How to Team Up With Your Friends on the College Search

Teaming up on the college search with friends can make the process a lot less daunting and more fun! Here's how to go about it and be supportive to avoid conflict.

You and your friends have decided to go to college, and you may be wondering exactly where you’ll end up going. Maybe you want to be near your family or live in a big city, or maybe you plan to find a place to spend the next four years with your friends. You might just want to go alone—but the help of your friends can make your college search way easier. Here are some ways you and your friends can team up on the college search process. 

Look into colleges with your desired major

While you may want to go to a college where you can meet the most people and have the greatest time of your life, you should also keep in mind what exactly you’re going to college for: an education. In teaming up with friends, it’s a good idea to keep them accountable in remembering why they’re deciding to choose a certain college too. The next four years of your life—and how well you do during those years—depends on the environment you choose. There's no doubt your friends probably know how you work in certain situations, so having an opinion on whether you're going to thrive there isn't a bad thing. Be sure to keep academics in mind and help each other find colleges that are great for your major(s) of choice.

Related: How to Choose a Major: With Your Head or Heart?

It may be best to apply to different colleges

You may want to go to the same college as your friends, and on the surface, that seems like a great idea, but the college admission process is very unexpected. If you know where you’d like to go, be aware that sometimes there’s competition—sometimes against your friends. It would be a wonderful outcome to get into the same school as them, but if you don't, rejection can be hard to deal with. Don't be afraid to apply to schools your friends have no interest in. Also, it’s best not to monopolize a school and make your friends feel like they can’t apply there too. 

Support your friends

The college search and application process can be stressful, and sometimes all you need is encouragement from your friends. When you’re searching for schools, don't persuade them not to apply to a school if their stats look different from the average accepted student. Sometimes college admission can seem random, and applying to “reach” schools is always worth the shot. So if a friend decides to apply to a selective college, think positive and give affirmations that everything will go well. This is a stressful time in most teens’ lives, so don't allow people you know to put pressure on you, making you decide not to apply—and vice versa, don’t do that to anyone else. Ultimately, college applications are focused on you and you only; with that in mind, strive for your best and encourage your friends to do the same. If you do get accepted into your dream school, that’s amazing! But if a friend doesn't, support them through that tough experience. Every rejection is a form of redirection. Make sure they’re okay and help them see the other schools that would gladly accept them. 

Related: How to Be Supportive This College Decision Season

Teaming up with your friends on the college search can be different for many people. Supporting each other during this stressful, unpredictable time is very important. Just as your friends support you and your dreams, do the same for them—especially if they’ve been rejected from a dream college. Being rejected or accepted to a specific school isn’t the end of the world. If you’re lucky enough to be accepted to your dream school, it's okay to be happy. You worked very hard, and showing emotions during the appropriate time around the appropriate people is great. Just try to be sensitive to your friends' feelings and let them know that you’re there for them. 

The college search will be even easier for you and your friends if you use our College Search tool!

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Rachel Louissaint

Rachel Louissaint

Rachel Louissaint is a sophomore at Dekalb Early College Academy. She has a love for reading and writing and plans to go to college for Journalism.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

Mercer University

Macon, GA


Heather McCarty

Heather McCarty

High School Class of 2020

CollegeXpress has helped me with the college application process. The tips and tricks for important essays were so helpful. I also gained useful knowledge about college life. Even though I’m fully online, CollegeXpress has helped me develop a sense of how college is in person. The experiences from college students that were featured on their Instagram page have shown the good, the bad, and the “secret” life on campus from a reliable perspective. Not to mention, they relieved my feelings of anxiety about the workload. I can now understand how it can be stressful, but it takes self-control and willpower to get assignments completed on time and with quality.

Aaliyah

Aaliyah

High School Class of 2022

My mother signed me up for a couple of scholarship contests through CollegeXpress. I was also able to do some research and compare the different schools on my list. I was able to see the graduation rates and different programs that helped me decide on Adelphi University. I will continue looking for some scholarships for my start in September.

Fabiola Rodriguez

Fabiola Rodriguez

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress helped me on my journey to get to the school of my first choice by showing me all the options I have. I didn’t know of the College of Southern Nevada until I went on this website, and it helped me look for other choices and compare what colleges would be right for me.

Cameron Lee

Cameron Lee

High School Class of 2022

I used CollegeXpress to search for colleges. It helped me narrow down the schools on the West Coast and which schools had Construction Engineering programs. I made my decision to go to OSU and I am so excited about it.

Elizabeth Stafford

Elizabeth Stafford

High School Class of 2021

As a UK student moving to California due to my dad's job in the military, when I first signed up for CollegeXpress a few months ago, the college process ahead seemed daunting and incredibly stressful. That all changed after I started to explore what this website had to offer. Not only was I helped by the vast array of resources available to me, but through being a CollegeXpress member, there have been so many more benefits. There have been emails with college tips—all of which I found incredibly helpful—as well as invitations to events and notifications of scholarships that'll make college possible for me. Overall, I'm very grateful to CollegeXpress for all of these things and more. Not only have they helped me grow my understanding of the college process, but they've also helped me to grow as a person, giving me new skills that I can take with me through life.