How to choose colleges?

[Night Elf]

Dd17 will be a senior next year so it's time for us to start thinking about college visits. She has absolutely no idea what colleges to consider. When she starts looking at the website her school counselor gave to her, she gets totally overwhelmed. We live in Georgia and she's open to going to an out of state college. I worry about the financial aspect of it. Can one get scholarships from out of state public colleges? Or should we only be looking at private colleges? How does she even begin to choose which colleges might even be of interest? She's thinking of majoring in either psychology or computer science, but says she would really prefer going in as an undecided. Ugh. Basically, we don't know how to begin the college search.

[Jen in NY]

My BIL and his family just moved to GA... I was jealous to learn of the in-state tuition rates that will be available to them in a year! (Niece is planning to live at home, so that saves money, too.) If the state schools are all as affordable as the UNG rates I saw, I would definitely look around for state schools that offer what your daughter wants to study as potential financial safeties.

 

It is a little bit of a maze.... financial fit.... academic fit... social fit.....

 

We have found really big differences in FA offerings from private colleges. Depending on your income, this could be the case for you, too. You can get a vague idea of how 'strong' a particular college might be in the FA department by exploring the 'paying for college' tab in the College Board College Search website.

[bettyandbob]

Start by visiting colleges nearby.

 

Finances are a big deal to us so we are sticking to instate, but there is a big variety in our state. I suspect there is a big variety in your state too.

 

Has your dd taken SAT/ACT? Where does her GPA fall compared to state schools? Pay attention to schools where those numbers put her in contention for honors programs and ask what the honors prgrams offer. Some give preferred housing, special seminars, tuition grants, early registration, chances to participate in research projects. Each school has a different flavor of honors.

 

Does she want big or small. Do big schools you visit have small communities within them so that they don't feel big after all.

 

If she doesn't know the answer to any question, just start visiting so she can get a feel for campuses and what they offer.

 

Most schools offer psych and computer science so visiting just about anywhere is a good start. Find out who might allow double majors (at some schools they are allowed, but nearly impossible due to course offering constraints and completely divergent requirements).

[Jenny in Florida]

I would suggest your daughter visit several different kinds of colleges in your area. Try a large, state university campus, something regional, private colleges and universities of different sizes, etc. Because she doesn't have strong feelings about a major just yet, choosing where to apply will probably depend more on other aspects of "fit."

 

When my son first started deciding where he wanted to apply, we did quick visits/tours of several colleges. We visited a couple of local campuses and then, on a weekend when we were travelling for another event, we scheduled visits to four other schools along our path. By the time we came home from that trip, he knew pretty decisively that he was most interested in small or medium-sized private liberal arts colleges. He knew he wanted a campus that was somewhat contained, somehow set off from the city or town in which it was located. He knew that, while he was okay with a college that had historical ties with a particular religion or denomination, he was less interested in schools where he would be distinctly in the religious minority. 

 

With that much in mind, it became possible to use search functions like the one on the College Board site to start generating lists of schools within a particular radius that fit those criteria. 

 

Since he did know very clearly what he wanted to study, he could also use major as a filter in those searches. But it's also possible to search for schools that are a good match for your daughter's grades and test scores, schools at which she would be in the upper 25% of applicants to maximize her chances for merit aid, schools that offer (or don't) certain student activities . . .

 

She can then just start requesting information from a few schools that catch her attention. Once she flips that switch, she will likely start receiving all kinds of mailings and e-mails (Tip: My son set up a separate Outlook e-mail account specifically for the college search and application process, so that his regular e-mail wasn't flooded with college-related stuff. And once he was actually submitting applications, it made it easier to make sure he didn't miss anything important that might have gotten lost among his personal messages.)

 

You can also look around to see if there are any college fairs happening in your area that are related to your daughter's areas of interest. My son, for example, attended a weekend-long event that allowed high schoolers interested in majoring in dance to take classes and meet with faculty from a variety of colleges that offer dance programs. He had a great time meeting other dancers from all over the state, enjoyed his classes (what teen dancer wouldn't love taking the equivalent of a master class with a member of the Julliard faculty?) and came out of the weekend with a clearer idea of what he did and didn't want in a dance program.

 

Essentially, I would recommend having her look around at lots of possibilities and start feeling out what she likes and doesn't. It's likely that very soon she'll start creating her own list of what's important to her, and you'll have more to go on.

[Nan in Mass]

So it sounds like she would like to be in the liberal arts college of a college or university that has both majors. That gives her lots of choices. : )

 

The general goal is to find the best college that you can afford and that your daughter will GRADUATE from, not that she can get into. That means it has to be a good fit academically AND socially. She has to be comfortable enough that she can learn and grow. The academic structure will have a lot to do with whether she graduates and whether she can keep any scholarships. ( I just posted what I mean by academic structure in the thread on stress.) If she has a number of good, affordable options, then she can think about saving money. I,d start with the general goal, though.

 

When we first started looking at colleges, we visited nearby ones to try to reduce the field a bit and gain some experience so we had something to compare to. It didn,t matter if they were places that would actually work. We visited a big and a small, a private and a state, a city and a noncity. We talked about far/near, whether loans were ok, and majors. We looked at various search engines. (Check out the government one, IPED I think it might be?) We talked about academics and whether the student thrived on challenges or was easily overwhelmed, whether he liked attention or wanted to be invisible, how important the attitude of other students was. We talked about politically conservative or liberal administrations and religious ones. By the time we got done with all that, the choices were considerably narrowed and we could move on to the finer points of academic structure and atmosphere. (Youngest picked a college where the students all smiled and said come here.)

 

HTH

Nan

[JanetC]

Agree on lots of visits.  Another thing you can do is get a Princeton Review college guidebook and read some random chapters. Notice that schools have personalities as well as areas of study.

 

Ask her to think about what else she wants to do besides go to classes:

 

- join a career-oriented club (pre-med, business, etc.)

- be politically active

- do volunteer service work

- participate in the arts of some sort

- be active physically (school with a team or intramural program)

- join a sorority

- study abroad

 

etc.

 

Some of the undecided part will have to be figured out later, but one thing you can do now is go on a college website and read the class descriptions for different majors. For example, DD thought she was interested in psychology, but after reading some class catalogs realized she was more interested in human nature at the society level (sociology and anthropology) rather than classes focused on psychology of the behavior of individuals.  Good to know!

[creekland]

Definitely visit local colleges to get a feel for which type she likes (large/medium/small, urban/suburban/rural, religious/secular, Greek heavy or not, etc).

 

But in the meantime, start looking at your financial situation.  If you don't have $$ saved up to be full pay, go online at a .gov site and fill out a Fafsa estimate calculator.  Look at that number.

 

If it's affordable, then you'll want to consider high "meets need" schools.

 

If you pick yourself up off the floor with chills, you're going to need either less expensive schools or high merit aid schools.

 

Once you know which category you are in, come back for more suggestions.

 

In general, many schools won't make her decide on a major right away - esp since she's not into engineering or similar.

 

Also in general, OOS publics don't offer much aid BUT there are exceptions.  Again, we'll need to know which category you're in financially.

 

AND - a biggie here - she will need scores to have an idea about the range of school she's likely to get admitted to.  If you have PSAT scores, that's a helpful indicator.  If you have SAT/ACT scores, that's better (as that will be what's needed for all but community colleges).

 

You do have some nice options in GA, so that's a plus.  ;)

[creekland]

Adding a link for a FAFSA estimator that is free and from the gov't (vs a sales place).

 

https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/estimate

[Night Elf]

Is summer too early to visit colleges? There are several that I can think of that would be nice to visit.

 

Ds will be attending the University of North Georgia in the fall but she doesn't want to consider it because she says it's not a top school. I don't know what she means by that. She's an excellent student, but upon graduation will only have 2 Honors and 4 AP classes. I worry she's not competitive enough. She got pretty good scores on the SAT and ACT, but will be taking them again her senior year to see if she can improve them.

[TechWife]

Is summer too early to visit colleges? There are several that I can think of that would be nice to visit.

 

Ds will be attending the University of North Georgia in the fall but she doesn't want to consider it because she says it's not a top school. I don't know what she means by that. She's an excellent student, but upon graduation will only have 2 Honors and 4 AP classes. I worry she's not competitive enough. She got pretty good scores on the SAT and ACT, but will be taking them again her senior year to see if she can improve them.

 

Colleges have fewer students and faculty on campus in the summer. To get a good feel for the school, I think she needs to go for a visit in the fall. If you call this week, you may be able to get in a visit yet this spring, but be aware exams will start in May. 

 

Have her visit at least one large campus, one medium size campus and one small campus. In addition, have her visit both public and private schools. She also needs to apply to at least one university where she is reasonably certain that she will get in and at least one university where she knows she can afford to attend even without top scholarship money. So basically, she needs an academic safety and a financial safety.

 

Finances are a major part of the picture, so she needs a realistic idea of what, if anything, you can contribute. It sounds like she would qualify for the HOPE Scholarship, but she needs to know that she has to keep her grades up and what the financial picture would look like if she no longer qualified for HOPE at some point. 

 

I'd encourage her to look beyond what she considers to be a "top school," because, quite frankly, she doesn't have the life experience to know what makes up a solid university experience. The rankings that we see everywhere only show a small piece of the puzzle. 

 

Does she know what she wants to study? If so, then she can look at the individual colleges within a university to find one that might be a good fit. 

 

Any number of books can give her a list of the things she needs to consider. I find that most teens I talk to early in the process are thinking about things like dorms, football teams, social life, etc. then the further they get along in the process, usually after the first or second college visit, they start wondering about things like class size, career placement rates and the actual education they will receive. 

 

Another thing that would be good for her to know is how she learns best - does she prefer a hands on approach, a lot of discussion, independent work, for example. Does she want to know her professors or would she rather be more anonymous? 

 

Lots of things to consider, what an exciting time! 

[Kareni]

An idea--look for a book by ISI called Choosing the Right College. Even if she's not looking for a conservative college, reading the descriptions of various places will help to start narrowing down what she wants. And if she truly doesn't know where or what she wants, consider doing a gap year. College is way too expensive to "find yourself". Better to know where you're going in life without spending a pile of money. Yes, she can change majors and many do, but many also pay for an extra year to do so. 

 

I second the above book; we found it of value even though we're not conservative homeschoolers.

 

A couple of other books we liked were

 

Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges

 

It's somewhat dated but I also found this book valuable

Cool Colleges: For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different (Cool Colleges... by Donald Asher (Apr 1, 2007)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[*LC]

Everyone gave you good advice. So, I'm going to look at it a different way. Does she have an area of the country where she wants to live (either for a few years during college or after graduation)?

 

I never make generalizations, because they don't necessarily apply to an individual. My college kid got better scholarship offers to out-of-state state schools than she did to far away private schools. The scholarship dollar amount may have been lower, but the overall cost was lower too. I have a friend whose daughter is currently deciding between two OOS state schools and a private school. Two are schools that meet need, and one of those is more expensive than the state school. The private school, meets need, is a bit less than the cheaper OOS state school. doesn't meet need. They are all less than in-state, which is considered cheap. 

 

Tell your daughter to have fun reading brochures and imagining herself at the different schools. 

[JanetC]

Is summer too early to visit colleges? There are several that I can think of that would be nice to visit.

 

No. It's too late. You're supposed to visit spring of junior year while classes are in session to get a feel for what a school is really like. in the summer, most students are gone and the feel may be very different. Don't feel too bad! It's not happening at my house either with DD's busy schedule.

 

Better get a handle on what she means by wanting to go to a "top" school... You don't want her to pack her list with elite schools and have no admissions or financial safety schools. Rejected by Harvard and no aid from NYU is not a good result. Make her start with foundation schools that you know she can likely get into and can likely afford given what you can figure out about financial aid. Add the "top" schools after that.

[Teachin'Mine]

Great advice here.  The one thing I think differently about is the need for separate academic and financial safeties.  If your student is sure to be accepted to a school, but cannot afford that school, then it's not a safety.  And if a school is affordable, but isn't a sure thing for being accepted, then that isn't a safety either.  Ideally a school needs to be both a financial and academic safety, and ideally there would be at least two of those so the student is sure to have a choice.  For some families, there may be no true safeties, so you do the best you can.  Makes for a loooong few months until the end of March.  If you find true safeties and they have rolling admission or early admission, I think that is the ideal way to go as it reduces the stress while waiting on decisions in February and March.

 

Summer visiting isn't ideal, but it's so much better than no visits at all.  You can always re-visit after acceptances and you'll already be somewhat familiar with the campus and can focus in on what's important at that time.  I think that student overnight visits are ideal.  You've got some time before spring semester ends, so look at the academic calendars for schools of interest and plan visits accordingly.  Even if you visit a school she's not interested in, but it's conveniently located, she'll start to form opinions about size, location, class sizes, diversity, campus culture, etc..  IMO visiting is never wasted time. 

 

The Fiske Guide to Colleges is also helpful in finding colleges you may not have considered yet and in getting info on campus culture.

[katilac]

If she's going for merit aid from the school (as opposed to just the GA state scholarships), she needs to be ready to apply in the fall. The scholarship and honors program deadlines are much earlier than the standard application deadlines - it's October for one school we are looking at! And you may need to write essays, round up recommendations, etc. 

 

So, I would definitely visit whatever colleges you can over the summer. Yes, the vibe will be different, but larger schools in particular may be quite active, and you can glean some useful information no matter what. The schools in my area do official tours throughout the summer, so you get that information and the chance to ask questions, and you can get a good look at the library, classrooms, general appearance, general surroundings, etc. 

 

As she's fairly uncertain, I'd look up info online first, and concentrate on schools that: 

• are in-state, hence affordable and you know what you will likely pay based on GA scholarship system
• for out-of-state, concentrate first on schools that are affordable and that have set scholarships in addition to competitive ones - meaning everyone who meets the listed criteria and applies by the priority deadline gets that scholarship 
• schools that have a lot of backup majors 

That will keep you busy for a while! 

 

Run the net cost calculators at different schools. It is just a rough estimate that might change, but it does give you some idea. Definitely run the FASFA calculator and get your EFC. Private schools will always expect you to pay at least your EFC, even those considered generous with aid. There are a very few exceptions, but knowing your EFC now will help you get over sticker shock, and it makes running net cost calculators over and over again much quicker. 

 

That would be the very first thing I would, if you haven't. Run that FASFA calculator and get your EFC today. 

[JanetC]

If she's going for merit aid from the school (as opposed to just the GA state scholarships), she needs to be ready to apply in the fall. The scholarship and honors program deadlines are much earlier than the standard application deadlines - it's October for one school we are looking at! And you may need to write essays, round up recommendations, etc. 

 

Is October really common?  Where do you find the deadlines for applying to honors and merit programs?

[teeterbunch]

Is summer too early to visit colleges? There are several that I can think of that would be nice to visit.

 

My son and I visited a school last summer (prior to his junior year) on the recommendation from a college admission seminar.  The speaker's take was that the professors have more time to spend with you.  We definitely found that to be the case.  We met with a professor for 2 hours.  We have stayed in touch, and my son will be attending a camp there this summer in his area of interest.  He was basically a shoo-in because of that meeting.  So it definitely worked out for us.  I felt like we learned a lot about the campus, even during the summer.  Also, your student can return for a visit to attend a class and sometimes even stay overnight.  That's usually reserved for high school seniors, so summer visits might help you narrow down the places your dc might want to take advantage of that experience.  Just some thoughts.

 

Ashley

[Matryoshka]

My son and I visited a school last summer (prior to his junior year) on the recommendation from a college admission seminar.  The speaker's take was that the professors have more time to spend with you.  We definitely found that to be the case.  We met with a professor for 2 hours.  We have stayed in touch, and my son will be attending a camp there this summer in his area of interest.  He was basically a shoo-in because of that meeting.  So it definitely worked out for us.  I felt like we learned a lot about the campus, even during the summer.  Also, your student can return for a visit to attend a class and sometimes even stay overnight.  That's usually reserved for high school seniors, so summer visits might help you narrow down the places your dc might want to take advantage of that experience.  Just some thoughts.

 

How do you get an appt. with a professor in the summer?  I would have thought they'd be off campus too?  Or are they still working in the summer?

 

[JanetC]

How do you get an appt. with a professor in the summer?  I would have thought they'd be off campus too?  Or are they still working in the summer?

 

Especially at a research university, they're mostly still working. They may be on more flexible or irregular schedules, though, so you'll have to check with each professor you hope to meet with.

 

[katilac]

Is October really common?  Where do you find the deadlines for applying to honors and merit programs?

 

I don't think so, but mid-November is fairly common. 

[teeterbunch]

How do you get an appt. with a professor in the summer?  I would have thought they'd be off campus too?  Or are they still working in the summer?

 

 

A friend helped us get connected with the professor.  She was an alum, and they had stayed in touch.  But you can just call the department you are interested in and schedule a meeting.

[katilac]

I don't think so, but mid-November is fairly common. 

 

I'm quoting myself, how tacky! 

 

Glancing at the 8 schools dd is looking at most closely now: 

 

• Two October 1  
• One November 15  
• Three December 1 
• One December 15 
• One January 15 

These are all priority scholarship deadlines.

 

At three of the schools, there are 'guaranteed' scholarships that you will get as long as you meet the listed criteria AND apply by the priority deadline. After the deadline, you may or may not get it, even if you exceed the criteria. 

 

At all of the schools, there are competitive scholarships where meeting the deadline will, at the least, improve your chances. At some, I believe you need to make the deadline in order to be eligible at all for certain scholarships. 

 

Most of the honors program deadlines match up pretty closely. Again, it varies on whether it's a requirement or if it betters your chances (money runs out or spots fill up). 

 

These aren't ultra-competitive schools as far as admit rates go, but dd needs merit aid in order to attend, so those deadlines are super important for us. 

[msec123]

Here's some advice for trying to find the school that works for you..

 

1.Start with who you are and why you are going.

You need to examine yourself and your reasons for going to college before you start your search. Why, really, are you going? What are your abilities and strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you want out of life — something tangible or intangible?

 

2.A name-brand college will not guarantee your success.

Think about the people in your life who are happy and successful and find out where they went to college. Ask the same about famous people. You will likely find that success in life has less to do with the choice of college than with the experiences and opportunities encountered while in college, coupled with personal qualities and traits.

 

3.Dont be scared by the stories.

If you only pay attention to the headlines, you might start to believe that no one is getting in anywhere! The truth is that the majority of the colleges and universities in this country admit more students than they reject. If you're worried about your chances of getting admitted — and you're willing to investigate beyond the very narrow band of highly selective colleges — you'll find that you have many options that will lead to a great fit for you.

 

4.The most important factor in choosing a college is fit.

Choosing a college because your friends are going there or because of where it ranks on a list does not take into account who you are and who you will become. College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won. Finding a good fit requires time and thoughtfulness.