If you’re reading this as a senior–or any person who plans on attending a college or university in the next four years–I want you to think about your top schools. Where are they, do they vary in caliber or rigorousness, do you possibly have a familial or otherwise emotional connection to said school?
In the college application process (as well as throughout high school) it can be difficult to distinguish a “good” school from a place that is widely covered in the media or a notoriously famous institution. These past three years of my life, I’ve seen people apply to schools they never in their wildest dreams thought they’d get into: some got in, some didn’t. Some of those same people who applied to an Ivy or maybe a Big Ten school ultimately decided it wasn’t a good fit for them, so they enrolled elsewhere. Now, as I’m in this position of applying myself, I see people applying to a multitude of different schools. Big, small; close, far; crazy competitive, fairly lax. I know people that are applying to two schools and others that are submitting to over 15.
Throughout all this, I remind myself… I’ll only end up attending one school. And the reality is, it doesn’t even matter where I go. In fact, some of the things I value most–my happiness, purpose, adventure, knowledge, creativity–are likely not going to be as supported by Stanford, Harvard, or Yale. Additionally, weighing the other factors such as location, cost, etc. makes other schools that were previously appealing to me completely unattractive; in August of this year, I traveled to Chicago, Illinois and visited University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Loyola. A couple of things I learned: Chicago and city life in general isn’t for me, a pretty campus doesn’t constitute a great university, and some places are so outlandishly expensive I would be paying off student loan debt well after my body has decomposed. These realizations narrowed down my list quite a bit which honestly comes as a huge relief. Deciding to focus my time and attention on places I’m excited about has made the process more invigorating and made me more excited about my future; College and higher education in general is riddled with expectations which can make it quite difficult to decide what you really want–the most important aspect of the whole thing. I encourage you to do this one thing for yourself: go through the college application process with you and only you in mind.
Skyline Learning Center 