How to Create a Balanced College List

Creating a college list can be a daunting process as there are thousands of universities to choose from—the US alone is home to over 5,000 undergraduate programs! If you’re just starting the college process, you might be tempted to apply to the top 25 ranked colleges or to the most popular universities that peers from your school tend to apply to and call it a day. What most students don’t realize when they begin their research, however, is that each school offers vastly different opportunities that may or may not best suit a student’s interests, goals and personality!

If you find yourself at a loss for how to get started, read on. Command Education has some helpful tips to set you up for success throughout the research and college list creation process.

Where do you even begin? The answer is… with yourself! To know where to look, you first have to know what you are looking for in a university, and determining what you want out of your college experience requires understanding your personal, academic, and social preferences. As such, you must reflect on your past experiences to determine what you would like for your future.

For many students, the college admissions process presents a first opportunity to meaningfully reflect on how they want to use their education in the future. The more introspective and honest you are with yourself, the more your college list will reflect your priorities as a student and member of your future college community.

Let’s begin by discussing some of the commonly asked questions about college lists.

When we say “balanced” at Command Education, we mean a college list that has a strategic distribution of reaches, matches, and safeties that meet your criteria and needs. What are reach, match and safety schools, you ask?

One person’s match could be another person’s reach. It is important to be honest with yourself when putting schools into each of these categories!

We recommend that you apply to about 10 to 15 schools, but no more than 20. Within that range, you should apply to:

…give or take a few in each category. Applying to too many reaches could leave you with few choices come spring, and applying to too many matches and safeties could prevent you from maximizing your potential. A well-balanced college list provides a safety net but affords you the opportunity to take some risks.

Choosing the Factors That are Most Important to You

While these questions seem broad, answering them honestly will help you begin to narrow down what to look for when learning about colleges. Below, we’ve compiled a list of essential factors to consider when choosing which colleges to include in your list.

“Need to Have” versus “Nice to Have” Factors

You should begin by listing schools that satisfy the one or two factors from the worksheet you deem to be the most important. We call these factors the “need to have” factors, or those qualities or resources that are non-negotiable for you. On the other hand, your “nice to have” factors are those which would definitely increase your interest in a school; however, their presence or absence will not necessarily prevent you from attending a particular school.

For some students, “need to have” factors include the school’s geographic location or top ranking in a particular academic field. Other students may choose to prioritize research, pre-professional opportunities, or the presence of a particular sports team on campus. Say you know you want to be in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions of the US — you may create a preliminary (and admittedly quite lengthy) list of schools located in those states. Then, you might narrow your college list by removing some of the schools that do not satisfy ‘nice to have’ preferences.

How to Research Colleges and Universities

Once you have an initial list of schools to research, you can begin researching each school on your list in more depth, with the aim of both narrowing down your initial list and potentially discovering additional factors that can help you identify more schools for your list.

You can start your research by visiting colleges’ websites to learn about their specific application process and to get a feel for what a school might offer. College websites are a treasure trove of information — you should start by reading a college’s mission statement, as this will allow you to learn about the school’s foundational values and determine whether they seem to match your own.

If you have an area of academic focus or specific major in mind, research class descriptions, professors’ bios, or the major and minor requirements on department websites. Here, you may also find information about specific study abroad and research programs, as well as other opportunities you could take advantage of as a student.

Further, these school’s department pages may offer insights into the specific pedagogy employed by that university. While colleges often offer similar majors, your experience studying at each school is likely to differ depending on the specific department’s focus. For instance, UC Berkeley offers a more progressive and contemporary take on literature than Columbia, whose English department is more grounded in a classical canon. Additionally, Harvard’s computer science department takes more of a theoretical approach compared to Stanford’s core requirements, which require more applied learning. The University of Chicago’s economics department hosts more intellectual leaders who follow conservative theories of the market than Yale’s.

Now that you’ve learned about a college’s academic offerings, you should spend some time learning about its extracurricular opportunities and campus life! A great way to do this is to watch videos published by current or former students on YouTube or CampusReel. Some students will take you on tours of their dorm rooms or talk about what the typical day in the life of a student looks like at their college, offering you the ability to learn from a peer about what it’s like to attend their school!

The best way to get a feel for a college campus is to see it yourself! Walking around campus will give you a sense of student life on campus and hopefully a taste of how the college’s culture will impact your studies during your four years. Check out dorms, dining halls, fitness centers, libraries, and other campus facilities to ensure the environment could one day feel like home for you. Don’t be afraid to go up to current students and ask about life outside of the classroom. Sign up for official campus tours and information sessions to learn about the college and connect with admissions officers.

While we recommend visiting most of the schools on your final list, we recognize that can be time-consuming and expensive. Definitely try your best to visit the schools to which you plan to apply early, especially if you are applying under a binding Early Decision program. Beyond that, any additional visits you can manage to your favorite reaches and matches will help inform your understanding of your potential postsecondary options.

Visits are important, not only for gaining insight into the schools you are considering but also for demonstrating interest, which (depending on whether your schools track demonstrated interest) can matter to the admissions counselors considering your application. We recommend visiting at some point during your junior year, either during a long weekend during the fall semester or during the summer when you have more free time.

If you’re unable to visit a college in person, you can take advantage of virtual tours to experience campus remotely. Most colleges will supplement virtual tours with virtual information sessions, so definitely sign up for both, as that can allow you to demonstrate your interest even from afar! If the live virtual information sessions don’t work with your schedule, some schools offer pre-recorded information sessions on their admissions website or YouTube channel.

Whether virtual or in-person, we highly recommend attending these sessions as a way to learn more about each school. These sessions also offer a great opportunity for you to have your questions answered, as most end with a question-and-answer period.

Another great way to learn about a college is to chat with an alum to learn more about their experiences! You can check out your high school’s alumni network to see if any former students from your high school have attended the schools you’re considering, or you can email current students to ask if they’d be willing to chat about the college. You might also gain a valuable mentor along the way!

Finally, the college counselors at your school can serve as another great resource for gaining an additional perspective on which schools are reach, match, or safety options for you. For example, you could ask, “How have past students with my profile fared in the application process to (insert school name)?” Using aggregated historical data, your guidance counselor can answer these questions anonymously, giving you a better sense of how your school and its alumni have performed in the college application process.