer your major & minors?
  9. Money-wise, is it affordable?
  10. Is this what you want to do?

Take this in, and look.

These would be the questions I would ask myself before looking out college, and I even adjusted them when I found my dream college. By just looking at this this guide of thoughts maybe never crossing your mind, this can help. This will help with narrowing down your choice, or starting at a school that you know may be the best fit for you.