Whether you are a high school freshman, sophomore or junior, it is never too early to start putting together a list of colleges of interest. The earlier you begin doing research on colleges – and the earlier you start understanding which colleges you like and which you don’t – the better off you will be when it comes time to applying.

Here are five simple steps for starting to put together your college list.

1) Ask yourself where (geographically) you want to look. Do you see yourself in a city, rural, suburban or college town environment? How far do you want to be from home? Do you want to be able to drive to school or is flying okay?

2) Determine which schools have programs that are right for you. Colleges offer a variety of academic, extracurricular and social activities for students. What do you want to study? What type of activities do you want to be involved with outside of class?

3) See how your qualifications match. Using your GPA and PSAT/SAT or PLAN/ACT scores, determine whether colleges are safeties, matches and reaches. These are schools where the average incoming student has lower, the same, or higher academic qualifications as you.

4) Rank colleges in order of preference and do more research. Talk to friends, classmates and current college students. College websites, fairs and seminars can offer additional insight. Visiting colleges can often solidify your opinions on the school.

5) Narrow your list to 8-10 colleges. Make sure there is a mix of safety, match and reach colleges and that you would be excited to attend any of the colleges on your list. You don’t yet know which colleges will accept and reject your application.

If you are a freshman or sophomore, your college list can be a dynamic, “living” document. Feel free to add or remove schools. Juniors should try to solidify and finalize their list going into the summer in order to take the next steps in the application process.

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