As a high school junior, I may not know much, but I do know that I will attend college. Well, there is a good chance, given that the overwhelming majority of John Jay students do.

But which college? There are over 4,000 in the US, and they differ in location, size, and academic requirements, among other factors. Bigfuture.collegeboard.org allows users to sort colleges based on different criteria and can help make some sense of this process.

The first decision for me concerning the type of institution is an easy one; like most college-bound students at John Jay, I, too, will be attending a 4-year college in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. The next factor to consider is location. How close or far from home do I want to be? There are many great schools within a few hours from home. The colleges within easy driving distance would allow for more frequent trips home. On the other hand, going far from home would allow me to experience a very different part of the country. At this point, I believe I will focus on schools far from home, because I think it would be enriching to live with others who have lived in different parts of the country. In the interest of balancing distance from home with relative ease of getting home, I have excluded West Coast schools from my search.

In the same vein: weather. I didn’t think that weather would be such an important factor for me, so I am considering schools in both the North and South. This changed when I felt the chill of our first, crisp fall morning. It reminded me that I really do not like the cold. So, I am definitely going to aim south.

The website then asks about undergraduate enrollment. I want to go to a school where I can feel an energetic atmosphere with significant school spirit and top athletics. In other words: a large school. Another reason for this is that people say you can make a big school feel small, but you can never make a small school feel big.

Another major consideration when selecting a college is cost, especially given the possibility of graduate school. There are wide tuition disparities between public and private universities. Additionally, public universities vary based on in-state and out-of-state residence. I will focus on the large, out-of-state public universities that offer a great education at an economic value.

Finally, the website asks about majors. The major I pursue is important to me, but I have found that most colleges that meet my criteria also offer business and finance.

While my search is far from over, going through the above factors has allowed me to better consider what is important to me. My next step will be to compile a list of target schools to apply to, thus reducing the list of 4,000 down to 5 or 10.