Top 5 Mistakes Students Make While Deciding Where to Apply to College

Julie Murphy, M.A., Founder, Waverly Educational Consulting 

April 22, 2026

Let's be honest. Building a college list sounds straightforward until you're three hours deep in a university website rabbit hole, more confused than when you started. At Waverly, we've guided hundreds of students and families through exactly this process, and we've seen every wrong turn in the book. The mistakes are common, but they're also completely fixable. Read on for the ones we see most often, and exactly what to do about them today.

Not starting early enough. The best college lists are built over months, not weeks, and typically lists are fine-tuned and determined by end of junior year or early summer before application season begins in late summer. The time you invest in your junior year will pay off enormously come application season. Are you a junior and you haven’t started? Today's action: Start. Block 30 minutes on your calendar each week from now through the end of the school year. Dedicate it exclusively to college research, and treat it like a class you can't skip. Doing this while you’re still in “school mindset” will help you avoid having to find motivation when you’re on summer break.

Researching in ways that don't "count" as demonstrated interest. Many colleges track how meaningfully you engage with them, and anonymous browsing simply doesn't register. Today's action: Turn off Incognito mode when visiting college websites, sign up for their email listserv, open and click through any emails they send you, and reply to any personalized outreach — each of these signals genuine interest to admissions offices.

Taking notes that are too vague to be useful later. Jotting down "nice campus" or "good programs" won't help you write a compelling "Why Us?" essay or make a final decision in the spring of your senior year. Today's action: Create a notes template or spreadsheet with your specific priorities— a unique program or professor that excites you, a student tradition that fits your personality, a specific resource like a research lab or community partnership. Don’t forget to evaluate for financial fit. Fill in your template for every school you visit or research.

Relying on other people's opinions or rankings instead of investigating yourself. Your cousin’s dream school might not be yours, and a college ranked #12 versus #50 is a distinction that rarely reflects anything meaningful about your experience there. Today's action: “Unfollow” any social media accounts you are not helping you stay true to your priorities. Recommit to using reputable sources and do the hard work of actually evaluating a college for yourself.

Applying to schools to “take your shot” without authentic interest in attending. Beyond the application fees and time, submitting to schools you'd never realistically attend can actually backfire. Admissions offices can often sense a lack of genuine enthusiasm, and it pulls your focus from the schools you truly care about. Today's action: Go through your current list and honestly ask yourself, "Would I be genuinely excited to attend this school?" — if the answer is no, remove it.

You're doing the hard work at exactly the right time. And if you’re looking for more support, we’d love to share how we can help!