Wait! My Dream School Doesn't Offer My Dream Major?

“Don’t you want to major in Business?” I asked one of my college essay students when I saw Brown University’s supplemental essay questions on her list.  (To be clear, I’m not this student’s college counselor.) 

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, some Ivy League colleges don’t offer Business as a major.  Did you check to make sure Brown does?”

“Uh, no,” this smart, organized, and hard-working student replied.

“Would you even apply to Brown if it doesn’t offer the major you want?” I inquired.

“No, definitely not,” she answered.

“If she hasn’t done this most basic of research,” I wondered, “how many other students have?”

My guess is probably few.

Today’s post is a short* primer from a college counselor – i.e., someone who builds college lists for a living.  (*Or, as short as I could make it!)   In it, I’ll explain how to ascertain which colleges should be on your child’s college list if you’re not hiring a college counselor like me to make this list for you. 

Following these three rules can save your child time by not filling out applications to colleges inappropriate for them.  It might also prevent their heart from breaking because they won’t have applied to too many colleges out of their reach.  Finally, it could save your family tens of thousands of dollars by making sure your kid goes to – and finishes – a college where they’ll be happy and fulfilled.

College Counselor Tip #1: Does the College offer what I want to study OR have the kind of student body I want to be around?

Ron Lieber, author of The Price You Pay for College, posits that students attend college for one of three reasons.  One is to have their mind blown.  Two is to gain a professional foothold or gain pre-professional training.  The third is to find their tribe.  

The first two reasons dictate that a student’s intended college major should drive which colleges appear on their list.  The last suggests that the student body would trump major.  Neither Lieber nor I are making value judgments about any student’s reason for attending college.  But we agree that students should get clear on their reason.  As a college counselor, I help students through that process.  I also make sure their colleges offer substantial opportunities to fulfill their primary goal.

If families want to discover which colleges do that on their own, I recommend checking out The New York Times’ ranking tool.  It’s intended as an alternative and antidote to U.S. News & World Report’s more famous but less useful rankings. The Times’ tool allows students to input what’s important to them (rather than relying on the inputs of college presidents, as does UNWR.)

College Counselor Tip #2:   Do I have a good mix of schools I’m confident I can get into (“likelies”), schools I might have a chance of getting into (“targets”), and schools I probably won’t get into (“reaches”)?

No college counselor worth their salt claims to have the ideal ratio of likelies, targets, and reaches.  I recommend at least four likelies, five targets, and just three reaches.  If this last restriction proves too narrow, I advise adding a likely or a target for every reach school you add to your list. 

Determining which bucket a school falls into for your student is the most challenging part of this process.  Again, there’s no magic formula.  I make sure that my students’ SAT / ACT scores land at least within the school’s reported median (i.e., where 25-75% of that school’s former incoming freshmen scored) when choosing targets and reaches. 

I also consult a school’s acceptance rates.  Even if the student’s score falls within the median, I classify the school as a reach if the school’s acceptance rate is less than 15 or 20%.  This practice can be difficult for students to accept.  But unlike college counselors, they haven’t witnessed the insanity of college admissions during the past five years.  Unfortunately, my alma mater Harvard and the other highly selective schools like it reject hundreds of students with perfect scores and 5.0 GPAs every year.  Students who recognize that acceptance is highly unlikely to schools that reject 85 or more out of every 100 students who apply are in a better position to have a great college experience no matter where they eventually attend.

Image by @hyingchou on Unsplash

College Counselor Tip #3:   Can I afford to attend this school and / or will the ROI (return on investment) be worth it?

Since a Bachelor’s degree can cost as much as a first home, it’s important to have a clear sense not only the tuition and fees you’ll pay.  (Read Lieber’s book to understand that a school’s net price often differs from its “list price” in much the same way the sticker price at the car lot doesn’t represent your final cost for the vehicle.) 

 As a college counselor, the lists that I create for families don’t take cost into account.  (However, I can recommend another counselor who specializes in financial aid counseling.)  But few families can escape the four, five, or six years that a Bachelor’s degree takes without loans.  You can compare first-year earnings and debut for 37,000 majors at 4,000 colleges here.  Likewise, check out Georgetown’s ranking of ROI for 4,500 different institutions.  In addition, review Thirdway.org’s report on which college programs give students the best bang for their buck here.

As Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce has written here: “It is important for students who are pursuing a postsecondary credential to know how much they might earn after obtaining the degree as well as how much federal student loan debt they will have to take on to complete the degree. The College Scorecard now makes this information available for more than 37,000 college programs. Using the College Scorecard, students can compare the median earnings and median debt payments they likely would have in the first year after obtaining a specific degree. They can then calculate their earnings net of debt in the first year after graduation so they know how much income they will have left after paying federal student loans. These data are crucial for comparing the price and value of postsecondary programs.”

Image by @punttim on Unsplash

Building a college list can be daunting and time-consuming. That’s why so many families outsource the task to college counselors like me. (Email me if you’d like to learn more about this service.) But it’s not impossible (or even rocket science). With attention to detail, soul searching, and patience, you and your child have all the tools you need to build them a realistic and exciting college list!