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Health & Fitness

The Collegiate "Jean-Nome" Project - Explaining the "Right Fit" in the College Selection Process

Okay, comparing the college selection process to buying a pair of blue jeans may appear to be a little out there, but when I recently heard an Admissions Officer at Harvard University use the same analogy, I figured – if it’s good enough for Harvard to make the comparison, then it’s good enough for goCAMPUSing to make and maybe allow us to expand upon.

Selecting the right college to apply to is a lot like selecting the right pair of jeans to buy. It’s all about the “right fit”. When it comes right down to it, a pair of jeans has to feel comfortable, be affordable, express your personality, serve your purposes, and yeah...it has to make your butt look good.

Like the 3,500 colleges, there are thousands of different jeans out there – but they are ALL JEANS. There are brand name jeans, traditional jeans, and jeans that fall into the arena of haut couture, (high fashion). Some jeans are simply trendy and popular. They come in straight leg, wide leg, loose fit, baggy, flare, bell bottom, and more. Some are plain and others have fancy stitching on the pockets. Others have a down home western flare. Some are pretentious, but they express your personality. Then there are those that come with pre-torn knees, sprayed on creases and worn fabric; while others are just perfect and crisp so you can make your own holes and creases. You may like ‘em tight and fitted while other people want them to hang a bit.

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Now do you see the analogy between the college selection process and picking out a pair of jeans? It’s all about the finding the “right fit”, but just like going to a store and finding those perfect jeans – you have to check out your options, find out what styles look good on you. You can’t know that from seeing it in an advertisement, or how it looks on somebody else. Not only do you have an individual and unique body type, but you have different needs. You may want to have something dressier to go out at night in or wear to the office. Someone else may want something to wear to kick back in, or wear while working in the backyard.

Then after checking out your choices and options, you have to hope that the store has your size. Is that size still in stock? Can you even afford to buy them? Is there a sale on, or a coupon for those jeans? Or is that store that carries those jeans even open? Oh well, if you’re a smart shopper, you’ve given yourself options, alternatives. You can’t just rely on a perfect world, so you know that you can always find something else that, if not exactly the same, is damn close. They feel right, they express your personality, you can afford them, the brand is fine, and best of all...your butt looks great!

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At goCAMPUSing, we recommend that when you are first figuring out which of the 3,500 plus colleges out there will meet all, or at least most of, your needs, that you pay them a visit; sort of trying them on. When trying on jeans, you go to the fitting room and look in the mirror; when on a college campus you ask yourself if YOU see yourself there, in class, walking across the campus and making friends.

At goCAMPUSing, we stress the importance of seeing colleges early and as many as possible. We want to make sure every high school student knows that there are several colleges out there for them and that there are colleges out there that will be their “right fit”. So to continue and end with this G-Blog’s premise of breaking down the structure of the college selection process – what I call the “Jean-Nome”...goCAMPUSing just wants to make your metaphorical collegiate butt look good.


goCAMPUSing, Inc. America’s Premier College Tour Company. Each goCAMPUSing college tour is like a mini college prep course on wheels. goCAMPUSing College Advisors ride along on every trip to point out the nuances of each college/university visited, talk about aspects of each college and how they compare to other colleges not seen on the tour, plus answer student’s questions, discuss the college selection and admissions process, discuss SAT & ACT testing & test scores, and much more. 
So check out our upcoming tours at: http://www.gocampusing.com/documents/campusTours.html and LIKE us on Facebook.
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