Being a senior can be a very suspenseful time of your high-school life since it’s all about planning what college you’ll be settling your future for many months, so it’s important for the college to be fit for you. There are a few key attributes that could make a college for you – cost, education, and comfort. Not to mention how all the many choices can be very intimidating and hard to choose from and you never know if you’ll end up regretting your decision later. So that begs the question, what qualities make the best college for a person?

According to the Washington Post, up to 87% of Americans identify as middle class. This information tells us that not many of us can afford just any college, Which can be tricky because you still want a college that’s affordable to you but with the same traits as an expensive Ivy League.

“Something affordable and still has good education,” said Luis Guardado

“An in-state college since out-of-state could be too costly for me,” said Anderson Ramirez

Handling and budgeting money isn’t everyone’s favorite thing, and it can be the most difficult when finding the right fit in a college when money doesn’t grow on trees. Obviously, money isn’t always an issue because getting scholarships or financial aid is always an available option.  “You go into student debt no matter what, so really any school you like will work,” said freshman English teacher Mr.Edwards.

Education is the primary reason people even go to college, so evidently it’s important to find one with an education that satisfies us best. That can be a specific field that the school favors or how the professors teach the students.

“I am looking at NOVA because their DE program is good,” said Anderson Ramirez.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with community college or trade school. NOVA is a nice school and if you can find something you like, then you can transfer from NOVA to somewhere bigger. It really depends on what you want to major in and your learning style. And budget. That’s something that holds a lot of people back,” said Josue Osorio-Lainez.

 “Small student-to-professor ratio was important to me, so essentially in Longwood they would have on average like 17 students and 1 professor and that feels a lot better than a giant lecture of like 50-100 people,” said freshman English teacher Mr.Edwards. Don’t stress out too hard over getting the right education at a college, people with experience have expressed that you’ll get the basic education you need primarily at any college. So exact fields aren’t something you should stress over so much at first.

Comfort is also a key factor for when you are going to college. You should feel relaxed and comfortable at the place you’ll be learning, or else that place just is not for you.

“I thought I was looking for a really big school, but it turned out that really huge schools overwhelmed me. I figured this out by going on lots of college visits. I felt most at home at a medium-sized state school. I wanted a walkable campus because I didn’t have a car,” said journalism teacher Ms. Miller.

“I think people stress out too much about the school’s reputation, their education, blah blah blah. But I think you’ll get an education pretty much anywhere, so I think what’s really important is just feeling good on that campus, especially if you are going to go there for 4 years, so what’s really important to me is feeling like you really want to be there,” said Mr.Edwards.

Comfort is relatively important at a college because you need to know if you like the atmosphere of the place you’ll be learning and staying at for over 2 years or even more. An often misunderstanding that people commit is heading to a big school and then easily feeling intimidated by it, not everyone likes the mood of a big college and an easy way to know if you’re one of those people is by doing a college visit. Other ways you can really feel comfortable at a college is by simply being relaxed and easygoing with everything. College can be a very stressful next step in life, but everyone with experience has commented to just be relaxed while still being responsible enough. And most importantly make sure to make time for yourself and not just your academic life, at the end of the day you matter most so try to be there for yourself. Another recommended idea for comfort is if you’re staying at your campus, try to make your dorm look similar to your room at home; it’s always fun to decorate and organize so be creative when doing so!

Picking a college can be an intimidating and thought-provoking process, so just always trust your gut when you don’t feel confident. Like I mentioned earlier: you matter most, so put aside some of the weight of what’s perfect for others and your career, and instead try to focus on yourself and remember you’re important as well when going through this process.