You Already Have What It Takes 
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Did you know that you already have all the skills you need to make a good decision about college? As you apply to colleges, you should use key skills that you’ve been practicing in high school:
Here's a step-by-step guide to using these skills in your college search.
Research: Compiling the College List
Depending on the resources at your high school, your preliminary list of potential colleges is going to come from suggestions made by counselors and teachers, recommendations from family and friends, and maybe even web sites that want to help you think about college choices. Remember that high schools typically have trends and common college choices for graduating seniors. Perhaps some of these colleges are appropriate for you, too; but don't be afraid to think "outside of the box" for new or unfamiliar options, too. When you begin your research on colleges, make sure that your abilities match each college’s requirements: the classes you’ve taken, the grades you’ve earned, and your scores on the SAT or ACT. Then make sure that what the college offers matches your requirements.
Think hard about what you think your requirements are. They shouldn't just be obvious things, such as some subject that you're thinking of studying. Your requirements should reflect values that are important to you. They should take into account the ways you expect your education to challenge you, to change you, and to help you to grow.
If you're like most high school seniors, you don't know today what you'll end up doing in life. You shouldn't want to, either. That makes you a good candidate for a liberal arts education. In fact, these days most people at age 40 don't know what they'll be doing ten years from now. A liberal arts education is valuable in today's world because it places more value on exposure and discovery, and on developing your mind overall, than on training for one job.
College is about becoming more than about being.
Observation: Refining the List
Using your own thoughtful observations about yourself as a guide, think further about all of the things that matter deeply to you. This process will help you refine your list of possible colleges. Maybe the size of the college community is important to you. It's possible that climate, geography, landscape, or special programs will affect your sense of fulfillment over the next four years. If you love the arts, you might find it stimulating to study at a school with an arts or music conservatory or a well-known literary magazine, even if you don’t end up with a major in those subjects. If you love languages and cultures, you'll want to look at schools that offer study abroad programs. Look for ones that can give you adventures you've never imagined. The point is that as you go through your initial list of potential colleges, you'll want to adjust your selections by thinking beyond who you are now and what you already know that you like to do, to include some possibilities that are entirely new to you.
A college education is a lens that comes into focus over time.
What’s Your Theory or Hypothesis?
Before any science student can form a hypothesis, before any humanities student can support a theory, it's important to make a final sweep and get unnecessary elements out of the equation or the main statement. In your college selection process, that last sweep is your campus tour.
If at all possible, make it a real tour—not a virtual one. Nothing beats the opportunity to see a campus for yourself, to watch students interact, to experience what goes on in class, to hear admissions counselors on-site. An on-campus visit will fill you with impressions, and that's important. If the college doesn’t feel right, take it off your list. If you find yourself loving the college after a tour, even though you didn’t think you were interested in it until now, apply to that school.
If a visit to a college on your list doesn't seem possible right now, find out if alumni live near you. Ask for meetings with them, especially young alumni. Lots of schools have programs set up for you to talk with them. It gives you a chance to learn more about the school, and it gives the school a chance to learn more about you, as the alums often report their impressions back to the admissions office.
Your college choice should be a lot more thoughtful than buying a C.D.
Imagining Possibilities
The best learning, in sciences and humanities, involves imagination and some dreaming, alongside fact-finding and observation. So when compiling your list, include some schools that will be a reach for you, along with some where your chances of admission are good; but in every case be realistic.
Don’t limit yourself to schools with big reputations. Look closely at colleges that offer programs that interest and intrigue you, that might take you in unexpected directions. Knowing that a college is popular doesn't necessarily tell you anything about it beyond the large number of applications it receives.
If a college is right for you, that's the only kind of reputation that matters.
Problem-Solving: Set Yourself Apart from the Crowd
All over the country college admission counselors face applicants who have taken SAT or ACT prep courses, been tutored in subjects they find hard, joined clubs at the last minute, or gotten unethical help with their essays, all with the goal of hiding what they fear are ordinary high school careers behind padded applications and over-the-top language. That makes it extremely difficult for admissions counselors to judge you fairly, to tell the difference between the real person and the fictional one who appears on the application. And it still doesn’t help you to know what makes the college right for you.
When you sit down to write your college application essay, ask yourself what you have that no one else has. If you have a passion, whether it’s music or art or sports or a language, whether it’s collecting something, volunteering somewhere, championing some cause, babysitting, or bowling—use it to focus your essay. Then come back to those skills you’ve been refining all through high school and work on your college essay like you would any other paper. Select the material, make an outline, organize and strategize. Write a first draft. Remind yourself that it's only the first draft.
Your essay won't be worth reading until you tell the reader what you're all about.
Communicating Effectively: Your Final Word
When you’ve written the first draft of your college essay, put it away for at least a day and better still for two days. When you come back to it, ask yourself, "could anyone else have written this?" If the answer is "yes," which it usually is for a first draft, revise it to include details, images, and adjectives that aren't so general. Give your reader a clear, compelling idea of who you are, what you think, what you’ve done, and what you dream about doing. Remember, a college admissions office reads hundreds of essays. You want your reader to enjoy getting to know you after putting down your essay. Be sure that your final product has no typographical or grammatical errors.
Above all else, in your essay be real and be yourself. Since you're looking for a college that will work for you, you need to present yourself as you truly are.
If the college doesn't see you fitting in, you probably won't.
Getting Back to Your Life
Of course you want to get into a college that fits you well. There probably are dozens of good fits for every high school graduate among the 2,200 colleges and universities in that offer bachelor's degrees. The application process can be full of concerns about prestige, rejection, anxiety, and even moments of despair. But once you've made a good list, filled out the forms, gotten your recommendations from teachers, written the best and truest essay you can, and mailed it all away, get back to your life. It’s rare for a student not to get accepted by at least one suitable college. As a future student, you have lots to offer a college community in terms of your talents and potential. There are at least a few, and probably many, colleges that have the resources to inspire in you a deep love and respect for learning, to provide you with opportunities to try new things, to cultivate enduring friendships, and to be challenged in ways that help you grow as a person.
So when you've applied to college, get back to your regular life. Enjoy what’s left of high school.
College will come soon enough.