CAMPUS & CAREER GUIDE : In Choosing a College, Rely on Your Instincts : Selection: Counselors advise students to be choosy, visit the campuses and ask a lot of questions. Your comfort level should count more than even a school’s academics.

So a handful of colleges have decided to accept you. Now it is your turn to decide which one to attend.

College counselors and admissions directors recommend that you slip into the role of a choosy consumer trying to decide how to spend many thousands of dollars--and the next four years.

Their advice: Visit the campuses you are considering. Look around. Compare. Quiz students, faculty, administrators and, most important, yourself.

Ask yourself how comfortable you feel. Your comfort level, counselors say, should count for more than your assessment of whether one college is better academically than the next.

The reason is that social discontent usually translates into poor academic performance.

“If you’re not happy socially or emotionally, it’s going to be difficult to concentrate on your studies,” said Michael Thorpe, the college counselor at Belmont High School in Los Angeles. “I tell my kids to trust their feelings, their intuition, their vibes.”

“The whole college selection process is really a self-awareness process,” said Laurice Sommers, college counselor at Hamilton High School.

Sommers advises her students to make their decision by “standing in the middle of a campus, closing their eyes and visualizing themselves there the next year.”

That exercise, she said, will give a pretty good sense of whether you really want to be there.

Many counselors, including Thorpe and Summers, lead high school students on visits to college campuses.

They advise students to pick up the student newspaper, stop by the student activity office and scrutinize bulletin boards to get an idea of what’s going on around campus. They also suggest asking college students what they like and don’t like about their school, and talking with faculty members from departments that interest them to determine how accessible they will be.

If they are not accessible, it is important to know that in advance.

“Faculty should be receptive” to student inquiries, said Jack Wright, college coordinator at Franklin High School for a quarter-century before becoming a counselor at Santa Monica College. “You’re the consumer.”

*

Most college admissions officers give similar advice. They often help prospective students arrange overnight stays in residence halls and visits to classes and dining rooms to give them as accurate a picture of college life as possible.

Katy Murphy, admissions director at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles and past president of the Western Assn. of College Admissions Counselors, said: “We have no interest in recruiting students who are not going to succeed.”

She advises prospective students to gather as much information as possible but, in the end, to heed their gut reactions.

An overnight visit will disclose warts not shown in brochures, giving a more realistic picture of dormitory life. It will also give students a chance to sample the food and observe how students mingle in the dining halls.

Colleges may brag about how integrated their classes are--sprinkled with students from different racial, ethnic and economic groups. But dining rooms, where students sit with whom they wish, may tell a different story.

If students from different groups do not mix, counselors suggest you assess how well you would fit in with members of your group. If you happen to be a politically moderate Latino, for example, and Latinos at a college you are considering are organized in a radical political caucus, you could be made to feel uncomfortable--by members of your own ethnic group as well as by majority students.

Wright also suggests that students research their financial obligations carefully. He urges students to visit financial aid offices at colleges they are considering and get written copies of aid policies to study.

It is particularly important to learn the circumstances under which grants might cease and aid might take the form of loans or work-study plans. Many students now graduate from college with debts of $30,000 to $40,000, Wright said.

Colleges also suggest finding out how accessible teachers will be. At some major universities, that brilliant professor you’ve heard so much about may be occupied doing research and teaching graduate students (who earn their way by teaching you ).

Although there is no adequate substitute for experiencing a college firsthand, visiting is out of the question for many because of the expense of travel.

If you cannot go, do not give up, the counselors advise. Just do what you can.

Explore by phone. Ask your college counselor or the college admissions staff for phone numbers of students, alumni and faculty you can call. Many admissions offices will send you videotapes about their college. You can also buy guidebooks with student comments.

A good place to gather information about many colleges in one visit is the National College Fair, scheduled May 5 and 6 at the Pasadena Conference Center. The annual spring event is expected to draw representatives of about 200 colleges.

Shopping for a College

Here are 10 tips to help rate a prospective college:

1) Interview students who attend the college, particularly those with whom you share an interest or background, such as someone who attended the same high school.

2) Arrange to attend some classes in your prospective major.

3) Try to determine how accessible the faculty is.

4) Find out if teachers are evaluated by students, what the evaluations count for and if they are available for your review.

5) Thoroughly investigate financial aid availability.

6) Arrange an overnight visit in a residence hall.

7) Sample the food.

8) Find out about the social life.

9) Don’t talk only to people suggested by admissions officers.

10) Keep asking yourself how you feel.