College Match: A Blueprint for Choosing the Best School for You

College Match has been providing guidance and direction to students and parents on successfully navigating the college search process for over 27 years! Four assumptions guide the writing of College Match: 1. All students, regardless of grades or test scores, have colleges from which to choose. Now more than ever, great colleges are out there waiting to be found. Students merely need to seize the opportunity by taking the time to search. Through the use of College Match, along with proper guidance and support, students will find colleges where they can be successful. While it is true that admission to college has become more competitive in recent years, it is also true that the collegiate opportunities in the United States and around the world are limitless. 2. There is a sequence of steps that, if followed, will lead to solid, suitable college choices. College Match is organized around those steps. Systematically moving from one step to the next will lead to self-knowledge and college awareness. These awarenesses provide the foundation on which students should base their college choice. 3. The college choice process neither has to be, nor is, inherently stressful. Over the last several years, anxiety, even panic, about selecting a college has increased. Some of that stress comes from false assumptions about the nature of college admission. Once students and their families replace the quest for the best college with one focusing on the best-fit college, the level of tension is significantly reduced. While College Match covers both getting in and fitting in, it focuses on fitting in because Antonoff feels this should be the primary emphasis throughout the college selection process. Fitting in is the largest contributor to creating a good college experience. 4. Finding a college builds important, lifelong skills in taking initiative, making decisions, and assuming responsibility. College Match encourages students to take the lead in their college planning and to grow as a result. For many students, choosing a college is their first real-life choice. By making difficult decisions during the college choice process and accepting the consequences of their decisions, students gain not only self-understanding but also an understanding of how life works. This knowledge will stand them in good stead long after their college careers have ended.