A central question in the college search process is simple to ask but not always easy to answer:
What am I looking for in a college?
Finding colleges that are right for you begins with understanding the qualities of a college environment that will help you learn, grow, feel comfortable, and thrive. This Worksheet, from College Match by Dr. Steven Antonoff, is designed to help you think carefully about those qualities.
You will consider a number of important college characteristics, including size, location, cost, admission difficulty, academic offerings, academic intensity, student life, and characteristics of the student body. But the goal is not simply to decide that you want a large college, a city location, or a particular major. Each of these qualities deserves more thought.
Consider size, for example. A large university may appeal to you because of its activities, school spirit, and variety of people. At the same time, you may learn best in smaller classes where professors know you well. Or the reverse may be true. The question, then, is not merely, “What size college do I want?” but “What kind of academic and social environment will work best for me?”
The same kind of careful thinking applies to every quality in this Worksheet.
There are no correct answers. You may discover that you could be happy and successful in a wide range of colleges. You may also find that certain qualities are especially important to you, while others matter very little. In some environments you may thrive; in others, you may encounter barriers that make it harder to succeed or feel at home.
The purpose of this Worksheet is to help you identify those differences. Taken together, your responses will begin to form a picture—a personal template of the qualities that could make a college a particularly good match for you. You can use that picture as you research colleges and as you talk with your parents, counselor, and others who are helping you with your search.
For each quality, first read the description carefully. Then think about how it relates to you—not just to what you think you want in a college, but to how you learn, how you live, what matters to you, and the environments in which you are most likely to flourish.
The more carefully you think about yourself before you begin choosing colleges, the better prepared you will be to recognize the colleges where you are most likely to have a meaningful and successful experience.
When you see numbers from 1 to 5 sandwiched between two statements, circle the number that best reflects your level of preference. Circle 1 if you have a strong preference for the quality listed on the left. Circle 5 if you have a strong preference for the quality listed on the right. Use 2, 3, or 4 to reflect varying levels of preference.
Also be aware that a
fillable PDF version of this Worksheet is available to download.