9 Steps to Choosing a College:
Step 5 - Narrowing Your List of Colleges and Universities

This is Step 5 of the 9 Steps to Choosing a College. Go back to the main page, or return to Step 4 or move on to Step 6.

Step 5: Use the criteria from Step 2 to narrow your list of colleges to a manageable number.

This number will vary widely among teens and their families, depending in part on how many you and your family can realistically visit. Most experts suggest narrowing the list to 10 or fewer, but we have known some students who had close to 20 colleges after completing this step.

Move on to the next step!

Step 6: Visit the colleges on your list from Step 5. (Ideally, visit in person, but you can tell a lot from DVDs and Webcams.)

Have questions about some of the terms used here? Find some answers in the High School College-Bound and College Planning Glossary -- the definitive source for learning about high school, college-bound, and college planning terms -- from the team at Quintessential Careers.