My college applications were the first major decision I made as an adult. I ended up attending WashU, which in most regards is a solid school. I don’t regret going there; I learned a lot, made some cherished friends, and it carries some weight on paper. And while it was a challenge to get here, I’m ultimately in a career that I’m pretty happy with.

At the same time, that decision is one that I would frequently look back at and wonder “what if”. Maybe I could have had a better experience; maybe I could have saved myself a few years of figuring out my career.

I don’t want to continue dwelling on the past. Today, I’d like to discuss some considerations that in hindsight, should have been higher priority when I prepared my college application list. I hope that sharing this will help in letting that go, as well as provide some guidance to the next generations of college applicants.

What is the purpose of college?

I can’t really discuss college applications without answering this question; otherwise, why even go to college?

Abstractly, college is an opportunity for self-discovery. It’s a place where people can live on their own and pursue creative, social, and intellectual pursuits in a contained environment.

More concretely, college sets you up for your career. A college education helps to cultivate analytical, creative, and research skills that will be useful regardless of career choice or major. It also fosters relationships between people with similar passions and pursuits, so that they can support each other in their careers and lives.

The following are key variables that should be considered when selecting colleges:

Social environment

If I don’t enjoy the environment I’m in, then all I’d be able to think about is “how do I get out of here?” That could mean transferring, dropping out, or just keeping my nose down until graduation. And all of those would be setbacks in the context of the value of a college education.

If you enjoy city life, then don’t go to a rural college, and vice versa. In fact, I took Cornell off of my application list because I didn’t want to spend 4 years in a small town.

It’s important to spend at least few days on a campus before making any commitments, especially since you’ll be spending the next 4 years there.

I fortunately had an older brother who attended and was able to host me for a few days. Unfortunately, that was counter to my next consideration:

Proximity to family

For a lot of people, college is the first opportunity for real independence; to set their own rules, and build their own identity.

Some people enjoy being close to family; some enjoy having some distance. It’s important to know what type of relationship you want with your family before either going cross-country or visiting home every single weekend. I’m biased towards having some distance, but to each their own.

I grew up in Texas and went to school in Missouri, so that created some good distance from home. But in hindsight, I don’t think it was a good idea to go to the same school as my older brother. I found myself wanting distance not just from my parents, but him as well. And that influenced the communities I chose to subscribe to in college. He was fairly involved in the Indian students organization, so that resulted in me distancing myself from it over the course of 4 years.

Target Industries

Even if you don’t know what career path you want, it is good to have a sense of which industries you’d like to work in. Choosing colleges based on target industry provides room to pivot between fields of study without compromising your short term career plans.

For instance, my college specialized in medical research. I had a lot of friends who went into college wanting to be doctors, but realized that medical school wasn’t for them. Instead, a lot of them pivoted to careers in the healthcare industry.

In addition, those specialties might provide better access to internships and early career opportunities. A lot of the companies that recruited at WashU’s career fairs were in the healthcare and biotech industries.

Which brings me to my next point:

Location, location, location

Industries are typically centralized to specific locations across the country: Finance in the Northeast, oil in the South, technology in the West, and agriculture in the Midwest.

When it comes to seeking out internship and career opportunities in these spaces, it helps to go to a college in that respective region. Recruiters for most companies have an easier time traveling to colleges in their respective region as opposed to flying halfway across the country. Only the biggest companies can afford to have dedicated recruiters in multiple cities across the country. Some might use a recruiting firm with this network already in place, but that also adds another barrier to get in touch with the companies themselves.

In the Midwest, we didn’t get a lot of recruiters from up-and-coming technology companies, which made things tough for me as an engineering major. In hindsight, I may have been better served by applying to more colleges in California.

Parting thoughts

College is just one of many decisions that you’ll make in your adult life. It might not be the perfect decision, and that’s okay. What’s important is what you do with that information; do you learn from it, or reject it and live in denial? Those that fail history are doomed to repeat it.

A lot of students go into college not knowing what they want to study or pursue career-wise, and that’s perfectly fine. There are a lot of schools that are fairly well rounded, so that no matter which career path you choose, you’ll still have a solid foundation for your career.