Congratulations! You've Been Accepted.. Now What?

After months of waiting and making daily runs to the mailbox, the day finally arrives when you get your first college response. The months between sending in your applications and getting your first admission letter are over. It's on to the final phase of the process.

While you may not get into every school to which you applied you will get into some and your first admit letter shows that you planned well. Now you can relax and wait for the other decision letters to arrive. How do you decide which school is the right school?

Factors to Consider

• Academic programs - Which school offers more of what you really want? Can you easily change your major if necessary?
• Faculty - Are they friendly and approachable?
• Opportunities - Do you think that one college offers more opportunities for you? In what area(s) are those opportunities and how important are they to you?
• Social life - Do you think you will enjoy yourself more at one particular college?
• Class size - Are you comfortable with the typical class sizes?
• Athletics - Will you be able to be involved?
• Campus - Is there one campus setting that is more appealing?
• Location - Do you have concerns about how close or far you will be from home?
• Intuition - Does one feel more right than the others?
• Affordability - Will you need to borrow money for college? Is your budget realistic? Keep in mind that you will have to pay off all of your loans after college.

The final decision should be based on your needs and how closely each college or university comes to meeting those needs. Review your priorities and put them in rank order with your most important factor first and carefully ranking the others ending with the least important factor. You may find that your priorities have shifted and you may have some new and higher priorities that will drive your college choice. You want to be sure that you will be able to graduate from college and be a healthy, happy and successful member of society.

You are about to start a new chapter in your life. Good Luck!