Which college should they choose? Read their stories, then take our quiz.

May 1, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EDTJust now

Choosing a college can be nerve-racking, especially when there are multiple offers on the table.

So what’s worth prioritizing? Location? Affordability? Curriculum?

Ahead of May 1, the decision deadline for many colleges, The Washington Post asked more than a dozen counselors, researchers and policy analysts about the most important considerations when choosing a college. The four factors the experts most commonly mentioned were: affordability, academic fit, social fit and graduation rate.

The Post presented three students with data on the schools that accepted them and asked them to rank these factors by importance to them.

Check out their stories. Then, take our quiz on which school you think each student should attend — and find out where they actually landed.

Paulina Klitz, 17

On a family trip to Upstate New York last summer, Paulina Klitz fell in love with the bucolic campus of Vassar College. She applied there and to other schools with a similar feel.

Two suburban New York schools — Skidmore College and Sarah Lawrence College — and Oberlin College in Ohio offered her a seat.

They are all excellent candidates with similar profiles, Klitz said. Each of the liberal arts colleges would allow her to double major in psychology and theater. Each campus was welcoming when she visited, small enough to manage but also with plenty to do. Each school costs roughly $90,000 a year and offered her generous financial aid — with Skidmore offering her the largest award.

Still, Klitz didn’t rule out Oberlin and Sarah Lawrence. Both offered so much of what she was looking for and might budge on their financial aid awards, too. She plans to work and take out loans to help her parents cover the cost of college.

“There is so much pressure on making the right decision, but if you are applying to schools you like, there is no wrong choice,” Klitz said. “All of the schools I’ve gotten into, I could do well, make it work, have a good experience, and come out having learned a lot about myself and the world.”

So where did she land?

Kenji Radley, 19

After a semester at Iowa State University, Kenji Radley realized the school was not a good fit. He had planned to study meteorology, but a week after high school graduation changed his major to flute performance to pursue a longtime passion.

Radley, who describes himself as queer and neurodivergent, said he struggled to find a community at Iowa State, and the isolation was compounded by the challenges of navigating a new diagnosis of autism and ADHD. He decided to transfer to a music school in a bigger city with more of a cultural scene.

He auditioned at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, the University of Nebraska Omaha School of Music and the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory.

“Those schools really stood out because of their level of recognition, but also they’re not too expensive, not too competitive,” Radley said.

Radley was accepted to all three schools but crossed Temple off the list because the university didn’t offer him a scholarship, and Philadelphia seemed like a world away from Iowa City, where he grew up.

The schools in Omaha and Kansas City, both public universities, offered Radley scholarships that dropped his costs as an out-of-state student by tens of thousands of dollars. There was only a $1,000 difference between how much he would have to pay at the two schools after scholarships and grants were taken into account.

Affordability is important, but campus culture is even more of a priority, especially after his experience at Iowa State, Radley said. He was impressed that some students at the Kansas City Conservatory reached out to him on Instagram after his audition, offering to answer any questions he had about the program. The people he met in Omaha were also welcoming. And the Omaha School of Music is a bit closer to his hometown.

Which factor tipped the scales?

Maz Olson, 18

Maz Olson wants to pursue a career in the music industry. The bass player spent the last two years helping teenage bands book gigs, hosting musical showcases in her backyard, and working on an album of songs written and performed by teens in the Washington area.

“I’ve enjoyed building that community,” said Olson, who lives in Takoma Park, Maryland. “I like playing, but it doesn’t compare to the management and promotion side.”

Olson wants a college with a reputable music business program, a place that could help her land good internships and in a city with a thriving music scene — preferably punk. She got into six schools but narrowed her list to Belmont University in Nashville, Berklee College of Music in Boston and Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Olson visited all three in hopes of reaching a decision but walked away even more uncertain. Each school had its pros and cons. Belmont was the only one with a dedicated music business school and offered generous financial aid, but Olson said Nashville felt too foreign.

Berklee is renowned for its music program, but Olson worries she wouldn’t get a well-rounded liberal arts education because of the college’s singular focus on music. Drexel has a co-op program that would let Olson alternate between classes and full-time employment in her field, but the students she met didn’t seem all that happy to be there.

So Olson went back to the full list of colleges that offered her admission and wondered whether she was too quick to dismiss them. Temple University, for instance, had the kind of community she was looking for and was the least-expensive option. But it doesn’t have a music business major.

“This is really hard,” Olson said. “These are all good programs, and I don’t know which one is going to be more suitable for what I want to do with my career.”

Olson said her parents let her lead the way and assured her that whichever school she chose would be the best one for her. In the days leading up to the decision deadline, she was still undecided.

So which school did she choose?