The College Search

Selecting a college is an exercise in match making!  Beginning the process with a self-evaluation offers you the opportunity to honestly and accurately assess your strengths, weaknesses, needs, desires, and dreams relative to the colleges and universities you choose to explore.  It is a time to take an inventory of your personal attributes and aspirations.  At what kind of school are you likely to find happiness and success?  What are the elements most important to you – personally, socially and intellectually?

One of the best ways to investigate these questions is to reflect on your own experience as a high school student.  What have you liked and disliked about your experience?  Which experiences – personal, social, academic, extracurricular – would you like to repeat?  Which would you like to avoid?  Where and what have you done well?  Where have you had less success than you might have hoped for?

Finally, you may wish to review the following set of questions.  You are encouraged to write some of your reactions to these questions.  Much of this information will be helpful to you as you prepare your responses to your college essay questions.  In fact, many application essay questions are based directly on these questions.

Your Goals and Values

• What aspects of your high school years have been most meaningful to you?  If you could live this period over again, would you do anything differently?
• What values are most important to you?  What do you care most about?  What occupies most of your energy, effort and/or thoughts?
• How do you define success?  Are you satisfied with your accomplishments to date?  What do you want to accomplish in the years ahead?
• What kind of person would you like to become?  Of your unique gifts and strengths, which would you like to develop?  What would you most like to change about yourself?
• What experiences have shaped your growth and way of thinking?

Your Education

• What are your academic interests?  What courses have you enjoyed the most?  Which courses have been the most difficult for you?
• How do you learn best?  What methods of teaching and style of teacher engage your interest the most?
• What do you choose to learn when you learn on your own?  Consider interests pursued beyond class assignments, topics chosen for research papers, lab reports, independent projects, independent reading, school activities, job or volunteer work.  What do your choices show about your interests and the way you like to learn?
• How much do you genuinely like to read, discuss issues, and exchange ideas?  What has been your most stimulating intellectual experience in recent years?
• How would you describe your school?  Are learning and academic success respected?  Has the school’s environment encouraged you to develop your interests, talents and abilities?  Have you felt limited in any way?  What would you preserve or change about the school if you were able to do so?
• How well has your schooling prepared you for college?  In what areas of skills or knowledge do you feel most confident or least confident?  Have you been challenged by your courses?
• Have you worked up to your potential?  Is your academic record an accurate measure of your ability and potential?  Are your SAT scores?  What do you consider the best measure of your potential for college work?
• Are there any outside circumstances which have interfered with your academic performance?  Consider such factors as:  after-school jobs, home responsibilities or difficulties, excessive school activities, illness or emotional stress, parental influences, English not spoken at home, or other factors which are unique to your background.

Your Activities and Interests

• What activities do you most enjoy outside the daily routine of classes and other responsibilities?  Which activities have meant the most to you?
• Do your activities show any pattern of commitment, competence or contribution to other individuals, your family and/or school?
• How would others describe your role in school or your home community?  What do you consider to be your most significant contribution?
• After a long, hard day, what do you most enjoy doing?  What is fun or relaxing for you?

The World Around You

• How would you describe your family and home?  How have they influenced your way of thinking?  How have your interests and abilities been acknowledged or limited by them?
• What do your parents and friends expect of you?  How have their expectations influenced the goals and standards you’ve set for yourself?  To what pressures have you felt it necessary to conform?
• What is the most controversial issue you have encountered in recent years?  Why does the issue concern you?  What is your reaction to the controversy?  What is your opinion about the issue?
• Have you ever encountered people who think and act differently from you?  What viewpoints have challenged you the most?  How did you respond?  What did you learn about yourself and others?
• What concerns you most about the world around you?  Assuming obligation and opportunity to change the world, where would you start?
• Do you have any current or historical heroes or heroines?
• What books have you read that have changed your way of thinking?  Who are some of your favorite writers?  Why?

Your Personality and Relationship with Others

• How would someone who knows you well describe you?  Your best qualities?  Your most conspicuous shortcomings?  Would you agree with this assessment?  How have you grown or changed during the high school years?
• Which relationships are most important to you and why?  Describe the people whom you consider to be your best friends.  Your best critics.  Your best advocates.  In what ways are they similar or different from you?
• Describe the students at your school.  Which ones do you feel close to?  Alienated from?  What kind of people do you admire most?  Generally, how do you respond to people who think and act differently from what you expect?  How do you feel about your teachers?
• How are you influenced by others who are important to you?  How important to you are approval, rewards, and recognition?  How do you respond to pressure, competition, or challenge?  How do you react to failure, disappointment, or criticism?
• How do you feel about choices and making decisions for yourself?  What are the best decisions you have made recently?  How much do you rely on direction, advice, or guidance from others?  Have you ever chosen anything because it was new or interesting?