By Helena Schultz
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the fall of 2016 about 20.5 million stu- dents enrolled in college. Now is the time for many high school seniors to begin applying to college, but it is not always the easiest to pick the right ones.
Choosing the right college is a very important de- cision that is often times stressful. Many questions go into picking a college: Is it too much money? Does it have my major? Does it feel like home? Although it is a dif cult decision, most people are following the same steps to help them decide what college is going to t them the best.
Jessica Motes, an Indian Trail senior, has already begun picking out colleges.
“I am going to apply to UW-Madison, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and UW-Milwaukee as my backup,” Motes said.
Although Motes has picked out her colleges, an-
other senior at Indian Trail, Kristen Holden, along with many other seniors, have had a little bit of a harder time applying because they said there are so many to choose from.
After touring and looking at other colleges Holden decided to apply to UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison as well.
“I liked the environment and they are both far enough from home so that I can be indepen- dent, but not too far,” Holden said.
Many seniors are following the same patterns for picking out the colleges that are going to t them the best. Most of them are touring the college to get the feel of the environment, nding out if the college has their major, and taking into account how far from home they will be.
There are many other factors that make a large im- pact on college choice but deciding what major you
are planning on pursuing is one of the biggest fac- tors. Motes knew she was planning on going into sec- ondary education and educational leadership which helped her decide which colleges were going to ben- e t her the most.
“I want to go to a big school that has a program for my major.”
That’s what made UW-Madison the perfect col- lege for her to apply to.