My College Application Process Part 6

The perfect college doesn't exist, so along my college application journey, I had to make some compensations while selecting colleges. The main sacrifice that I made was by choosing to not apply to private colleges. Although they are filled with high-quality education and beauty, my family and I are not capable of paying for that large of a tuition. Smaller compensations include enrollment size, extracurricular activities, and location. However, I am very pleased with the college choices that I have made, despite these small sacrifices.

My College Application Process Part 5

confirmation bias: seeking evidence that confirms our ideas, not information that refutes it

 

overconfidence: overestimation of the accuracy of our knowledge and judgment

belief bias: the tendency to judge the strength of evidence based on how well they fit your conclusion, not by their accuracy

belief perseverance: clinging to one's initial beliefs after their basis has been discredited

Whilst investigating colleges to apply to, I encountered many different types of bias that inhibited my ability to look into colleges without prior judgment clouding my opinions...

One of the ways that I narrowed down the number of colleges that I was going to apply to was by choosing colleges that I had a reasonable chance of being accepted to. As many people know, UC Berkeley is an extremely competitive, and it just so happens to be my first choice for college. Throughout my college researching, I had confirmation bias. I looked for examples of students being selected that had lower GPAs or less extracurricular activities in order to confirm that I had a good chance of getting into that college. This led to belief bias, in which I concluded that most people who were accepted to UC Berkeley weren't exactly "spectacular," because it fit my conclusion that I would be accepted if non-spectacular people were usually accepted.

 

Prior to my college researching, when asked questions regarding some colleges, I definitely experienced overconfidence. This overconfidence varied from knowledge of majors offered to the cost of tuition. Once I looked into the colleges in depth, I realized that I was vastly wrong about many aspects of the colleges that I was interested in previously.

Besides being accepted to college, paying for college is one of the most important parts of the college decision. It was in this aspect of college that I experienced belief perseverance. After researching the possibility of receiving great financial aid and/or scholarships, I became dejected when I realized that the possibility of me receiving financial aid based on my family's financial situation is very unlikely. This, therefore, eliminated my chances of attending private colleges, one of which I was interested in, St. Mary's College. For about three months, I was in denial about my financial aid situation, which was belief perseverance. I strongly believed that I would receive helpful aid for tuition. However, when I saw the struggles that my sister's private school education put upon my parents financially, my belief perseverance died out, and I decided to only look into public colleges and universities.

My College Application Process Part 4

representativeness heuristic: judging likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent/match a prototype

availability heuristic: likelihood of events based on the availability in memories; if instances come readily, possibly because of recentness or vividness, we presume such events to be common

I definitely used a representativeness heuristic during my college application process. If some colleges didn't come close to my prototype of college, I often eliminated them from my college list. For example, San Francisco State University did not fit my idea of a college that I would enjoy, so I did not apply.


Availability heuristics might have unconsciously influenced my college decisions. While I thought I was interested in UC Berkeley for my own, personal reasons. However, by hearing alumni and students discussing UC Berkeley life, I might have presumed that the characteristics of UC Berkeley, such as having a football team, were a necessary part of the college experience that I was looking for.

My College Application Process Part 2

heuristic: a strategy to solve problems by eliminating combinations that do not make sense through trial and error.

algorithm: step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution

I employed a heuristic to decide which colleges I would apply to, but I also incorporated some aspects of an algorithm. My method included a loosely step-by-step procedure, but did not include the strict structure and guaranteed answer of an algorithm. So in that way, my procedure resembled a heuristic more.

To begin with, I chose where I would be interested in living for the next four years. So, I chose to only look at colleges that were in California and were mostly near highly populated areas where I would be exposed to many opportunities and adventures. Next, I chose to discard colleges that I would never be able to afford, which eliminated all private schools in California. The next few steps on my college journey were not as clear as my previous steps. I looked into the majors that were offered at colleges, as well as opportunities for undergraduate research. I looked into campus safety and on-campus housing. But in general, I just tried to get as much relevant information about campuses as I could. In that way, the beginning of my strategy resembled an algorithm more, while the end resembled a heuristic.