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.