“Choice” is the buzzword that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue at school. Several of my friends have already heard back from all their colleges and have many to choose from. Others do not have the luxury of six or seven potential choices, but they don’t seem to envy those who received the thick envelope from multiple colleges. The trend I have noticed is that many of my peers simply don’t know which college they want to go to and feel overwhelmed by all the choices. One of my friends equated it to reading a menu with dozens of options; most of them look delicious, so it feels impossible to narrow the choices down to just one.

Here’s one example: Student A applied to nine schools and was accepted by six of them. Together, they’re a representative sample of just about every type of college: big universities, small liberal arts colleges, some with big party scenes, some focused more on academics, and various geographic locations. Her problem is that she likes them all equally, and can envision herself being happy at any of them. What is she to do?

Some of my friends are going a more logical route à la Rory Gilmore: pro/con lists. They are going through each school’s website, course catalog, and a bunch of college guidebooks and writing down each and every pro or con they can find. While the empirical approach seemed to work for Rory, it isn’t necessarily the best way to go about making this decision. At the very least, this method should be balanced out by taking into account the emotional side of the issue.

When I first walked onto the campus of my school, I had a gut instinct that told me I’d be going there in the fall of 2009. It was the first school (of many) I’d looked at, so my parents just smiled sheepishly and prodded me along the tour, but I was positive that I was going to apply there early. A dozen college visits and three college guidebooks later, I was applying there early decision and, fortunately, was accepted. The gut approach worked for me, but it wasn’t the only evaluation I used. I didn’t make pro/con lists, but I reasoned why my school of choice was the best fit for me out of the other possibilities. Hopefully, my experiences over the next four years will prove that I was right.

To all the current college students and college grads out there, what was this process like for you? Do you have any tips for seniors struggling to make their decision?

Remember when you were in high school and you began to hunt for a college? As if you weren’t having enough trouble balancing those AP classes and inevitable girl drama and all of a sudden – BAM – here come like 10,000 books/essays/magazines/guides/counselors bombarding you with information on choosing the right college.

• Do you want big or small?

• Liberal arts? Science? Big city? Small campus? Close to home? Great sports teams?

Some books had statistics. Others had tests to place you in the right “type” of school. Still others were filled with advice from the students who went there. But where was the guarantee that any of this research would put us in a school that we loved, that would get us where we wanted to in life, and that would ultimately be our perfect fit?

According to some research over at the New York Times, the guarantee doesn’t exist. And if we do happen to find that perfect place, all that crap we researched does nothing to guide us.

With thousands of colleges in the United States, the variety of experiences for soon-to-be college students is endless. Once you actually choose an institution, there are hundreds of groups, classes, and options to choose from; especially at a big school. So that means that basically anyone – from the tree hugger to the Marc Jacobs lover – can find happiness at any school.

Yes, choosing a college is a huge decision; it will impact the rest of our lives. But to spend so much time and money researching the best place to go is pointless. Because in the end, any school can be that best place for you. There is no way to know.

I chose to go to Michigan because I grew up in Michigan and I always heard what a great place it was. I never visited it or any other school; I just went. And I had the time of my life. No book would have predicted that I would have met the coolest people on my dorm hall the very first day. Or that my Saturdays pre-partying before football games would be some of the best memories I could ever have (with the aid of pictures, of course; those were some drunk Saturdays). Or that the debates I would have in my History classes would be the best learning I would ever do. Or that the combination of all those experiences would guide me down the path I am currently on as a grad.

And I am sure I could have found different reasons to feel just as strongly about the other 4 schools I got into. But I chose U of M and that just happened to become the school that was my perfect fit.

Knowing this is not going to stop people from researching potential colleges – we all have to get a little information before handing over all our parents’ money – but I do hope it will take a little stress out of your decision. Don’t over analyze; just enjoy yourself. And try to stick around for an extra year if you can. It ain’t so pretty on this side of graduation.