The Big Choose.

How to decide where to go? You could follow friends or fashion, but there's a better way.

When Sasha Kramer from Sherburne, New York, visited Reed College in Portland, Oregon, her favorite flowers--forget-me-nots --were blooming everywhere, small classes were meeting on the lawn, and a fountain filled with fresh water for dogs marked a place where her "best friend" would feel welcome. The combination of a full library on Friday night and a sizable number of students with purple hair made Reed feel right. She chose it over Brown, which her parents had recommended for its excellent curriculum in the sciences and outstanding record for sending undergraduates on for Ph.Ds.

When high school seniors decide among the colleges and universities that have accepted them, many, like Sasha, let their gut reaction cast the final ballot. Do undergraduates talk more about designer clothing or digital music? Are interracial couples visible? Do students eat in pajamas?

One factor, sometimes significant and sometimes silly, invariably acts as the decider--even with applicants who pore over guides and Web pages and develop a weighted system for teacher-student ratios, departmental rankings, and class size. No one is more aware of the importance of personal fit than college and university administrators. That's why "hosting weekends," with prospective students visiting classes, listening to choir rehearsals, and talking to lacrosse coaches, have become rites of spring on every campus.

After a post-acceptance trip to the University of Richmond on a humid day, Dominick Pangallo of Marblehead, Massachusetts, realized he was not a warm-weather person. He made his final choice of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, after a luncheon with 50 other prospective freshmen and the president of Bates. "It made Bates much more human to be able to say I met the president," says Dominick.

That students follow their feelings in choosing a college is not surprising. Adults, too, often have two reasons for doing things: a good (that is, logical) reason and the real reason. Prospective freshmen have a rare opportunity: to discover something about themselves by becoming aware of their true motivations. Those who do will be less likely to find out in their junior year that they were following current fashion, foolish passion, or someone else's agenda when they chose a college.

DOS AND DON'TS

The process begins with learning about the power of peers in college selection. Did you approve when Brandon Walsh and Andrea Zuckerman on Beverly Hills 90210 turned down offers of admission to prestigious institutions in the East to matriculate with their friends at the local university? Is Brown cool,

Duke hot, and Cornell hard because everyone says they are? Peer influence cannot be eliminated, but it can be reduced. Do not visit a campus with a friend, and make a decision before friends make theirs.

Listen to parents, but do not allow them--as advisers, advocates, or adversaries--to be the prism for your perceptions. Another television teenager, Meadow Soprano, was lucky: Her dad dropped her off at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby because he had to track down and murder a stool pigeon. Even if your parents are not similarly occupied, separate anyway during campus visits, and compare notes later. Be honest about what you are looking for, and what you think you found, and invite your parents to challenge your assumptions. A college should not be chosen to placate or punish them.

Financial considerations are important, of course, but do not sell yourself to the highest bidder. Do not conclude without asking that parents will not, cannot, or should not spend more on your first choice. Above all, weigh large loans and sticker shock against the dividends of learning with first-rate faculty and socializing with smart, stimulating students who become spouses, friends, and professional contacts.

A 1999 study by Caroline M. Hoxby, a Harvard economist, ranked colleges by selectivity--1 being most selective, 8 least. Hoxby found that, given identical aptitudes, a male student who entered a rank 1 private college in 1982 could expect to earn $1.15 million more over his career (in 1997 dollars) than one at a rank 8.

BEYOND THE NUMBERS

When you compare academic characteristics, average class size is not a meaningful statistic, because large numbers of tiny graduate and senior seminars keep the average down. An institution with an average class size of 12 can still pack hundreds of students into introductory classes. Freshmen are traditionally taught in such large lecture courses.

More telling is the size and range of classes for sophomores and juniors, and the ratio of professors (rather than teaching staff, which includes instructors, lecturers and adjuncts) to undergraduates. But the best overall evidence of academic excellence is the number of undergraduates from the top 10 percent of their high school classes, a statistic known to admissions offices.

Trust no one over 30, because the information is likely to be stale. Instead, ask as many undergraduates as you can collar about the accessibility of faculty; the opportunities to do independent research, design a major, and write an honors thesis; quality of the library and laboratories, and availability of internships.

WHO ARE YOU? FIND OUT

Then explore motivations. It's almost always better to act on aspiration rather than anxiety, and being explicit about fears is valuable for--and beyond--the choice of a college.

Do you seek anonymity or personal attention, a homogeneous or diverse student body? Are you choosing a small college or a large university out of a fear of the unknown, a desire for a different experience, a craving for the comfortable?

"Size of campus is peripheral," says Marybeth Kravets, a college consultant at Deerfield High School in suburban Chicago. "One of the things I always ask kids is how many really good friends they have in school. They come up with 10 to 15. The same thing goes on on a campus. They can find a comfort level."

In fact, the differences you hear about in social life can be insignificant. Virtually all campuses schedule movies, concerts, athletic events, and celebrity lectures; activities fees allow most undergraduates to form ski clubs or hold Renaissance fairs, or juggling marathons. For some students, proximity to Brazilian fusion music at 3 a.m., Wrigley Field, or gorgeous gorges is essential. But for most, even if the choice isn't limitless, "enough is as good as a feast," as Emerson said--as long as there are a lot of other young people around.

With college selection, as with all courtships, there is more than one Mr. or Ms. Right. But if you tap your feelings, weigh the options and listen to advisers, you can make a decision and not look back. The honeymoon may last at least four years.

GLENN C. ALTSCHULER is a dean and professor of American Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.