As a freshman, someone would think they have all the time in the world before having to worry about preparing for college. However, the time to begin scoping around for colleges approaches to someone in the blink of an eye. Before a student can realize it, they have reached junior year and must start college research.
The process to determine where one is going to spend their future educational years all begins with the interests.
“The first step in picking a college is to know what you want out of your four years. If you go on visits and apply to a school when you don’t know what you want, you’re just going to end up wasting time and money. Also that’s just another school you have to choose from which will end up making your decision more stressful in the end,” said senior Kendall Buchman.
Once a student selects a field to major in, they now have to narrow down the wide variety of colleges to apply and/or visit. Students are capable of doing this through all sorts of resources the school offers.
“They can either meet with college reps here at the school to get more information about the school or they can also go to the college fair at CLC, which gives them the opportunity to meet with over 150 different colleges. Otherwise, students have access to Naviance, which is one of our college planning programs and is a good college matching tool,” said guidance counselor Jamie McKenna.
After having a smaller selection of colleges in mind, students then begin physically visiting colleges.
“They can be overwhelming, but they give you a chance to see if you could see yourself living there for the next four years,” said senior Monica Meyers.
Some students are interested in getting involved with athletics in college with the help of scholarships.
“I’m attending this school because not only is it a great school for business, but I get to play my favorite sport for the next four years with an athletic scholarship. I’m so grateful I got the opportunity to play a sport in college because now I will be debt free!” Buchman said.
The final step in attending a college is actually choosing which college you think would fit you the best.
“I am attending the University of Iowa because its larger size and research opportunities in the large hospital aligns well with my intended field. It also allows me to participate in Greek life and a larger group of people to meet,” Meyers said.
Various people play a major role in the final decision of which college a student is attending.
“Guidance counselors are one piece of the puzzle, as well as teachers, as we all promote different colleges to students. Family, of course, is the third puzzle piece,” McKenna said.