STUDENT-CENTERED SOLUTIONS FOR COLLEGE PLANNING

Do you ever feel the urge to shout, “I need to get out of here!” and “here” is wherever you are at the moment?

It’s a common teenage affliction. You need space. The older you get the more claustrophobic your world becomes, so you’re ready for a new look, a change of scenery. And right about now, college seems like an especially inviting destination.

As eager as you might be to get up and go, though, I suspect there is a quiet voice inside you that says something like, “I’m not sure I want to go. They feed me and give me a place to stay. They let me drive their car. Besides, my friends are right around the corner. I actually have a good life here. Do I really have to leave?”

The answer is “yes.” At some point you will need to find a change of address. If that place will be a college, why not find one that feels like home to you—a place that includes people with shared values and interests, a place where people will encourage you on bad days and celebrate with you the good days? Why not find a place you can comfortably embrace?

When you think about it, the best college fit will be a place that offers a community in which you will feel comfortable. It will be a place where you won’t be distracted by worries about how you fit in. You won’t worry about what people think about you—how you talk, what you say, how you dress or what you think. You won’t have to prove yourself to anyone. Instead, you can relax and focus on getting the most out of your college experience and that includes, by the way, your academic work. There is a strong correlation between one’s comfort level in college—and one’s grade point average!

So, how do you find such a place? It’s hard to search the Internet for such a fit. Chat room conversations can be deceptive, as they tend to reflect only the opinions of those who participate. And the images you see on videos and in viewbooks are rarely unattractive.

As a result, you will need to do some original research. Specifically, you need to get out and experience college campuses. In the June 1st Best College Fit™(BCF) Web-Side Chat webcast, I spoke at length about a three-step college visit sequence and the things you can accomplish during each visit. You can find a recording of the webcast in the BCF Webcast Archive (accessible to subscribers only).

In the process of visiting campuses, be sensitive to your “gut” reactions. Quite often when students believe they’ve found the college of their dreams, they are hard-pressed to explain the attraction, except to say, “It’s a gut feeling. It feels right—like I would be at home.” As you think about living apart from the comforts of home, finding your potential niche on a college campus is vitally important so let your gut go to work for you.

On each campus you visit, look for students who come from similar backgrounds—students who share your interests and your loyalties. While they shouldn’t be exact clones of you, it’s a good sign if you find them to be interesting and engaging—people you’d like to get to know better.

Moreover, what does your gut tell you about a college’s inclination to stretch and support you through various aspects of your college experience? Do you encounter people who will encourage and support you in your journey of self-discovery? Based on your experience on college campuses, where do you see evidence that interaction with members of the respective communities will help broaden your perspective—get you to take risks and think outside of the box periodically? What does your gut tell you about how an environment will respond if you struggle? Will anyone know? Will anyone care?

The answers to these questions will help define the ideal college community for you. At a time in your life when you may be aching to get away and have a different experience, it’s vital that you “land” well when you get to college.

Be careful not to react impulsively, then, as you consider your college “home away from home.” Be sure to test your reactions. Until you can experience a place first hand and come away with a really strong, positive “gut feeling,” the romantic notions you might have about a college exists only in your imagination. Be prepared to visit campuses—and revisit and revise your list—as your college search continues until one day you know you have found the place that feels like home!

How comfortable are you around water? Are you a strong swimmer or do you struggle to keep your head above water? Are you comfortable venturing into the deeper water or do you prefer to wade into shallow water as long as the bottom is visible and the footing is certain? Most people expose themselves to water and swimming situations according to their respective levels of skill and comfort—no more, no less.

The same might be true as you assess your comfort level with different academic environments in search of a good college “fit.” Just as you might study a body of water to figure out its temperature, depth and current (relative to your levels of tolerance) before venturing in, you need to investigate the rigor and pace of an academic environment—and your ability to keep your “head above water” if admitted—before deciding to apply.

The question of academic rigor as a measure of “fit” can be broken into two parts: 1) What is your capacity to do the work in a given academic environment? Do you possess the level of ability and preparation to get the job done? and 2) How competitive is your academic track record with those of other candidates in the applicant pools at the colleges to which you want to apply?

If you are like most students, you have the basic aptitude or capacity to compete in a range of college environments. Given the opportunity, you can perform with at least minimal success at most of the schools you are considering. The big question is, then, are you equipped to meet the challenges at higher levels of rigor? Do you possess both the aptitude and the preparation (through successful exposure to a regimen of demanding courses in high school) to achieve well in the more rigorous college environments?

Conversely, if you are immensely talented and accustomed to achieving at a very high level, will you continue to test yourself or will you choose environments that do not provide much of a challenge? If the latter seem appealing, be prepared for frustration if you choose to enroll. You might enjoy the easy pace for a while, but like strong swimmers hanging out in a wading pool, you will quickly become bored.

Your objective, then, should be to find academic environments where your levels of ability and preparation enable you to achieve well as you stretch yourself intellectually. These places represent appropriate “bodies of water” for you academically. The best sources of insight regarding your preparedness to meet the academic rigor of various colleges and universities are your high school teachers. Their familiarity with your capabilities can be invaluable in identifying the colleges where you will be well served academically.

Assuming you are able to identify appropriate environments academically, you now need to assess the competitiveness of your credentials for admission to those colleges. How does your record stack up with those of other candidates, most (about 90%) of whom are just like you in that they can do the work, too?

A helpful exercise in this regard is to compare your credentials with those of students who are already enrolled at the college you are considering. You can do this by looking at the Admission Profile for that school’s most recent entering class. If your scores and GPA fall within the top quartile of those reported on the school’s Profile, it’s a safe bet you will be a competitive candidate for admission to that school. While not a guarantee of admission, it is reassurance that you are looking in the right place. Your chances of admission diminish incrementally, though, as your credentials fall below the top quartile.

Be honest in assessing this part of the picture especially if you are considering schools that can be highly selective. A lot of students get in over their heads competitively when they fail to consider the odds of gaining admission. While you might feel you are a viable candidate at schools that can be choosy, the reality is you are probably a statistical long shot to be admitted. Those schools don’t have to take you—and probably won’t—just because you are “good enough.” By the way, you don’t increase your chances of getting into at least one such school by applying to a dozen of them!

Be smart about choosing where to apply. A key to success in any competition is making sure you are competing at the right level. You know this from your own life experiences. Whether you compete in the pool or on the stage or in the classroom, you have the best chance of finding success when your skills are competitive with those around you. Simply having knowledge of the fundamentals and a passion for the event will not advance you very far in the competition. Put yourself into competition where you fit best and see what happens.

Myth: All colleges and universities are alike.

Reality: This country boasts a rich array of more than 3,000 colleges and universities dedicated to providing post-secondary educational opportunities. Their personalities, curricula and institutional cultures vary, though, as greatly as 3,000 sets of fingerprints! While they teach the essentially the same stuff, they do it very differently.

Think about what this means for you. While your educational needs can be met in many places, you can’t assume they will be met in the same manner—or, more importantly, in a manner that is well suited to your learning style. If you and your family are going to invest in a four-year college education, it only makes sense that you put yourself in situation that is most likely to support a successful learning experience.

Finding a good college fit begins with identifying places that provide, not only the program you need, but a style of instruction that is most comfortable for you. Just as students possess unique learning styles—they each process information differently—colleges offer different styles of instruction. For example, let’s suppose you want to study Biology. Some colleges will teach Biology in seminars that include 25-30 students while others teach it in lecture halls of five hundred! Yet others will attach labs to the instruction or offer research opportunities. In each case, the material is the basically same—Bio is Bio—but the experience is different. How would you function in these different environments? What sort of interaction do you want to have with the information that is being presented?

The objective, then, is to find a style of instruction that complements the way you like to learn. As you begin looking for a good college “fit,” take stock of your learning style. How do you like to be engaged with learning? Who or what inspires you? Under what circumstances are you most likely to produce your best work? The more you know about how you like to learn, the easier it will be to make critical distinctions among the learning environments of different colleges.

Consider the following questions as you try to get your arms around your learning style. Be particularly attentive to the “why” part of each question.

• Who is your favorite teacher—and why?
• What is your favorite class right now—and why?
• In which type of classroom setting (i.e. large group lectures, seminars, etc.) are you most comfortable—and why?
• With what kinds of people and personalities do you enjoy exchanging ideas—and why?

As you reflect on your answers—especially the “whys”—you come to better understand the characteristics of a learning environment that would be the most appropriate for you in college. The next step is to look for colleges that mirror these characteristics. They will be the best fits for you.

If, for example, your approach to learning is to take good notes, read diligently and prepare carefully—all in the relative anonymity of the large lecture hall, then you are more likely to function comfortably in a larger, more expansive instructional setting. On the other hand, if you like the engagement of a small classroom where you can ask questions—where you can challenge and be challenged—then the seminar format will be more productive for you.

Now, let’s take a quick look at what can happen if you are not attentive to the information you are gleaning about your learning style. If you do prefer the large lecture hall experience—but you’ve chosen a college where most of your classes put you front and center around the seminar table, won’t you feel like the proverbial “fish out of water?” On the other hand, if you really like the engagement of the small classroom but find yourself in a setting that features lectures of 300 or more students—all the time—will that learning environment bring out the best in you? In the final analysis, you are more likely to get the most out of your ability when you find yourself in an environment that is well suited to the way you learn.

I asked these questions of my daughter as she was looking at colleges. After some reflection, she concluded that, “choosing a college is one of the most important decisions I will make in my life. In order to make a good choice, I need to know myself a little better.” Take the time to get to know yourself—and how you enjoy learning—in order to make good choices that reflect your interests and needs. Doing so will put you in a better position to find and get into colleges that fit you well.

As you begin your college selection process, it is important to stay “student-centered.” Focus on what is most important to you as think about where and how you will spend your years in college. Students who are truly reflective in this manner as they enter the process are more likely to make decisions based on a set of core priorities that guide them in the discovery of colleges that fit them best.

The discussion of finding a good college “fit” is central to student-centered college planning. It’s a concept I explore at length in Winning the College Admission Game and The College Planning Workbook and one I will address over the next six weeks in this space.

In searching for a college, it is important to find an academic program that meets your needs. On the surface, this might seem self-evident. Amazingly, though, thousands of students chose colleges that don’t really have programs in their intended areas of study. Such choices turn out to be costly in terms of both time and money. Let’s take a closer look.

Many students enter the college search process with specific academic programs or career interests in mind. And why not?  If you know what you want to study in college, it makes sense to target places that will accommodate your interests and support your strengths. For example, if you want to pursue chemical engineering, focus on schools that offer it. The same is true whether your interests lie in business, elementary education, or graphic design.

That said, be careful not to let emotional interests override your academic priorities. Embracing a college or university simply on the merit of its overall ranking or reputation, or because it has a great athletic program or is in a location you like, on the assumption you’ll be able to figure out the academic piece later, is not wise. When you do that, you become “destination-centered” and set yourself up for frustration down the line. Think about it. How often do you hear about students transferring because the colleges they have chosen don’t offer the programs they want to study? If you know what you want to pursue academically, put yourself in the best position possible to do so.

It isn’t always that easy, though, as many students are still searching for their passions and don’t feel drawn to particular career interests or academic directions. If this sounds like you, don’t worry. You are normal. It’s difficult to know at any age what you’ll do for the rest of your life, so relax. You’ve got a lot of time to figure it out.

And here’s the good news: hundreds of institutions across the country—liberal arts colleges as well as universities with robust general studies programs—are eager to embrace the undecided student. If you are not sure about your future directions, look for places that will allow, if not encourage, you to explore. Whatever you do, don’t succumb to the notion that there is something wrong with you if your future plans are not laid out in great detail. You’ll be fine—you just need to plan accordingly to give yourself options.

Whenever I present to groups of students and parents, I like to ask the parents: “How many of you are now doing in your careers what you knew you would do when you were 17 years old?” Rarely do more than 15% of the parents surveyed in audiences around the country indicate that was true for them. Despite their many achievements in life, most people in your parents’ generation have arrived at their current positions in life by pathways they couldn’t have imagined when they were your age. You, too, need to be flexible in finding and following your path. A good college fit is one that will encourage you in this direction.

It is important, then, that you go into the college selection process with your eyes wide open! Make your college years count by being true to your passions. Focus on places that will give you the best opportunity to achieve your academic goals.

And, if you need the opportunity to explore, be careful to add schools to your list that offer you academic flexibility. If you are undecided about your future academic direction, yet find yourself looking at an application for admission that requires you to declare a major as you apply for admission, you are looking at an institution that is not a good fit for you. Don’t abandon your academic needs in favor of factors that will have little or no impact on your learning experience.

Did You Know…

• You will probably change your major in college? Most college students do at least once.
• The majority of students entering college are “undeclared” with regard to a major?
• The odds are you will change jobs at least four times and change careers twice?
• Many colleges report that 80-90% of the people who graduated more than 25 years ago are now in careers that did not exist when they graduated?

For help in finding colleges and universities that “fit” well given your academic interests, check out the following websites:

www.petersons.com
http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com
www.collegeview.com