Selecting a college can be very stressful, as I just did it about a year ago I remember clearly what had helped.

The first thing you have to do is find a college 'smart-match'. My high school provided us with one but I'm pretty sure you can find one on google. From this smart-match, you can put in a lot of different aspects that you might be looking for or considering in a college like price, different groups on campus, diversity, religion, location, and size of the school.

After you find some colleges you're interested in, VISIT CAMPUS! I found that the singular, most important aspect of choosing a college was the campus. Does it feel like it could be your home? If not, don't brush off the feeling that maybe you won't get used to it and comfortable with it because if you never do, you'll be miserable.

One of the other main important aspects is the location, are you more comfortable in the city, a suburb, or rural areas? These aspects also depict the number of stores that will be around campus and if you don't have a car, but love to shop, maybe a rural area isn't the best place for you to go to college.

After this part, I was still stuck between two colleges.

So, I made a pro's and con's list which made my life ten times easier. For this, I considered the size, how I felt being on campus, and where my friends were. And I know most people will tell you to NOT consider your friends, but if you're like me, considering friends was important. I didn't base my decision just off of my friends, but they were on my pro's list for a specific college because i'm not good at making friends and if I was comfortable at the college, I didn't see any problem with that.

The last tip I have, although it didn't happen with me, is don't follow your significant other to college. If you're just interested in colleges your significant other is interested in, there might be a problem there. For college you have to think with your own brain, otherwise you risk breaking up (because it's a high school relationship, honestly those barely ever last), and being miserable because your only or main reason for going to that college is your significant other.

There could be different or more important aspects for different people. But this was my process for choosing a college and I had no help in doing so. The best thing to do is do most of it by yourself, that way you don't have anyone telling you where to go when this is ultimately your decision. No one can tell you where to go, not a counselor, or your parents. This is solely your decision. And if you're considering community college? It's nothing to be ashamed of, just make sure your credits will transfer if you're planning on going to a four-year after community.