Many people choose what school they want to go to using pretty limited (and sometimes irrelevant) criteria:

1) The prestige factor — being able to namedrop Harvard every chance you get.
2) For a family legacy — going to Duke because your dad went to Duke, and his dad, and his dad, and his dad. And your kids’ll have to go too.
3) Distance — It’s close to home, OR it’s far away from home.
4) It has a program you’re especially interested in
5) It might have the extra-curricular activities you are looking for (a good crew team, a club scene, whatever).

The thing is, so many people apply to the same 30 or 40 schools, often not because they’re the best schools for them, but because they have reputations that have been established and sustained by years and years and years of cultural indoctrination. This isn’t to say that Harvard isn’t a great school, because it is, but it’s certainly not the only school, and it’s really not the best school for everybody.

The larger, more famous schools have to be really selective because they get about 40,000 applicants a year. 36,000 of those applicants are not admitted. Harvard also gets to make its applicants jump through all sorts of hoops because they know they’ll have a tremendous pool of really smart kids to pick from. While established schools like Harvard are entitled to their admission requirements, we shouldn’t forget that just because a school is building a reputation for itself, that doesn’t mean it’s not as good as one that already has a reputation. Don’t write off a smaller school because it’s less known.

There are over 4000 institutions for higher education in the US, but the average person will probably only be able to name 50, and most people’s lists will have a lot of overlap with each other. Do your research: figure out what you’re passionate about and find out which school will best help you get really good at that. Or, if you want to go to college to figure out what you love, find a school with an interdisciplinary method and a really cool core curriculum that’ll encourage you to cast as wide a net as possible so you don’t miss out.

This is important: U.S. News & World Report will not tell you everything that’s relevant to you. Rankings mean a lot less than they would have you believe. What’s important is to find out which school is the best fit for you: go to college fairs, talk to alumni, and scour the internet. Your four years in college are mad important: do it right.

Happy hunting!

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