With the deadline of May 1 approaching for seniors, the pending ACT test scheduled for April 24, looming for juniors, and the conversations from college night replaying in the underclassmens’ minds, college seems to be on the minds of just about everyone at West this week.

To aid their college decision process, students can take advantage of the variety of resources West offers to their students.  Naviance is always available to help students research colleges and compare their GPA and ACT scores.  College and Career Counselor, Daniel Gin, is available in the College Career Resource Center (Room 1120), and counselors are also available in the Guidance Offices.  In most cases, peers and upperclassmen are willing to help out by sharing experiences and giving advice, even on Facebook.

“Just be open to everything: big, small, public, private, near, or far.

Do a campus visit, see what they’re looking for in a student, and when you get there, see if you like it or not,” said Gin. “The first thing for students to look at when researching a college is if the college is a good fit for them academically, socially, and financially.”

Niles West alumni and current senior at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Kenny Kaufhold, agrees.

“If you have an idea, visit, tour, sit in on a class, and check out the atmosphere.  Just get a feel for the college,” said Kaufhold.

Senior Danny McCaffery followed their advice while making his decision and recommends that other students do as well.

Beginning at the end of his sophomore year, McCafferey started researching colleges that could offer him more one-on-one time with teachers, advisors, and student mentors.  After being admitted to the honors program at the University of Chicago, he chose to commit there.  “Look at all the options.  Don’t think about just the subject, look at all the options.  Don’t think [about your decision] just based on public or private or big or small schools.”

Many of the seniors from West and various college students thought about the same issues as Gin and offered their stories and advice.

Senior Lia Sacks started looking at colleges the summer before her senior year. It was important to her that the campus wasn’t isolated because she wanted there to be a town close by with easily accessible transportation.  So, she applied to eight schools and then later ruled out big schools and in-state schools.  “It’s been a big conflict for me to go to a college for the program or the atmosphere, so I need to choose.  If you can’t find [a college] with both, you’ll need to decide [what is more important to you].”

Niles West alumni and current freshman of Columbia College, Chris Williams, agrees that it is important to make the decision based on what makes you happy.

“If you know what you want to do, follow that.  Just don’t second guess it.  Just see how it goes and follow your dreams.”

What is/was the biggest deciding factor in finding a college fit for you?

• Distance, I either wanted to be really far or really close to home.
• The price is/was a really big deal for me. College is so expensive.
• It all depends/depended on my major. I'm not going to go somewhere that doesn't interest me.
• The atmosphere is/was important to me, along with the size of the school.

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When senior Ashley Pagett started her college search at the beginning of junior year, she wanted to find a college with a good feeder program, which led her to choose Ohio University because she realized after visiting the university that the college was so beautiful and the school offered a strong program for her major.  “Start looking [at colleges] earlier than your junior year.  There are so many options you don’t know about until you research.”

Alyssa Figueroa, a senior majoring in journalism at Ithaca College, agrees that research is essential to choosing a college.

“If you know what you want to major in, research the program.  Keep that in mind whenever you look at a school,” said Figueroa.

Students constantly ask Gin questions such as “How much will it cost?” or “How can I afford it?” but Gin would prefer students to ask if they are someone who fits at the college or what kind of financial aid the college offers, said Gin.

Ithaca College senior, Aya Hoffman, who is majoring in journalism, disagrees.

“Choose somewhere that’s going to be worth it.  College is expensive and you don’t want to graduate with a lot of debt.  I know it’s not the nicest thing to think about, but you have to keep price in mind,” said Hoffman.

Gin thinks that it is okay for students to apply as an undecided major.

“Undecided is the largest major.  It’s okay to be an undecided major.  Transferring is always an option [if the school doesn’t offer the major you decide upon,” said Gin.

Mike Pizzo, a sophomore at Oakton Community College, is a living example that Gin’s advice is true.  He started at Oakton Community College because he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, so he decided to go to the community college for a year or two since it was cheaper.  Now that he’s decided to major in advertising, he’s transferring to U of I. “My credits all transfered so everything is pretty good for me.  I’d say that transferring is easier than applying straight from high school.  For U of I, you need a high GPA and a high ACT, so it’s easier than going straight from high school because I only needed a 2.7 GPA to transfer.”

“It’s a bit stressful.  I need to do better this time because I didn’t do as well as I needed to,” said Sultana, who took the ACT in February.

Some juniors, such as Mara Shapiro and Ari Hoffman, have already taken the ACT and are just currently hoping to improve their scores.

“I’m excited and nervous at the same time because it’s important to my future, yet, at the same time, I feel prepared because I took the ACT prep class,” said Shapiro.

Hoffman took the ACT in November and scored well, so he isn’t quite as nervous as his peers.  “It’ll be awesome because the second time around you can only do better and a lot of colleges superscore them.  I’m disappointed that there is no writing section offered, though, because a lot of schools want them.”

Some juniors like Nissan Malko are just taking this ACT test as a chance as a learning experience.

“My score will probably be lower my first time taking the ACT considering I haven’t taken any prep classes, but hopefully by June when I take it the second time, I’ll be more prepared,” said Malko.

Other juniors such as Nate Schapmann is confident because he took the ACT Prep Class.

“I’m pretty confident because I prepared well.  I recognize that [the ACT] is a very important tool if you want to get into a good college, so that’s what I did,” said Schapmann.

But according to Gin, “One four hour test doesn’t determine your future.”

For the juniors that are still worried about the ACT, senior Colene Gibson wrote an advice column about taking the ACT that can be seen here.

Jackie Povitsky and Michelle Sproat contributed to this article.