Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

  • admissions.blog

Building Your Best College List

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Putting together your college list requires more thought than deciding what you want to wear today. Yet, far too many students that I’ve worked with probably put MORE thought into their daily clothing choices than they put into how to develop a final college list.

I could probably write a book about the many factors you should consider when developing a smart and strategic college list. Unfortunately, right now members of the high school Class of 2021 don’t have time to read a whole a book and I don’t have time to write a whole book. Instead, if you still have time to refine your college list, at least take the time to watch three videos that I put together recently. They explore how you can select smart safeties, possibles, and reaches for your college list. Good luck!

About Craig Meister

Craig Meister is a college admissions expert who, for eighteen years, has had the great fortune of providing personalized post-secondary guidance to students and families from around the world.

Filed Under: Advice & Analysis, College List, Trending Posts

Related posts:

Your College List Must be YOUR College List Celebrity Deathmatch: College List Edition The Ideal Size & Composition of Your College List Discover Colleges on a Map with College Overlook — and Analyze Your List Geographically

Subscribe to our mailing list

Trending Posts

Building Your Best College List

Dear 11th Grader: Don’t Screw Up Your Ivy League Chances Now

Stanford University 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts Released

Most and Least Popular Common App Essay Prompts

UNC Chapel Hill Releases 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts

Dartmouth Releases 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts

New University of Virginia Supplemental Essay Question for 2023-2024 Admissions Cycle

Penn unveils new supplemental essay prompts for 2023-2024 admissions cycle

How to get into the Ivy League – Ethically

Princeton wants to learn about applicants’ “lived experiences”

Amherst College Accepts 9% of Applicants to Class of 2027

NYU First Year Applications Spike 13%

Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action and Upends Admissions Process for Top Colleges

Another Reason Why Your Common Application Essay is So Bad

Comparing Undergraduate Life at University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University

Cornell University Releases 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts

Wesleyan University Ends Legacy Preferences in Admissions

Avoid Tuition Anxiety: Put Strong Merit Aid Colleges on Your List

Many high school counselors mean well but…

Columbia University’s 2023-2024 Supplemental Essay Prompts Announced

12 Reasons Scattergrams Lull Students Into a False Sense of Security

You CAN apply Restrictive Early Action and Early Action under the right conditions

UNC and a tale of one – make that four – acceptance rates

Top 5 Ways Applying to US Colleges is Different than Applying to UK Universities

Oh, Canada! The Definitive List of Canadian University Application Deadlines

30 Summer STEM Camps for High School Freshmen

Northwestern Releases Regular Decisions, Class of 2027 Statistics

Wesleyan University Ends Legacy Preferences in Admissions

The Perfect Gifts to Celebrate Getting Into College

Search Posts By Topic

  • 3 Year Degree (3)
  • Accommodations (2)
  • Admissions Policies (106)
  • Admissions Statistics (73)
  • Advice & Analysis (362)
  • Alabama (2)
  • Amherst (2)
  • AP (5)
  • Applications (78)
  • Applying from India (1)
  • Arizona (4)
  • ASU (1)
  • Austin College (1)
  • Baylor (1)
  • Berry College (1)
  • Boston University (3)
  • Bowdoin (1)
  • Brown (6)
  • Bryn Mawr (1)
  • Business (1)
  • BYU (1)
  • Caltech (3)
  • Canada (2)
  • Career and Technical Education (24)
  • Case Western (4)
  • China (1)
  • CMC (1)
  • Coalition (13)
  • Colby (3)
  • College Counselor (17)
  • College Fairs (5)
  • College Life (34)
  • College List (36)
  • College List Deathmatch (5)
  • College Visit (24)
  • Colorado School of Mines (1)
  • Columbia (7)
  • Common Application (37)
  • Community Colleges (4)
  • Cornell (4)
  • COVID-19 (8)
  • CSU (1)
  • CU Boulder (2)
  • Cybersecurity (1)
  • Dartmouth (5)
  • Davidson (1)
  • Demonstrated Interest (17)
  • DePaul (1)
  • Dickinson (1)
  • Direct Admissions (1)
  • Duke (2)
  • Early Action (35)
  • Early Decision (39)
  • Educational Consulting (1)
  • Emory (1)
  • Engineering (1)
  • Enrichment (13)
  • Environmental Science (1)
  • Essays (45)
  • Europe (6)
  • Exercise Science (1)
  • Exeter (1)
  • Extracurricular Activities (26)
  • Feature (2)
  • Financial Aid (23)
  • First Person (9)
  • Fly-In (1)
  • France (1)
  • FSU (1)
  • Gap Programs (2)
  • GED (1)
  • Georgetown (4)
  • Germany (2)
  • Gifts (3)
  • GPA (4)
  • Graduate School (3)
  • Hamilton (1)
  • Harvard (7)
  • High School (22)
  • Higher National Diplomas (1)
  • HiSET (1)
  • IB (4)
  • IEC (1)
  • IELTS (1)
  • Indiana (3)
  • International (9)
  • Internships (7)
  • Interviews (10)
  • Iowa (2)
  • Italy (2)
  • Ivy League (20)
  • JHU (3)
  • Kettering University (1)
  • Lafayette (1)
  • Law (1)
  • LD (1)
  • Lists & Rankings (3)
  • Majors (15)
  • Marketing (1)
  • Math (1)
  • Medicine (1)
  • Middlebury (1)
  • MIT (6)
  • Montana State University (1)
  • Naviance (2)
  • NCAA (3)
  • New Mexico State University (1)
  • News (89)
  • Northwestern (5)
  • Notification News (3)
  • Notre Dame (3)
  • Nursing (6)
  • NYU (3)
  • Of Note (5)
  • Ohio State (2)
  • Oklahoma (1)
  • Online Learning (3)
  • Open Admission (2)
  • Parents (7)
  • Penn (8)
  • Pharmacy (1)
  • Pitt (2)
  • Popular Posts (11)
  • Princeton (5)
  • Priority (2)
  • Professor of the Month (1)
  • PSU (3)
  • Public Universities (8)
  • Purdue (1)
  • Rankings (8)
  • Reader Questions (11)
  • Recommendations (8)
  • Regular (23)
  • Research (4)
  • Resume (17)
  • Rice (4)
  • Robotics (1)
  • Rochester (1)
  • ROI (3)
  • Rolling (5)
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1)
  • Santa Clara University (2)
  • Sewanee (1)
  • Skiing & Snowboarding (1)
  • SMU (1)
  • Social Work (3)
  • South America (2)
  • Southwestern (TX) (1)
  • Spotlight Series (1)
  • St. Edward's University (1)
  • St. John's College (1)
  • Standardized Tests (33)
  • Stanford (4)
  • STEM (1)
  • Stevens Institute of Technology (1)
  • Summer (17)
  • Swarthmore (1)
  • TASC (1)
  • Teacher Recommendations (7)
  • Temple (1)
  • Texas (3)
  • Texas A&M (1)
  • Ticker (23)
  • Trending Posts (42)
  • Trinity University (TX) (1)
  • Tufts (3)
  • Tuition (3)
  • Tulane (5)
  • UBC (1)
  • UC Berkeley (7)
  • UC Davis (1)
  • UC Santa Barbara (1)
  • UCAS (4)
  • UCLA (7)
  • UDub (1)
  • UF (3)
  • UGA (3)
  • UIUC (3)
  • UMass (1)
  • UMD (5)
  • UNC (2)
  • United Kingdom (6)
  • Universal College Application (1)
  • University of Chicago (2)
  • University of Dallas (1)
  • University of New Mexico (1)
  • University of Rochester (1)
  • University of Vermont (1)
  • USC (3)
  • UT Austin (1)
  • Utah (2)
  • UVA (7)
  • Vanderbilt (2)
  • Video Game Design (1)
  • Villanova (2)
  • Virtual Visit (1)
  • Wake Forest (1)
  • Wash U (7)
  • Wesleyan (1)
  • Williams (3)
  • Wisconsin (2)
  • Yale (12)
  • ZeeMee (1)

News Tips | Write for Us | Sponsored Posts
All content © 2023 | Admissions.Blog
Terms of Service | +1 410-526-2558

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in