Choosing and Committing

The acceptance letters are rolling in or have already arrived.  Now what do you do?  Rejoice?  Panic?

Obviously, you must pick one, and only one school to attend.  Below I outline an objective way to make this decision.  Yes, my engineering training is showing.  However, using a method like this works well.  The student can do this on his or her own, and so can the parents.  Then they can come together and discuss their assessments.  It would be helpful, first, to discuss and agree upon which factors are important.  Cost? Weather? Prestige? Course of Study options? Location? Crime rate in the area? Graduation rate? etc.  Then each can evaluate the schools on their own.  However, this is the student's choice, not the parents'.  The parents, because they will be paying much of the bill, can eliminate schools on the cost basis.  After that, the choice really is the student's.  The parents need to be involved so the evaluative factors, the aspects of the schools which are considered are the important ones.  Because Joe's going there is NOT a consideration.  Because the cheerleaders there are gorgeous isn't one either.  And, unless you are a player, the fact that they have a terrific team really isn't that important (I know, that is unthinkable to some - )

You need to go back to basics.  If money is an issue, take a long, hard look at the financial aid award letters.  Take the data off the letters and into a spreadsheet - code the schools A, B, C, etc.  That will help you analyse the financial part of the picture without any emotional attachment to the various schools.  Eliminate those which are just not financially possible.  Then prioritise the others. Best deal, next best, etc. 

Now, take a look at the schools which were not eliminated.  Write down 5 terrific reasons to go there and 5 drawbacks.  You will notice categories of reasons - travel costs/location, majors offered/special programs, setting of the campus, class size, weather/location.  Rank the categories - So, if undergraduate research is important to you, rank it high.  Then rank the schools - school A is best , B next, C next.  Give them scores - 5 for best, 1 for worst.  Make a spreadsheet with the schools across the top and the decision factors (reasons to go/not go) along the left.  Rank the decision factors from most important to least important.  The least important gets a 1.  If there are 8 factors, for example, the most important gets an 8.  Put the numbers in the first column next to the decision factors.  Then rank each school for each factor.  If there are 8 schools, rank the worst at 1 and the best at 8.  Do this for every factor.  Now multiply each rank by the weight of that factor.

Example

Decision Factor	Factor Relevance	School A	School B	School C
Important factor	4	1	4	3
Less Imp. factor	3	2	2	2
Not Imp. factor	2	3	1	4
Trivial factor	1	4	3	1

Now, Multiply each rank by its factor relevance, then add each school's score.  This will give each school an objective score.

Decision Factor	Factor Relevance	School A	School B	School C
Important factor	4	4	16	12
Less Imp. factor	3	6	6	6
Not Imp. factor	2	6	2	8
Trivial factor	1	4	3	1

In this example, schools B and C tie with 27 points.  In such a case, you would need to re-evaluate the schools without School A, or add additional factors.  Or, let your emotions break the tie.

You may want to visit the school again, in order to re-assess your impression of the school. That is only one factor, however.

OK, a confession - I'm a pretty new blogger and can't figure out how to delete the table below. So, please ignore it!  Thanks!