As the school year comes to an end, the seniors will be off to college and you juniors will be left thinking about where to apply and what school would fit you best. There are 5,300 colleges in the US and infinitely more abroad, so finding the right school is not as simple as just picking. There are different factors to consider when deciding, such as money, location, opportunities, as well as familiarity.

Money is an important factor to consider when going through your college lists. For some of us, our parents take care of most of the fees. It is still important to be conscious about the tuition and the room and board. When deciding between Wisconsin and Maryland, senior Brett Strauss chose Maryland because “I believed I could achieve the same at both places, but I got in-state tuition at Maryland, which made a huge difference in my decision.”

Location can also be a huge component in deciding which college to pick. Do you want to be in a city or would you rather be in an urban location; do you want to stay close to home or move farther away? These are many of the questions I asked myself when deciding to pick which college to go to. I decided on NYU because I love the city and I did not need a campus or a quad, I just wanted to experience life in the city. Senior Nazanin Taheri picked UC Irvine because she had grown up in California and loved her previous home. Not everything is as simple: You need to use your own past life and understand what places you enjoy, and then go from there.

Opportunities provide a great sense of which school would fit best for you and where you want to go. For example, if you want to major in journalism, then you should be looking at different sets of schools versus if you are looking for engineering. Your decision is based on which opportunities you want to create for yourself and where you see the most success. “I believe the co-op [program] provided me a lot of comfort in finding a job after college,” Northeastern commit Michael Gordon said.

There are also schools that you would never think of until you learn about their different programs. “I knew I wanted to be in the Midwest but I was truly considering Dayton, until I learned about the Kelley School of Business at Indiana,” senior William Margarites said.

Lastly, familiarity can be a big decision-maker. Based on where your family went or where you have lived in the past can give way to different schools. If someone in your close group of friends or family enjoyed a school, then it would be reasonable to read about the school and understand why they enjoyed it so much. “My sister goes there and she absolutely loves it; it just made my choice that much easier,” Miami University commit Hank Breen said.

Plenty of factors are to be considered when picking which schools to apply to and which school to eventually choose, but you have to weigh all assets of the school and all aspects of your personal life. The right school for each person is out there.