Does anyone think choosing the right college is easy?  Let's face it, how many teenagers really know what kind of profession they want to pursue?  We've seen sons, daughters, nieces and nephews go through the process of picking a college.  We see it in their faces; it's a combination of fear, frustration and confusion.

This section of the publication is supposed to be about college loans, but the first decision that students face is not about loans, but about narrowing the choices of schools they'd like to attend.  Picking the right college is important because it's the value that the school provides the student that is important; it's not your expected family contribution.

Difficult College Decisions
Let's face it, most students go on to college so that they can find a good job paying job after they graduate.  We don't need statistical proof to tell us the obvious - college graduates are more "qualified" for higher paying jobs.  Even Census 2000 tells us that individuals with a bachelor's degree earn nearly 70% more on than those with a high school diploma.

But what kind of work are we talking about?  What kind of jobs are the student interested in?

This is what makes choosing a college so difficult.  To get the best value from a college, we'd like to pick one that provides the student with a strong education in the profession in which they are likely to work.  So what's the real question we're asking this teenager?  Paraphrasing, it's something like this:

    "Tell me what kind of job you'd like to work in for the next 40 years of your life so we can pick out a college together that maximizes the chances of you getting a high paying job in that field."

These kids barely know how to drive, let alone figure out if they want to study chemistry in college so they can work for a pharmaceutical company to develop a new wonder drug.  They need help.

Narrowing Down College Choices

So if we can all agree that making this choice is hard, then we need to figure out how to make the best decision by narrowing down the choices a bit.  The real deciding factors in this decision are limited and have to do with three factors:

    * Location - the distance a student is willing to travel to attend a college or university.
    * Admissions Policy - basically, does the student have limits when it comes to where they can attend?  Do they have the grades or SAT scores to attend the college they're evaluating?
    * Academic Offerings - majors that are offered at each school and the areas of study that are considered a "strength" of each institution.
    * Non-Academic Offerings - including campus settings, activities and sports.
    * Tuition Room and Board Costs - the total cost to attend each college or university.

College Location

There are lots of colleges in the United States - nearly 5,000.  Traveling across the country is commonplace today, but that's a relatively recent development compared to the age of most colleges.  That means you should be able to find a suitable educational institution that is close to home or across the country.

So one of the things you want to think about when choosing a college is if there are any geography limitations.  Do you want to be able to drive to school or would you rather fly away?

Just keep in mind that student airfare can add significantly to the cost of attending a school.  If you decide to choose a school that requires travel by airplane, remember to include the cost of travel in your college cost calculations.

Admission Policy

A lot of emphasis is placed on the admissions standards of the college's you're targeting.  By junior or senior year in high school, it's a bit late to worry about meeting a school's admission policy; rather it's time for a reality check.

If you have a good idea of your GPA, and SAT scores then you can align these with the college or university's standards and move on.  If you don't have the grades to attend the school you'd like to attend, then just keep working hard.  You can always transfer to that school later on if your grades improve.

Academic Offerings

This is a pretty important factor to look at when you're going to pick out a college.  While someone close to you might want you to follow in their footsteps, you need to figure out if that university's has strength in academic field you're interested in.  Students don't want to go to an engineering school if they're planning on being a lawyer and studying history.

As a parent, this is an area where you might want to provide some help.  Students might be more interested in things like the college setting or how pretty the campus is, rather than academics.  And while it's nice if a student can enjoy campus life, the real purpose is to get an education.

Campus Life

As a student, you're going to spend a great deal of the next four years living on and walking around the campus.  You need to figure out if you like the idea of taking a bus across campus to attend a class with 300 other students.  At the other extreme you might be uncomfortable on a smaller campus where everybody knows everybody else's business.  If you're not sure what you'd prefer go out and visit the extremes to get a feeling for what campus life is going to be like.

Activities and Sports

For many of us, our college years spell an end to our careers in sports.  If you're going to study engineering at Penn State and like to play football, then you'd better be a great high school player.  On the other hand, schools realize that they need to expand their offerings of activities and sports clubs if they want to attract students.  If this is important to you, and it should because of the balance we all need in our lives, then make sure the school offers what you're looking for.

Cost of Attendance

We left this one for last because the real cost of attendance can be deceptive.  The true cost of attendance is what you actually have to pay from your savings and factors in the number of student loans you have after you graduate.  But this can vary from college to college and just because one school's tuition is higher than another's does not mean it will cost you more out of your pocket.

There are a lot of factors that go into figuring out what kind of financial aid package the school will put together.  Until you've got an Award Letter from the school's financial aid office, you don't know the real cost.  The bottom line is this - don't get too caught up in the cost of attendance.  Leave yourself some options when it comes to choosing a college.

School Screening Resources

Now that we've outlined all of the considerations that you should keep in mind when selecting a college, we'll finish up by directing you to some resources that can help you quickly narrow down the field.

Perhaps the single most useful tool for screening colleges and universities can be found at CollegeBoard.com.  They've got a screener that is both powerful and user friendly.  You can filter schools based on any and all of the parameters discussed above.  It's really a must visit website for anyone planning on attending college.

Another useful resource is US News.  They publish a list of America's Best Colleges and Graduate Schools.  There you will find college rankings, interactive tools, admissions guides and college directories.