Volume 1: Building Your College List

Building a college list feels simple until you're actually staring at thousands of schools with no clear way to narrow them down. Volume 1 breaks the process into a clear framework: how many schools to apply to, how to split your list into reach, target, and safety categories, and what to weigh beyond a school's ranking. It's the first real decision in the entire admissions process, and getting it right shapes everything that follows.

This isn't a vague "follow your gut" approach to picking schools. It's the same short, focused format Compassr guides are known for: real data like Common Data Sets and Net Price Calculators, a specific reach/target/safety breakdown, and a checklist you can actually use, so you build a list you can trust instead of one you're just hoping works out.