When a Collegewise family is experiencing some anxiety about whether or not a particular school should go on the student’s list, we'll sometimes remind them of our golden college list rule–applying to a college doesn't necessarily mean you have to go there.
That might sound obvious, but it can relieve anxieties that families experience, like:
"We think she should stay closer to home, but she wants to go farther away."
"I think I want to be a journalism major, but I'm not positive."
"That school is too expensive."
You apply to college in the fall of your senior year, but you almost certainly won't decide which one you'll attend until the end of your senior year. That's a lot of time to discuss how far away from home a student should go, to consider how committed you really are to journalism, and to see what kind of financial aid package arrives.
You should always have good reasons for applying to any school, and you shouldn’t go crazy and apply to twenty colleges. But if you have a few schools you’re not sure of, remember that you don’t have to be sure yet. For now, you’re just applying.