Fit Over Rankings

Last week, I made the case that prestige is not the same as fit. Now, what actually is fit? There are four criteria that every family can use to begin evaluating college fit. You don't need to buy access to a ranking site or a paid subscription to find colleges where your student will thrive.

Why the Four Criteria Matter

Once you get past working through the prestige trap with families, I have found that questions about college fit typically fall into four buckets: Cost, Major, Location, and Size. Usually, one of these is a top priority for a family.

These four buckets aren't the only things that matter. But they are the ones most likely to predict whether a student will thrive, graduate, and avoid feeling burdened by student debt afterward.

Cost (The One Most Families Underweight)

Cost does not equal tuition. Cost includes tuition, fees, housing, food, books, supplies, transportation, and other expenses, minus the grants and scholarships the college offers you. That final estimate is called the net price, and it's really the only cost number that matters.

Colleges that participate in federal student-aid programs and enroll first-time, full-time undergraduates are required to publish a Net Price Calculator on their websites. There's no standard format for these; some are better than others. You enter your family's financial information, and the calculator estimates what a family in circumstances similar to yours might pay after aid. It's just an estimate, but you should be running Net Price Calculators for every school on your list.

According to research from The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), roughly two-thirds of U.S. bachelor's degree recipients graduate with student loan debt, averaging around $30,000 per borrower. That number varies wildly by school and family income, so it's incredibly important to run Net Price Calculators for every school that ends up on your college list.

Before using Net Price Calculators, you'll want to set aside a moment to gather documents and information such as income statements, tax returns, and savings information. It is helpful to keep these records together throughout the financial-aid process. The FAFSA and, when required, the CSS Profile ask for some of the same income and asset information, although much of the FAFSA's federal tax information is now transferred directly from the IRS.

Major (Or What You Think You Want to Study)

Not every college teaches every major, and not every college teaches the same major in the same way or as well as another. A student interested in mechanical engineering, for example, has very different options to consider than a student interested in nursing or animation.

When researching a school, look at three things about your intended major: Is it offered as a full degree program, not just as a minor? How large is the faculty in that department? What kinds of internships, research opportunities, or career outcomes do its graduates report?

And if you don't know your major yet, that is okay! According to Student Research Group, around 80% of college students switch their majors at least once. If you're unsure of your major, look for schools that make switching majors easy, have strong general education programs, and offer strong academic advising.

Location (Not Just Geography)

Location means more than just "warm vs. cold." It can include climate, distance from home, urban vs. rural settings, the cost of living in the area, access to internships and airports, and cultural fit. A student who has lived in a big city their whole life may find it difficult to adjust to a rural liberal arts college, no matter how strong its academics or how well the major fits. The reverse is also true.

For LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, first-generation students, students of color, and religious students, this research should also include campus climate, available support systems, the surrounding community, and relevant state policies.

Size (Bigger Isn't Better or Worse)

A large research university with over 15,000 undergraduates and a small liberal arts college with fewer than 3,000 offer fundamentally different experiences, but neither is better. They're just different.

Size can affect the number of students in a class, access to professors, the breadth of courses and majors, athletics, social life, and how anonymous or known a student feels on campus.

Look for the distribution of undergraduate class sizes and the student-to-faculty ratio. Many colleges publish these figures in their Common Data Set, a standardized reporting framework used by participating institutions.

You can search "[College's Name] Common Data Set" on Google. This is one of my favorite documents because it has more useful information than any ranking site. If the college does not publish one, look for its institutional research or fact-book website.

Where to Do the Research

Rankings may provide useful information, but a ranking alone cannot tell you whether a college fits a particular student.

Here is where I send families to research colleges:

BigFuture (bigfuture.collegeboard.org): Free from the College Board. Best for exploring colleges you don't already know and filtering by major, location, and size.

College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov): Free from the U.S. Department of Education. Best for real cost and outcomes data, including graduation rates, median earnings, and average debt.

Niche (niche.com): Free with some paid features. Best for student-written reviews of dorms, dining, social life, and academics. Take these reviews with a grain of salt, but they can be useful for identifying climate signals.

The Common Data Set (search "[school name] Common Data Set"): Free. Best for the raw numbers that rankings often hide, including acceptance rates, test-score ranges, class sizes, and retention.

The Fiske Guide to Colleges (annual book): Paid. Best for editorial descriptions of what each school is actually like. Check whether your public library has a print or digital copy.

Using AI

I am often asked whether students should use AI to research colleges. My answer is an astounding YES! But with rules.

AI is great for researching information and brainstorming. You can also use it to generate questions to ask on a campus tour or summarize what a college is known for. AI is getting better at getting facts straight, but it is not perfect. Always double-check factual information you receive from AI, especially deadlines, cost of attendance, admissions policies, and major requirements.

You can verify information against the school's own website, the Common Data Set, or the Department of Education's College Scorecard. And do not upload tax records, financial-aid documents, student identification numbers, or other sensitive personal information to a general-purpose AI tool.

Putting It Together

Once you know your estimated cost, major requirements, and location and size preferences, list-building becomes much less overwhelming. You're no longer scanning different ranking websites but instead asking how well each college meets your priorities and where you may be willing to compromise.

In next week's post, I'll walk through how to take an initial college list and turn it into a balanced list of likelies, possibles, and long shots.