The process of selecting a college is essentially equivalent to online dating. First you skim through profiles, noting which campuses attract your eye, and then look to see if they share your interests. You check if they are local, become aware of your preferences on long distance relationships or whether you would be willing to move.
After picking a handful of candidates, you show you’re interested with an application, and if they feel the same way, you’ll receive an acceptance letter and you can start planning a date.
Narrowing down which college is “the one,” however, isn’t as simple and formulaic. It’s OK to be picky and look for any faults within the candidates that could potentially make you unhappy, but you also need to be wary of losing sight of the big picture. Choosing a college is a big commitment, and although you can always transfer, most seniors, like anyone in the dating game, hope that they will make the right decision the first time around.
Naturally, a decision like this is concentrated to the brink with pressure and anxiety, but also a sense of liberty and purpose. From the day we are born our home is chosen for us, and now this is the first time in our lives where the choice is up to us.
In my mind, selecting a college also felt similar to those “You Decide Your Fate” children’s books where Choice “A” will lead you to your destination, Choice “B” will get you lost in a forest and Choice “C,” more brutally, will get you mauled by a tiger. At first I felt that if I made the wrong decision the entire whole of my future would be crumble. However, I realized that the future is not a physical object that could break if not handled with care, and that I need not be afraid of making a mistake, because no matter how hard you try, you can never predict what will be. With this in mind, I let myself decide which college seemed to be the best for me in the present.