Learn to Make Better Decisions with College Choice

The purpose of making good quality decisions is to get more of what you truly want out of life. A good decision makes sense and feels right.

The human brain takes shortcuts that undermine decision quality. If we understand behavioral traps, we can avoid them and be decision fit.

You clarify the decision you're tackling when you define the frame. You want a helpful frame. In choosing a college, you are not deciding what to do for the rest of your life. But, you are making a commitment to an experience that will cost time, attention, and money.

Values are what you care about like wants, needs, likes, and dislikes. Values cause us to prefer the consequences of one alternate choice over another.

An alternative is one of the possible courses of action available. While you have your acceptance letters already, that doesn't mean choosing a single one is your only option. You can't consider an alternative if you haven't thought of it, so put on your creative brainstorming hat! Often the best alternatives are those that combine two or more options.

Gathering information is critical for anticipating the probabilities of getting what you want in the face of an always uncertain future. We'll assume you've done a good deal of research on schools and their associated opportunities. But, to make your final choice about which to attend, consider carefully if even more fine-tuned research is required.

Reasoning is the process of combining alternatives, information, and values to arrive at a decision. It gives rationale because it completes the sentence, "I am choosing this alternative because..." To back up your decision, you can articulate the schools considered, information (including risks) considered, values and trade-offs recognized, and the method for analyzing all of the above.

Commitment to follow through means that you are set to execute on your decision. It's like pulling an internal switch, and you'll do whatever it takes to make your decision real. You're ready when you're prepared with all the necessary resources like time, effort, money, and help from others. You should also ready to overcome obstacles and have a plan B prepared.

The Conversations for Clarity worksheet provides a structured method for making progress toward a decision. It helps you find your weakest Decision Chain link.