Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a College
These are questions for a high school senior or a transfer student, and the parent helping, to put to themselves while building a college list or choosing between acceptances, as opposed to the ones you take to the colleges. The 51 questions follow the decision in order: what you want to study and how sure you are, size and place, money and debt, where you felt at home, the support you will need, and the final choice. Aid, loans and accommodations work differently from one college and one country to the next, so where a note touches them it says who to ask.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Study
What do I want to study, and how sure am I?
Why ask it
Put a number on the second half, out of ten. At eight or above, the strength of that one department can lead the decision. At five or below, favor colleges with several majors you could see yourself in, and ask each one how students move between them.
Why am I going to college, and what do I want to leave with?
Why ask it
Training for a particular job, room to explore, a move away from home and a certain kind of friend are all honest answers, and they point to different colleges. If the only answer is that it is what comes next, settle that before comparing campuses. A cheaper start or a year out may belong on the list too.
What do I picture doing the year after graduation, and can I see a path to it from here?
Why ask it
'Not sure yet' is a fair answer, and it means flexibility should weigh more than any one program. If the picture is a licensed profession such as nursing, teaching or engineering, ask each college whether its program meets the requirements where you plan to work, since those rules vary by place.
How do I learn best: in a small discussion, in a big lecture, or by doing the thing myself?
Why ask it
Think of the class you did best in and what the room was like. If you only speak up when the teacher knows your name, a first year spent in large lectures is a worrying fit, however good the college's reputation. Look up what first-year classes in your subject are like at each place before you rank them.
If I changed my major, would this college still make sense?
Why ask it
Cross out your intended major and look at what is left. A good answer is two or three other departments you would be glad to land in. A college chosen for a single program is a risk if that program turns out to be hard to get into or not what you pictured.
Do I do better as one of the strongest students in the room, or surrounded by people ahead of me?
Why ask it
Some students do their best work chasing people who are ahead of them, and others need to be near the top of the class to keep their confidence. Remember the last room where everyone seemed quicker than you and what it did to your effort. Neither answer is weak, but it should shape how you weigh a reach school against one where you would stand out.
Do I want to sample many subjects first, or start on my field in the first term?
Why ask it
Colleges differ a great deal here: some require a broad set of courses from everyone, and some admit you straight into a program. Read the first-year requirements for each college and picture the schedule. Dreading half of it is your answer.
What do I want from a college beyond classes: research, a studio, a co-op, an internship, a term abroad?
Why ask it
Name the one or two you would be sorry to graduate without. Then check that undergraduates really get them, and in which year, because an opportunity in the brochure may go mostly to seniors or graduate students. Leave the nice extras out of the comparison.
Size and place
Do I want a college where most faces are familiar, or one big enough to disappear into?
Why ask it
Start from your high school: how big it is, and whether that feels cozy or cramped. On a small campus people notice when you miss a week, which comforts some students and crowds others, while a large one has more of everything for those who go looking. If you cannot tell, visit one of each before cutting the list.
How far from home do I want to be, in hours of travel and in what a trip costs?
Why ask it
Measure door to door, and price a round trip at a holiday. Then decide how many times a year you would want to go home, and whether your family could come to you. Be wary of a distance picked to prove a point, in either direction.
City, college town, suburb or countryside: where have I felt most like myself?
Why ask it
Go by where you have been happy for a whole week, not an afternoon. In a city the campus is one part of your life, and in a rural setting it is nearly all of it. To test your answer, find out what students at each college do on a Saturday.
Could I live with the weather there from the first week of term to the last?
Why ask it
Tours tend to run when a campus looks its best. If long dark winters or months of heat have pulled your mood down before, count how much of the academic year they cover. It is seldom a reason on its own, but it is a fair tiebreaker.
Do I want to be among people like the ones I grew up with, or people who are not?
Why ask it
Either wish is a fair one to have. Look at where each college's students come from, then ask yourself how it would feel to be one of very few with your background, faith or accent, or one of many. A current student who shares it will tell you more than the photos on the website.
Am I content to get around on foot, by bike and by bus, or do I count on having a car?
Why ask it
Trace an ordinary week at each college: groceries, a job, the airport or station at the end of term. A car adds insurance, parking and fuel to the bill, and going without one where everything is a drive away leaves you waiting on friends. Students will tell you which kind of place theirs is.
Would I live on campus, commute from home, or want my own apartment as soon as I could?
Why ask it
Living at home can change the cost a great deal, and it also changes how you meet people. Each college has its own housing rules, so ask what first-years must do and where most students live after that. Then price the option you would really choose, not the cheapest one on the sheet.
If I did not leave campus for a month, would there be enough there for me?
Why ask it
This tests a small or remote college, and also a commuter campus that empties at five. List what fills a normal week for you now, from the gym to a place of worship to somewhere quiet, and look for each one's counterpart. Two or three gaps are normal; a week with nothing in it is the warning.
Money
What can my family pay each year without borrowing, and have we said that number out loud?
Why ask it
This is the conversation many families put off until the offers arrive. Parents: give a real figure, even an awkward one. Students: ask for it early, because 'we will work it out' is the answer that leads to choosing a college first and learning the limit second.
How much debt am I willing to graduate with, and what would the monthly payment be?
Why ask it
A total is abstract and a payment is not. Have the lender or the aid office work it out at the rate and term that would apply to you, then set it beside what a beginner earns in the field you are likely to enter. With no field in mind yet, that uncertainty is a reason to borrow less.
What would each college cost us after grants and scholarships, across every year and not only the first?
Why ask it
The published price can mislead in both directions. Line the offers up, subtract only the money that never has to be repaid, and ask each aid office whether its grants renew and how its charges have risen lately. Compare the totals, since a generous first year can hide a costlier degree.
Is the more expensive college worth the difference, in words I could say to someone else?
Why ask it
Write the gap down as a number, and next to it what the money buys: a program the other lacks, classes you would speak in, a place you are more likely to finish. 'It is just better' does not count. When the sentence will not come, the cheaper college has won.
Am I likely to need a graduate or professional degree afterwards, and have I left room to pay for that too?
Why ask it
Medicine, law and some kinds of teaching and therapy ask for more study after the first degree, and what they require depends on where you would work. If that is your direction, the undergraduate bill is only the first one, so count the later one before you settle how much to borrow now. If you cannot say yet, leave it out of the sum and come back when you can.
Who would be borrowing, me or my parents, and does each of us understand what we would sign?
Why ask it
A loan in a student's name and one in a parent's name are different promises, and the terms depend on the country and the lender. Ask the aid office and the lender to walk both of you through them before anyone signs. A parent who sets this against their own retirement is asking a fair question.
What would I have to keep up to hold on to my aid, and how likely am I to manage it?
Why ask it
Read the conditions in each offer: a grade average, a number of credits, a particular major. Then be honest about a first year in which everything is new. Asking the college how many students keep the award to the end is reasonable, and a vague reply is worth noting.
Am I willing to work during term, and how many hours could I take on before my grades paid for it?
Why ask it
If the budget counts on your earnings, test it against how you have handled a job, a sport or a heavy term before. Ask students at each college what work is around and what it pays. A plan that only balances when you work every weekend should be marked as fragile.
Would starting somewhere cheaper and transferring get me to the same degree?
Why ask it
For some students it does, at a much lower cost. It rests on which credits the second college accepts toward your major, so get that from the college itself, in writing, before you count on it. Weigh the saving against joining a class whose friendships are two years old.
What happens to this plan if our money situation changes halfway through?
Why ask it
A lost job, an illness or a sibling starting college can each move the numbers. Ask every aid office how it handles a change in the middle of a degree, and notice which plan has some slack in it. One that works only if nothing goes wrong for four years deserves a second look.
Fit
On which campus did I stop feeling like a visitor?
Why ask it
Try to recall the moment: you may have caught yourself planning a route to class or not wanting to get back in the car. That feeling is evidence, but check what produced it, because sunshine and a funny guide can do the same. If you can, go back on a plain weekday.
Did I see people there I would want to sit down with, or did I feel I would have to become someone else?
Why ask it
Leave the tour guide out of it and think of the dining hall, the library steps, the line for coffee. A good sign is spotting two or three tables you would walk up to. College is supposed to change you a little, but four years of acting is too much to ask of yourself.
What would an ordinary Tuesday look like for me there?
Why ask it
Sketch it from the alarm to lights out: where you eat, where you study, who you run into. Blank stretches show you what to ask a current student. A college where you can picture a dull day is a safer choice than one where you can only picture the highlights.
What do I really do with my weekends now, and what would I do with them there?
Why ask it
Answer for the person you are, not the one you plan to become: parties, games, a job, hiking, church, staying in. If social life at a college runs mostly through one thing you do not care for, ask students what the rest do. A shrug is a worrying reply.
Which activity would I be miserable without, and could I really take part in it there?
Why ask it
A sport, an instrument, a stage, a faith group, a debate team. A college having one is different from you having a place in it, so ask about tryouts, auditions, costs and whether students outside the major may join. For most people this is one line on the list, and for a few it decides the matter.
How much do a college's character and rules matter to me: a religious affiliation, a conduct code, a strong political lean?
Why ask it
Some colleges ask students to attend services or sign a code about how they live, and others leave all of that alone. Read the student handbook, not only the admissions page. You are done when you know which rules you would welcome and which you would spend four years working around.
Would I feel safe there, on campus and in the streets around it?
Why ask it
Walk the route from the library to the dorms in your head, at night. Ask current students, especially ones who share your concerns, what they do and what they avoid. Many colleges publish safety figures, so ask each one where to find them, and read them next to what students say.
If I have not visited, what is my picture of this college built on?
Why ask it
A website, a ranking, a cousin's stories and a video tour each show a college at its best or through one person. Before you commit, add at least one unpolished source: an admitted-student day, a class you sit in on online, or two current students nobody chose for you.
Support
What help did I lean on in high school, and who would give it to me at college?
Why ask it
Write the real list: a tutor, a teacher who chased missing work, a parent who ran the calendar. For each, look for its counterpart at the college and find out whether it comes to you or you have to go and ask. If you have needed the nudge, give extra weight to places where someone notices.
If I am the first in my family to go to college, who will explain the parts nobody tells me?
Why ask it
How to read a bill, when to see a professor and what to do about a bad grade are things other students often pick up at the dinner table. Find out what each college runs for first-generation students, and whether a current one says it was any use. Until then, a counselor, a teacher or an older student from your school can stand in.
If I have a learning difference, a disability or a health condition, what would I need in place before the first day?
Why ask it
Arrangements from high school may not carry over on their own, and the process differs by college and by country. Contact each disability or accessibility office to learn what paperwork it wants and how long approval takes. How quickly and specifically it replies is a preview of dealing with it later.
How do I cope when I am stressed or lonely, and would that still be within reach there?
Why ask it
It might be a run, a best friend, a counselor, a congregation or a drive home; check which of yours would survive the move. If you rely on regular counseling or treatment, ask the college what its health service offers and what it costs, and talk to your current provider about how care would continue.
How ready am I to run my own time, money, laundry and sleep?
Why ask it
Score yourself on a normal week, not your best one, and have a parent score you separately. A wide gap between the two is something to practice on before you leave. It is also a reason to give weight to a college with a structured first year or a shorter trip home.
Who would I call in my first bad week, and how far away would they be?
Why ask it
Assume there will be one and plan for it instead of hoping. A good answer has a name in it. When everyone you would call is a flight away, find out what the college puts around new students, such as residence staff, a first-year adviser or peer mentors, and whether students say they use them.
How easily do I make friends from nothing, and what has helped me do it before?
Why ask it
If the answer is slowly, look for built-in ways to meet people: small first-year seminars, themed housing, an orientation trip, a team or ensemble. A large campus where most students go home at night makes it harder. Someone who makes friends in the lunch line can choose more freely.
Deciding
What are my three must-haves, and which colleges on my list meet all three?
Why ask it
Keep it to three, because a list of ten is a wish and nothing passes it. Write them before you look at a ranking again. A college that misses one comes off the list, however good the visit felt, unless you are willing to admit it was never a must-have.
Is there a college on my list that I am likely to get into, could pay for and would be glad to attend?
Why ask it
Be honest about your chances first: your school counselor can usually say how earlier applicants from your school with similar grades fared. A sure thing you would hate to attend is not a safety, and neither is one you could not pay for. If no college on the list passes all three tests, add one before you add another long shot.
Which college would I choose if nobody ever asked me where I went?
Why ask it
The question takes the name off the sweatshirt. If the answer differs from your current favorite, the difference is what the reputation is worth to you. It may be worth something, and that is allowed, but know what you are paying for it.
Whose decision is this, and where do my parents and I disagree?
Why ask it
Say the disagreement out loud before the deadline does it for you. One way is for each person to write a first choice and a one-line reason, privately, then trade papers. Parents who are paying can fairly set the budget, and it helps to state that as a number instead of steering toward a favorite.
Am I leaning toward a college because a friend, a partner or a sibling will be there?
Why ask it
A familiar face is a real help in the first month, and a degree lasts a good deal longer. Ask whether you would still enroll if that person transferred or the two of you fell out. A no means the choice is about them, and the college should be judged again without them in it.
Which would I regret more in ten years: the debt, the distance, or not having tried?
Why ask it
Answer quickly, then answer again after a night's sleep, and see whether it holds. Each regret points somewhere different: toward the cheaper offer, the nearer campus or the bolder one. Parents can answer for themselves too, as long as they say it is their regret and not the student's.
What would be most likely to make me want to leave after a year, and which college makes that least likely?
Why ask it
You know your own weak point better than any guidebook: homesickness, boredom, money worry, being alone in a crowd. Choose against that first and for the attractions second. If you cannot name one, ask someone who has lived with you.
As a transfer student, what was missing at my last college, and am I sure this one has it?
Why ask it
Name it exactly: the major, the cost, the distance, the people. Then ask whether it lives in the college or would travel with you, because homesickness and study habits come along in the suitcase. For anything the college controls, including how your credits will count, get the answer from the new one before you commit.
If two colleges are tied, how do I feel the instant a coin lands on one of them?
Why ask it
Assign each a side, flip, and catch the first flicker of relief or disappointment before you start reasoning. You do not have to obey the coin. If you feel nothing either way, both are good choices and the lower bill can settle it.
What is my deadline for deciding, and what do I still need in hand before it?
Why ask it
List what is still open: a revised aid offer, a place in the major, a housing answer, one more visit. Put the name of an office or a person beside each and write this week. If something will not arrive in time, ask the college whether it can give you a few more days; some will, and asking costs nothing.
How to use these questions to choose a college
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When and how to answer them
Twice: building the list, then choosing between offers
The same questions do two jobs. In the fall they trim a long list: answer Study, Size and place and the must-haves under Deciding, and cut whatever fails. In the spring, with acceptances and aid offers in hand, Money, Fit and the rest of Deciding carry the weight, because the numbers are now real and so are the campuses.
Write your answers before you talk about them
Put a line or two under each question on your own first. An answer on paper is harder to bend toward what a parent, a friend or a ranking wants to hear, and you can read it again months later to see what has changed and what has not.
Take Money early, however awkward
If the family's yearly figure is not known, get it before anyone falls for a campus. It decides which colleges are real options. Learning it after an acceptance has arrived is the hardest order to do it in, for the parent as much as the student.
Transfer students: begin with what went wrong
Take the transfer question under Deciding first, then go back to the top. You have something a high school senior lacks, a year or more of evidence about how you study, live and spend at college, so answer from what happened and not from what you hoped would happen.
Students and parents together
Answer separately, then compare
For readiness, distance, cost and regret, a parent and a student each write an answer without showing the other. The questions where the two papers differ are the ones to talk through. Where they match, move on.
Say who decides what
A split many families find workable is that whoever is paying sets the budget, and the student chooses among the colleges that fit inside it. Agree on the split early and in plain words, so that a preference for one college is not presented later as a price limit.
Keep one comparison sheet
Use a single page with a column for each college and a row each for cost after grants, expected debt, travel time, size, the intended major and one line on how the visit felt. Fill it from the aid offers and from your written answers. The empty boxes are your to-do list.
Let the student hold the pen
A parent can ask these questions aloud, but the answers should be in the student's words. If a parent finds they are answering most of them, that is worth saying out loud, since the person who will live there needs to own the reasons for going.
Reading your own answers
Keep facts and feelings apart, and keep both
Cost after grants, distance and whether the major exists are facts, and they can be checked. Feeling at home is a feeling, and it counts, because you are the one who has to live there. Trouble starts when one stands in for the other, as when a college gets called affordable because it is loved.
Notice the question you skipped
A question you passed over, or answered in three vague words, is usually the live one. Go back to it when you are not tired, or ask someone who knows you well how they would answer it for you.
Turn each unknown into a question for the college
These are questions for you, but many of the answers end in something only a college can confirm: how switching majors works, which aid renews, what the accessibility office needs. Collect those and send them. Rules differ by college, state and country, so one college's answer says nothing about the next.
Mistakes to avoid
Choosing the name
A ranking measures what its makers decided to count. It cannot know how you learn, what your family can pay or whether you would be content there. Use rankings to find colleges you had not heard of, then let your own answers do the choosing.
Comparing first-year bills
An aid offer describes one year. Ask what changes in the second, and compare what the whole degree would cost at each college, including an extra term if students in your major often need one.
Falling for the tour
A visit shows a campus on a good day with a chosen guide. Let it move a college up or down, but check the feeling against the ordinary Tuesday you sketched and against a student nobody picked for you.
Treating the choice as permanent
The decision deserves care, and it can still be revisited: students change majors and some transfer. Remembering that lowers the pressure, and answers given under less pressure are usually more honest.