House Hunters: College List Edition

If you’ve ever watched the show House Hunters, you know the pattern.

Buyers begin with a list of “must-haves”:

• a specific location

• a certain size

• a particular style

• and a price they’re comfortable with

In the end, almost no one ends up getting all four "must-haves" in the house they decide to buy. That’s often because getting all four was unrealistic. The buyers didn’t yet know which tradeoffs they would need to confront—and which ones they would be willing to make once real options were on the table.

College list-building works the same way.

Students and families often begin the process with clear, sincere preferences. For example, a set of preferences I frequently see are:

• selective

• large

• in a particular region (for my work, often here in the Southeast)

• with strong programs in a specific field

Each preference makes sense on its own. The challenge is that, as the House Hunters show teaches us, preferences don’t exist independently—they interact, often in ways that aren’t obvious at first.

College admissions is a complex system. Selectivity can square off against affordability. Geography can influence selectivity. Institution type can affect affordability and admissibility. And admissibility doesn't guarantee desirability for the student.

Making one variable fit can often tip the balance against others.

As students visit campuses, learn more about programs, and confront real constraints, preferences don’t disappear. They reorder.

This isn’t a sign that something has gone wrong. It’s how understanding develops.

What I've learned is that we can't understand student or family preferences by asking for them once. We understand by seeing how they behave when placed under constraint and by revisiting them through multiple conversations.

This is one reason why my approach to list-building relies on visual tools and other frameworks. While navigating the college process includes many tangible tasks, I believe the deeper work is about helping students and families understand what conflicts are emerging among their "must-haves" and what resulting tradeoffs can look like.

Why visibility matters

When student goals, institutional characteristics, affordability, selectivity, and timing are visible—literally, something to be seen—and viewed alongside each other, it's much easier to understand where risks, tradeoffs, and potential misalignment exist.

One way I make these interactions visible is by placing student and family perspectives alongside admission likelihood and timing in a simple visual framework. The goal isn’t to score schools—it’s to see where alignment and tension emerge.

[NOTE: This visual is intentionally simplified. Its purpose is to surface alignment and tension, not to evaluate individual schools.]

For example, a student may rate a college as a strong fit even though it lacks the features they’ve said matter most. Or, a student and family may view the same school very differently. Equally challenging, a college may feel appealing but be unlikely or non-viable.

These moments aren’t conclusions. They’re prompts for conversation. Seeing these realities makes it easier to talk concretely about tradeoffs—while there’s still time to choose them intentionally.

How preferences are surfaced and refined

This process isn’t guesswork. It’s structured.

Students begin by exploring their interests, values, and goals through a set of engagement pillars—academic, social, and personal—which inform how they evaluate “fit.” Those reflections are revisited as students visit campuses, gather information, and gain experience.

We then place student and family perspectives side by side with expectations around admission likelihood, affordability, and response timelines. The goal isn’t to lock preferences in early. It’s to make alignment—and misalignment—visible.

House Hunters isn’t about finding the perfect house. It’s about discovering what matters once tradeoffs become unavoidable.

College list-building works best the same way. Reach out to learn more.

Beth

ROSECLIFF College Consulting, LLC