College apps, essays and stress. This is not a drill juniors, this is now. As seniors decide where they are going to school, announcing to the world their future alma mater with the  addition of “Insert College Class of ‘15” to their Facebook, we juniors are now to take the stage as the college applicants.

However, I think it’s funny how a lot of us seem to want to get into that “perfect college.” The college that embodies everything that we have grown up imagined and have seen on TV: red bricks,  sprawling green campus, and for some, the ever -elusive  ivy ridden walls.

The other day, my parents went to a college seminar and the speaker asked all of the other parents there where they know that their children are going to be  applying to college. The final findings were that out of the 30 odd sets of parents there, all of them had a similar pool of only 15 or so colleges.

Now, when I look at the fact that there are thousands of colleges in the United States, 30 different personalities that these parents are referring to (their children), I can’t understand how only 15 schools could suffice to satisfy all of them.

I think what has happened is that  we are not really looking beyond the little facts we know of colleges or what they look like: as I have learned from recent college visits, any campus can look absolutely beautiful in a glossy pamphlet or on a web site.

I think what we need to do is expand our spectrum of colleges we consider to attend. The perfect college is the one that you can make the most out of, the one that offers classes you are interested in taking, one that has an environment you would be comfortable living in, and one that has a community you could easily embrace.

Your college, as cheesy as it might sound, should fit to you like a jigsaw puzzle piece, whether  it be   a small or big college, liberal arts or engineering, Ivy or state school.

Now, as a disclaimer, I don’t discouraging applying to the big name college, or continuing on working towards the college you have been dreaming of going to since you were 4, but I encourage looking into other ones that you never thought would have had you’ written all over it.