establishing a foundation for the search imagine that it is a year from now and you are
attending the college of your choice. you are on your way back to the dorm from a late-
night talk with a friend. you keep replaying your friend\u2019s words: "i hate this place. i can\u2019t
imagine why i decided to come here in the first place. i never really looked into it.
everyone told me it was a good place for me. lots of kids from my high school applied
here. they all knew the name. the first time i saw the place was when i pulled my suitcase
out of the car to move in. what was i thinking?" it\u2019s sad that your friend feels like this, but
you don\u2019t feel the same way. you like it here. sure, there are times when you miss your
friends from high school, your room at home, and a home-cooked meal, but the decision
you made about choosing this college feels more right to you every day. what made the
difference? you ask yourself. maybe it was the way i approached looking at colleges in
the first place and the questions i asked myself. i remember my sophomore year english
teacher saying, "the reason i am so intent on the amount of reading i ask you do for this
class is to prepare you for the expectations that college will place on you. you\u2019re all
heading in that direction, and we have a responsibility to give you the kind of foundation
you\u2019ll need to succeed." i began to think: am i headed in that direction? it was obvious to
my english teacher that i was going to college, it seemed obvious to most of the kids in
the class with me, and, of course, it was obvious to my parents. but was that what i
wanted to do with my life? was it important to me to go to college? what was my goal in
life? i spent some time during tenth grade figuring this one out. i looked at alternatives,
went to guidance with a couple of friends, and did an interest inventory and a career
search. the decision was coming down to me\u2014no one else could make it for me. i asked
myself some hard questions. what did i want to achieve with a college diploma? would i
go to college to broaden my knowledge or to get specific training? was i smart enough to
handle college? how hard did i want to work? what did i do well? what were my
strengths? and my weaknesses? how did i feel about learning? were there things i really
liked learning about? what mattered to me? what were my values? what kind of place
would reflect my values? could i be self-directed enough to accomplish four years of
college? would i be ready to go to college right after high school? was i thinking about
college for the financial rewards or to gain a profession? the self-evaluation wasn\u2019t easy. i
envied those kids around me who seemed to know from birth what they wanted to do.
sometime during that self-exploration, i decided that yes, college really was my choice,
too. once i had made the decision, it felt right. when it came time to decide where i
wanted to go to college, i went back inside myself again and asked more hard questions.
what am i like? what\u2019s my personality? what do i like and what do i dislike? what are my
views on things? am i conservative or liberal, traditional or eccentric? am i a rugged
individualist? do i accept differences in others? do i only feel comfortable around certain
types of people? do they need to be of the same race as me? am i easy to get along with?
am i quiet or outspoken? what things do i feel very strongly about? is it important to me
that the college of my choice has a recognized name? is my religion important to me?
what do i do for fun, and what makes me happy? am i a sports fanatic or a techie? am i
city person or a suburbanite? how do i feel about going to school in the country? i took
my time\u2014that\u2019s part of a good self-appraisal. after all, how was i going to know what to
look for in a college if i didn\u2019t know who i was and what i wanted? some of the things i

discovered about myself were new; some were hard to accept. i wanted to think of myself
as open to everything. to be honest, i discovered i really wasn\u2019t, but i could live with that
for now. college might introduce ideas that could challenge my way of thinking, make me
question my values and expand my views. now, that\u2019s a good reason for going. once i had
answered my questions, i began my search. i looked into majors, size, location, distance
from home, whether i wanted to go to a university or a college. this, too, took time and
more and more reading. i found that colleges have personalities. by visiting campuses and
talking with people at the colleges, i could apply my newly acquired self-knowledge to
find those colleges that matched my personality. when it came time to choose, i had all
the information\u2014about myself and the colleges\u2014that i needed. looking back at it now, i
put some hard work into finding the college i chose, but it was worth it. if you want the
above to be you a year or two from now, content with your choice of college because you
knew who you were and could match your personality with that of a particular college,
you need to sit down and have this conversation with yourself now. it is time to objectify
your subjective feelings about yourself and the schools out there. by putting your ideas
down on paper, you will be able to realistically match your own needs and traits with
college and university profiles. after all, do you want to go to the school that you think
feels right or that you know feels right? what are the best resources? students today are
different than they were twenty years ago. put a mouse in their hands, a computer monitor
and a keyboard in front of them, and off they go. this is an advantage because many of
the resources and connections that students need for college and career planning are
available only through this electronic connection. you can research jobs, explore career
options, and search colleges to a degree your parents and even older brothers and sisters
could not imagine. take a virtual visit to a university on line, e-mail questions to
department professors, or communicate with students about issues that are specific to
your interests. then apply on line, saving weeks of data processing time to input your
information. visit web sites like collegequest.com and use software programs like the
guidance informational services. complete your fafsa form (the federal government\u2019s
method of determining financial need for college grants and loans), sign up for the sat
(and study for it), and order information directly from colleges. all this is brought to you
through the magic of the web. but beware. something else can come with the web\u2014
information overload\u2014unless you learn a valuable new skill: information management.
as you begin to look at what is available in the college exploration process, you will find
no scarcity of resources. however, finding a logical way to gather the information from
expert and reliable sources is the difficult part. before you sit down in front of the
computer to make magic happen with your flying fingers, start with some of the people
around you who have years of experience in the process. before tackling the online
connection, you need a coach to help you plan your strategy. people connections there are
several human sources of information you should consult, including your teachers, your
parents, the colleges you are interested in, and adults in careers you think you might be
interested in pursuing. the people to start with are in your high school\u2019s guidance
department. your guidance department guidance counselors pride themselves on getting
to know their students, advocating for them, and developing and refining information
gathering strategies to help them. guidance counselors are dogged about staying on top of
new college and career placement information. they have developed a perspective on
your school that is not available through any other source. they know about the rigors of

your individual school\u2019s curriculum and how that relates to acceptance statistics at
universities. they have a databank on the placement of seniors from your high school in
colleges all over the country. these data include statistics\u2014gpa/hpa, test scores, level of
extracurricular activities or special attributes, and genders\u2014from individual colleges and
universities about placement decisions for students from your high school across several
years. using this databank, you will be able to compare your school\u2019s placement record to
the information you gather as you research each college. guidance counselors are terrific
problem solvers. so if you are running up against a situation where your needs are outside
the usual mold, a counselor can help you develop a strategy and connect with resources to
break the mold. for example, you want to do advanced work, say, in a language not
offered at your high school or take an ap science course not offered in a particular year.
your guidance counselor will canvas the local colleges, join with you in getting
permission from the department chairs and administration to take the course for credit,
and help you with the registration process. one of the greatest helps that guidance
counselors provide is information. they stock the guidance suite or career center with the
most reliable resources they can find. today, guidance counselors must be information
managers, able to locate information quickly, reduce vast amounts of material to its most
meaningful level, and deliver it in the most effective manner to large numbers of
students. shelves of college bulletins, catalogs, and applications must be organized and
accessible. the next time you are in the guidance office, take a look at the offerings in the
bookcases and on the shelves. the more your guidance counselor sees you and learns
about you, the easier it is for him to help you. stop by to talk about your progress or just
to say "hi." ask if you can help in the guidance office. all this information management
does not happen without hours of the counselors\u2019 time, usually after school. if you have
skills they can use, here\u2019s a great place to volunteer. your teachers use your teachers as
resources, too. that is what they are there for. many of them have had twenty to thirty
years of experience in their field. they have taught thousands of students and watched
them go off to college and careers. teachers often stay in contact with graduates and know
about their experiences in college. ask your teachers how prepared graduates typically
feel they were for college-level work. it can be reassuring to find out how well educated
you are as a result of your hard work and your high school preparation. ask your teachers,
too, about their views on the colleges you are exploring. what is their opinion based on?
what do they feel about the match between you and your choice schools? do they think
you are prepared enough to succeed in that environment? colleges and universities don\u2019t
forget to go to college fairs. usually held in large cities in the evening, they are free and
sponsored by your local guidance counselors\u2019 association and the national association of
college admissions counselors (nacac). the admissions counselors of hundreds of
colleges, vocational/technical schools, and universities attend college fairs each year.
whether your questions are as general as what the overall cost of education is at a
particular institution or as specific as how many biology majors had works published last
year, the admissions office works to assist you in locating the people who can answer
your questions. it would be helpful for you to meet with your guidance counselor to
develop a list of questions to ask before you attend a fair, but even if you cannot make an
appointment, do not miss this opportunity. bring a shopping bag for all the information
you will get. when you arrive, get a copy of the directory of schools in attendance and
locate the schools you are most interested in. go to them first. ask your questions, take