College Planning Made Simple

Never rely exclusively on one source, particularly "shortcut" sources such as rankings, guidebooks and word of mouth.

They can help you develop a list of possible colleges that fit your interests, your "style, and your academic profile

Among other things, the Web is a marketing tool, so be careful. Glean all the information you can from the main levels of the site, but to really discover a college's personality, drill down to the academic and social department level. See what English faculty are doing in their classes and what students majoring in public policy do as their projects. See how faculty and students do cutting edge research together. Get a sense of how teachers teach and how students learn. And learn about how students run their own organizations by visiting the actual websites of those organizations.
Get some examples from Dickinson's web site (opens a new window).

After searching the web, email some faculty and students who are doing things that interest you. Also use email to contact your regional (or academic major area) admissions representative and introduce yourself by asking a well researched question.

After you have a reasonably good picture of how the "personality" and program of a college matches your style and needs, get yourself to campus. Stay overnight, talk with all different kinds of students about their experiences, speak with faculty about their role at the college, and of course speak with your admissions counselor. But if you go to a program put on by the admissions office, take some time to speak with students and faculty who are NOT a part of the program. This will help you determine whether what you are seeing from the program translates to reality on campus.

Don't include or exclude a college from your list because of a good or bad tour guide, because of what your cousin says, or because your friends "never heard of that school." You must take the college as a whole - looking at all of its resources - to see how it meets your objectives.

Joyce Mitchell, College Counselor at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York, tells students that they should not choose a college until the college chooses them. It makes very little sense, therefore, to rank order your applicant group. Instead, select the colleges to which you will apply knowing you would be thrilled to attend any one of them if you are admitted (and if it is affordable). There is plenty of time to "rank order" after admission, but if you select your colleges right, you can't go wrong when the final decision is in your hands.