Now that you’ve narrowed your choices, there are three final questions to ask:
Are you in love with what the college has to offer, or with what the college stands for? Once a college admits you, they will call you day and night, send you email hourly, and text you in the middle of math class. One college even went so far as to send every admitted student a disposable cell phone, so the college knew they could get through to every student.
Some of this may be helpful—if you get a call from a student studying your major, great—but many of these communications are just designed to give you a feel or glow for the college that can cloud your judgement, not clear it. The same is true for financial aid packages; on student picked a school just because they gave him a $600 grant and called it an honors scholarship. That makes the school a little less expensive – but does it make it right for you?
The college you say yes to will be thrilled to have you, and that’s important—but you won’t be getting hourly texts once you hit campus and the school mascot wont be escorting you to class every day. Classes, studying, doing laundry will take up about 150 of your college days very year, while home football games will take up about six. This is your new home—make sure your choice about that home is on a solid foundation.
Should you start locally and transfer? If money is tight, consider starting at a local community college or four-year institution where you can commute, live at home for a while, then transfer to your dream school to finish. You’ll have to work very closely every semester with an adviser *at the college you are transferring to* to make sure your classes will transfer for the degree you want, but if this means less stress, less loans, and more of a chance to afford your final two years at the place you really want to be, it’s worth considering.
It’s time to deposit, and you just can’t decided between your schools. Is it OK to deposit at more than one school at a time? No.
Consider this. You decide to enroll at a college that has small classes, which you really like. You head to class on the first day, only to discover that 30 students double deposited—they told more than one school they’d be going there in the fall. All 30 of these students decided not to come to your college, and they just told the college the day before. It’s too late for the college to go to their waitlist, so those seats are now empty, and so is their budget. They cancel classes, lay off teachers they suddenly can’t afford, and put students in classes of 100. SO much for the education you had hoped for.
Telling lots of schools yes with a deposit is like saying yes to 10 prom dates—you might get more time to choose, but it hurts lots of people in the process, including you. Students stay on waitlists for no reason, colleges schedule classes that won’t have enough students, and parents lose deposits that could go towards textbooks—or retirement.
It’s great to have options, but the band is playing, and it’s time to dance. Size up your partners, pick the one that will get you across the dance floor with the right balance of support and excitement, and move to the music of the future—your future.