Are high-ranking colleges also the right fit for you? Expert explains

With more and more students applying to universities abroad each year, the dream of being able to attend high-ranking colleges such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, and Oxford has become a major part of a young student’s life in India.

It is understandable that a student, exposed to popular media, dreams of sitting among the red bricked walls of Harvard or studying in the gothic halls of Cambridge. The desire to attend the best college can also be understood by the fact that, for many students, this is one of the first and biggest decisions of their lives.

There is an admirable quality in this ambition and I would be the first to acknowledge the powerful ambition students embody whenever they begin their application journey.

Simultaneously, our culture quantifies a student’s success based on the college a high school student can gain admission to. In this scenario, the higher the rank of a college, the more “successful” a student tends to become .

However, ambition, coupled with mounting societal pressure around success, is a recipe for stress and disappointment. The factors that once compelled them to apply abroad often become too simplistic in the face of this tension. And the reality of colleges becomes something they haven’t really expected.

Let’s take examples.

Want to study Computer Sciences at the University of Washington? Are you ready to go through rigorous classes and apply to the most selective major, having a very low chance of being actually admitted to the major?

Do you want to study at Boston University? Are you ready to traverse the streets of Boston to get to your classes in under 15 minutes?

I have worked with many students who have regretted attending the college they and their families imagined was the perfect place to be. This notion of the “best college” is often informed through countless ranking sites, advertisements, and general prestige, which makes college seem like the perfect place to be.

It has, therefore, been the hardest part of my job to remind students that most rankings and advertisements are often designed to mislead students.

A high-ranking college in academics can mean many different things. It can mean that the college has a strong faculty but can also hide from you the fact that those professors rarely teach undergraduate students.

There is also a dark side to the ranking system. The recent scandal Columbia University was involved in is an example. The university’s rank was recently brought down from #2 to #18 after one of their Maths professors questioned the validity of the statistics used for its ranking.

I am saying that the notion of applying to a college just because it is ranked high should be questioned. Is there such a thing as the best college? I think not. But I do believe in the concept of a good-fit college.

What is a good-fit college? As the name suggests, a good fit college not only takes into account not only the quality of the institution itself but also factors in whether the place will be a natural fit for you.

Many students I have worked with attest to the fact that relying on oneself in making the choice of what college to go to is the best decision they could have made.

I can assure students that a good amount of organised research is far more systematic than shooting the shots in the dark, when applying to top ranked colleges.

Research is a fun, sometimes daunting, but clearly an important part of the process. Learning how to personalise a list of preferences also becomes crucial. Bit by bit, the process of gathering a small list of colleges that one should apply to becomes the most crucial aspect of a student’s pre-college journey. This is, in fact, one of the first things I do with the students I work with.

To them, I break it down. I ask them questions: What do you like? What do you not like? This helps in understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Then it is time to create parameters to narrow down from a large pool of colleges the colleges you would like to apply to.

Are you looking at big colleges in a small town, or a college integrated into a bustling metropolis? Is there a type of college you would really not like to attend? Say, you are interested in sports. Does your college offer you the opportunity to play your favourite sport? What kinds of competitions do they attend? How strong is the team? Would you be open to a college that does not have a strong sports infrastructure?

The purpose of the exercise is not to limit oneself to the different criterions that will factor into your decision making, but rather to find non-negotiable criteria that will help make the list shorter.

Sure, going to a prestigious college can be a non-negotiable criterion for some. One can choose to keep strong academics or research funding as part of their non-negotiables for sure. But factors such as location, sports, diversity, number of international students, student’s clubs and sports are worth thinking about.

Are you more inclined towards academics? Would you like your education to be intellectually challenging? Or are you business minded, and would like a group of friends interested in entrepreneurial projects? Think not just of your likes and dislikes, but the kind of education that would matter most to you.

What sort of college you would like to go to can very easily and systematically be determined through narrowing down your preferences in the factors mentioned above.

Once one has a sense of their preferences, here are four things you can do: Talk to a professional counsellor at your school or outside; find credible, unbiased websites to research colleges on and understand their ranking systems; practice poaching the college website; and talk to current students and alumni on LinkedIn or through the college admissions office.

It is generally a good practice to question the search from time to time as well, asking yourself whether what you are reading is advertisement or genuine information. Having friends, counselors, and parents to assist is always a plus. Also note that “good fit” college search is inherently relative, and it is part of best practice to create your own rankings that suit your preferences and abilities. Depending on your test scores, school grades, and college’s acceptance rates, your college list can be further arranged into: dream colleges, reach colleges, and safety colleges.

If you are seeking financial assistance from the college, find out if and how it gives financial aid to international students.

Does this all mean that one should not consider Harvard or other “top ranked colleges” when applying to colleges abroad? The answer is simple: applying to college as a process isn’t just about specific colleges. It has to take into account how a college fits into your goals, aspirations, capacity, and wants. Applying to Harvard is certainly ambitious. Being realistic, however, sets one for more success and considerable low stress further down the line.

(The writer is the founder of Edbrand and CollegeFair.Live)