4 Tips to Help Balance Your College List

It can be tempting for juniors working on college lists to focus only on those colleges at the top of their lists, aka their Reach schools. This is a mistake, as we show in our blog post, why having a balanced college list is more important than ever. Here are some easy tips for balancing out a student’s college list.

  1. Research and visit at least two schools in the possible category for every school in the Reach category that you visit. This is to ensure that you get excited about the possible and match schools on your list rather than just the reach schools.
  2. Be creative about the major you choose at each school. For example, if UT is your absolute dream school, and you want to be a business major, you should know that the majority of spots are going to be taken up by students who are automatically admitted. Therefore, you may want to consider choosing another major that would prepare you just as well for the business world. Many colleges have similar ways to get around a popular major by choosing an adjacent major, or a combination of a major and a business minor, and even a certificate program. 
  3. Consider looking at less selective colleges that have well-regarded honors programs. Honors programs mean you have access to the best professors, smaller classes, and excellent mentors to help you get the intellectual experience you desire in the major you want among similarly motivated students.
  4. If you’re planning a career requiring a graduate degree, consider applying to a liberal arts college. There are hundreds of them that will prepare you for a graduate degree and since they tend to be much smaller, you’ll have the opportunity to foster close relationships with your professors leading to potential teaching and research assistantships. That will mean strong recommendation letters when you go to apply to graduate school. Students are often surprised to see the colleges that students accepted to Harvard Law School have graduated from. 


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