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The next step is now to decide the colleges that you will apply to. This is easier said than done. There are a wide range of colleges to choose from. The United States alone has 3,300 colleges and each one looks more attractive than the other. How do you decide which of these schools will be the right choice for you?

There are a number of complex variables that you will have to take into consideration before finalizing your schools. The trick is to explore early!!!

Madhavi Desai recommends that you begin exploring your options at least one year in advance to your anticipated term of enrollment. Hence if you are in the 11^th grade begin your explorations for a Bachelor’s degree right away. If you are applying for a Master’s degree begin your search for the right college at least 18 months ahead, for instance if you seek to start your degree program in the Fall/August of 2001 then start your research and process of applications in March 2000.

Remember your twelfth grade and the final year of the bachelor’s degree are the most crucial and hectic periods in your academic life. Apart from your college work, you will need to prepare for the standardized tests, prepare your application documents – recommendation letters, transcripts, bank certification, essays – all of which is time consuming. If you begin early you will have plenty of time to explore and research your schools thoroughly and hence will be able to make a better decision.

The above parameters will enable you to streamline your selection of schools. Make a list of 25 schools that meet the above criteria. Most students get carried away with applying to only the top or the best schools. Remember that only 50 of the 3300 institutes can be placed in the top 50. This does not mean that schools that are not ranked are not worth applying to.

Your pre-application list should have at least 15% difficult or competitive schools that you should apply to. These may be schools that have been ranked in the top 50. These are your dream schools. The next 70% of your schools should be realistic choices where you have a fairly good chance of getting into the school for your program/ major. The final 15% of schools must include sure-shot admits. Schools where you can be certain you will gain admissions into. Depending on your academic grades and test scores you can increase the range of competitive schools to 35% keeping at least 50% realistic schools in your list and 15% sure shot schools.

Researching each school on the net is a time consuming task. A simpler method is to request for the application material to be sent to your home. In order to request your application material send out your pre application letters. The pre-application letter is a letter requesting application forms from the list of 25 schools that you have pre-selected. You can either send the requests On-line by filling up the request forms that are located in individual college web sites or by emailing the admissions office to send you the brochure and form. Another reliable though slower method is to send a letter via airmail.

The content of the letter requesting the forms needs to be brief. The letter should contain your name and postal address (include country) and your email address if you have one. The letter must state the degree, major, term and year that you wish to apply for; your current level of education and the institute at which you are currently studying. If you have received your standardized test scores mention them. Request the necessary application material, scholarship forms and catalogs or course description. In response to your request the college will immediately mail you an application package. You can allow for approximately 1 to 2 months to receive an application package.

Note, that some of these Universities may have their own set format of pre-applications. Once you receive these, you need to fill up the required data and send it back to them so that they can send the application material to you. Some colleges request that you do not send the pre-application letter back to them until you have received your test scores. Other colleges may ask you to download the application forms from their website.

Go through the forms carefully. Make a note of the application deadline, the financial aid deadlines, the test score requirements, the cost of the college, whether the form is downloadable or can be sent online and finally any other additional features that make the college attractive (ranking / location/ program/ student facilities). If you are an MBA student make a note of the required number of years of work experience. You can make a table for yourself in the following format so that you can look at all your colleges in one glance.

Name of the college	Application deadline and Rank	Financial Aid Deadline	Required Test score	Annual/Total Cost of college-US$	Online or download form	Additional comments/ remarks
University of Texas at Austin	Feb 1 Rank?	Jan 1	1300 on SAT, 580 TOEFL	20,000 approx	Yes / No	Yummy Mexican food/Super Jazz bars
Carnegie Melon	Early Decision Regular Decision	NA	Req. SAT 2	30,000 approx	Yes / No	Ranked high but bitter winters
Florida State Univ.	Jan 1	NA	SAT –1100	20,000 approx	Yes / No	Warm all year and great beaches

Once you have prepared your chart, you have the application deadline dates, test score requirements and preferences clearly laid out. Based on your scores on the standardized tests you can then select your final schools.

Each school will have some distinguishing characteristics that you need to pay close attention to.

Some colleges have early deadlines. For example the University of Colorado Boulder has a December 1 deadline for graduate students applying for the Fall term. Almost all schools have financial aid deadlines that begin on Jan1 and usually end by mid- Feb. Some graduate schools have a later deadline than that of the department. You need to meet both these deadlines within the stipulated date. For example the deadline date at the graduate school may be a Feb 1, however the Computer Science dept may have set a Jan 1 deadline.

At the undergraduate level some schools have deadlines as early as November. Some schools have an early decision deadline and a regular decision deadline. The early decision deadline may be as early as November or December. These are typical of schools like Stanford and University of Pennsylvania. A student who applies for the early decision deadline will know whether he has been admitted to the college at an earlier date. If accepted, the student is bound to attend that college and is required to withdraw his applications from all other colleges. You can apply to only one college for an early decision.

Madhavi Desai recommends that unless you are very certain that the early decision school is the one you would like to seek admissions to, do not opt for an early decision. This school should be your top choice in your list of schools and should be one that you can afford.

Some of the more competitive schools may have additional test requirements. At the undergraduate level some of the top schools will require you to take the SAT 2 as part of the application process. For example University of California at Berkeley or University of Pennsylvania require you to take the SAT2. At the graduate level, some schools may require you to take the AGRE in addition to the GRE. This is particularly true of the computer science major.

Another extremely important factor is your term of entry. While students can apply both for the Fall term that begins in August and the Spring term that begins in January, not every college accepts international students in the Spring term. This is especially true of the top MBA programs. Read the application brochures very carefully and check whether you fulfill the requirements and preconditions to admissions.

Ensure that you do not miss any deadlines. In recent times most schools have started accepting application forms online. Make a note of the schools in your list to which you can apply directly online. You may need to use this facility if you are late in applying!