Anne Silbaugh applied via the regular-decision process to seven colleges, eschewing the early decision or early action path that some fellow seniors had chosen. “I totally didn’t know what I wanted,” she said. Large school or small? A city campus or some place quieter? She wasn’t sure.

Anne said Kristen Miller, Associate Director of College Guidance at AFS, was especially helpful in drawing up a list of colleges to consider.

Three front runners finally emerged — Bowdoin College, Connecticut College and Carnegie Mellon University. “I was on the fence about CMU,” before visiting the campus, Anne said. “I was talking to my mom and I told her CMU would have to ‘wow’ me to get me to go there. They did. It really felt right.”

Anne plans to study physics or math at Carnegie Mellon University.

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