If you’re currently in the midst of a college search, chances are you feel a little scattered. With so many schools out there and so much advice flying past you (friends, neighbors, relatives, internet, mail from colleges), it can be a challenge to focus on the process in a purposeful way.

We all struggle with big, nebulous tasks. Even back in the 17th century, philosophers were offering up wisdom on the topic:

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” –Rene Descartes

A-ha! A perfect framework for approaching this process.

The 21st century college search can be divided into three stages:

1. Identify schools that are a fit
2. Strategically decide which ones you’ll apply to
3. Pick one

One of the most important things to understand about the college search is that most of your research about schools should happen before you submit applications. The best educational consultants know this, and it’s a huge part of why they’re so successful when it comes to college search outcomes.

For contrast, a 20th century college search might have looked like this:

1. Apply to schools that seem interesting
2. Visit/research the ones that accept you
3. Pick one

Notice how that research piece has shifted from after acceptances to before the application? There are a few reasons why this is so critically important:

Colleges accept students who are a fit. Be a fit.

Increasingly, colleges and universities are being judged by the outcomes they produce. It’s important that students graduate on time, benefit from what the college offers, and become employed after graduation. This means admissions teams need to find and accept students who are a strong ‘fit’.

Successful applicants demonstrate, through their application, that they are a fit for that college. In order to do this, you must (a) be a fit and (b) understand how/why you’re a fit. You simply can’t do this effectively if you haven’t done your homework in advance.

Show colleges you care, before it’s too late.

Colleges cannot accept all of the applicants who are qualified and a good fit for their institution. So they try to find clues about which of those qualified applicants are more likely to accept an offer of admission, should they extend one.

Applicants who demonstrate interest in a college or university are more likely to get accepted. The best ways to demonstrate interest occur naturally when you’re doing a thorough college search, over a period of time: Visiting the campus, interviewing with an alum, meeting an admissions rep at a college fair, chatting with the school on Twitter, ‘liking’ their Facebook page, or emailing genuine questions to admissions or faculty. But it’s the timing that is the key: you must demonstrate interest in the school before they evaluate your application.

More ≠ Better

At a certain point during the college search, you may consider the strategy of applying to a ton of schools to increase your odds of acceptance. People you know will take this approach and have enormous college application lists.

You’ll soon see that colleges require a lot from applicants! Most parents are shocked when they see how labor-intensive applications have become. Each individual application can take up to about 10 hours to complete, so adding more colleges can become burdensome and actually decrease the overall quality of the others. Remember, college applications have to be completed on top of school, homework and extracurricular activities.

And with application costs that can be as high as $70 per college, the strategy to ‘just apply to 10 more schools’ can also be costly. Focusing the list saves money.

Better outcomes

Ultimately, you want to select your college when all the chips are on the table, when you have the benefit of all acceptances and financial aid offers in front of you. This probably won’t be settled until spring of the senior year, and there is a National Candidate’s Reply Date of May 1. This gives most families just 4-6 weeks to do a lot of thinking and decision making.

Even if you were confident that each school was a fit before you applied, this final stage of the process is challenging. But if you’re still trying to do the most basic vetting of schools, like figuring out whether a place is even a fit or not, the chances of ending up at a place you don’t love skyrockets. There just isn’t enough time to get it all done.

Decrease stress

Let’s face it—the last thing your family needs is a stressful college search. The high school years are already challenging for students and parents alike. Having a strategy that includes thoughtfully searching for colleges that fit and being strategic with the final list will bring harmony and order to this high-stakes process.