College Search Thoughts Needed

[Blue Hen]

DS (a Jr) is in need of some advice and I've never been down this road before so I'm coming to you wise ladies for assistance.

 

What is the process your kids have gone through to come up with their short or even their long list of colleges that they 'think' they want to check out with a visit? We are talking about the ones that they say to you that they would like to visit, to explore a bit. Although I attended college I attended the large state college that was close to home cause, well, I have no idea why. It was there, and close by, and....well, anyway, DS would like to hear how others have gone about this.

 

Last year we attended college fairs and it seems every college, or most everyone has his desired majors (biology/bio-chem/bio-chem eng), and the fairs were crowded and the folks manning the booths knew their school was the best one for DS. :willy_nilly:

 

Thanks!

 

Carole

[Jenny in Florida]

One thing we've played with is the "Conselor-O-Matic" on the Princeton Review site: http://www.princetonreview.com/com.aspx?uidbadge=%07

 

Basically, the student goes through and answers questions about academics and the kind of school he might want to attend, and the site generates a list of possibilities. Then, your son can start looking at the websites of each school that seems interesting and maybe request information. And you can narrow it down from there.

 

The College Board website has a similar application, and now that I look at it, I think that's the one we liked better: http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/index.jsp

 

Have fun!

[Jane in NC]

A friend of mine who is a professor at a small, midwestern university encountered the same problem when considering colleges with her daughter. She recommended a great tool, IPEDS, a government run, statistics reporting service.

 

I think the first step is determining whether your son wants to be at an engineering school or a liberal arts school with a strong science program. The former tend to be large, the latter small. He already knows his fields of interest.

 

In my friend's case, her daughter was able to limit her college list to LACs in a certain geographic region. After generating a list of potential schools from IPEDs, they looked at how many graduates were in her fields of interest. For example, suppose your son wants to study chemistry at an LAC. You can determine through IPEDs how many chem graduates this school produced and then surmise whether the school will indeed offer the variety of courses that a chem major may need. You can see if the university has a large graduate program in that field and attempt to predict whether your son will be taught by grad students or professors. (Note that few undergrads at large state schools are able to do research. This is often an advantage of going the LAC route.)

 

My friend's daughter ended up going to a school that IPEDS brought to their attention, one which otherwise would not have been on their radar.

 

Life gets interesting at this juncture, doesn't it?

 

Jane

[Gwen in VA]

When you have figured out what colleges he might possibly remotely be interested in, have him spend some time online at each college's website.

 

The colleges work hard to have their website represent who they"really" are, so the websites do give an idea of the flavor of each college.

 

What types of extracurricular activities are available?

What about housing?

Meals?

Majors?

Distribution requirements?

How easily can you switch majors across schools?

Can you double major across schools (mech E and history, for example)? What kind of orientation program do they have?

What percentage of the students are fom abroad?

What percentage minority?

What percent students receive financial aid?

Can the students do research on-campus?

Do many students leave for the weekend?

What percentage of students have cars?

If your student is religious, is there a place to worship nearby?

Is on-campus housing guaranteed all four years?

What "type" of student does the school seem to be trying to attract?

Look at the profs -- are there any doing research in your child's area of interest?

What kind of activities are imported for the studnets -- movies, rock concerts?

 

My dd refused to apply to almost all the colleges we expected her to apply to on the basis of what she found on their websites! Real visits to colleges are an absolute must, but the website visits are cheap and easy and can at least eliminate some schools!

 

When my kids were tinye, people warned me about the "terrible two's", but no one warned me about the challenges of wearing the guidance counselor hat!

[readwithem]

I'm in the same boat as you (dd is a junior and we've never been down this road) so I don't have much to add but one thing we've done is tour the colleges near our home, even though dd knows she wants to go in another state. We've learned something from every college we've visited, even though we knew it wouldn't make it on the short list. It helped to define what she wanted in terms of size, etc. All it cost us was our time and a bit of gas :) I would think you have lots of options for day trips living in Delaware.

 

The problem here is how to expand my dd's list - but then again she doesn't want to be an engineer :)

[hsmamainva]

My dd started by going to the website at collegeboard. They have a 'college matchmaker' button and she listed what was important to her. We knew we wanted something that was either in-state or not too terribly expensive for out-of-state students.

 

Then we made road trips, starting when she was a sophmore. My dd ended up visiting around 15 colleges in our state (Virginia), as well as schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

 

She then narrowed her field down to in-state during the fall of her junior year, and she visited a couple of private schools before narrowing her field down even further to in-state public colleges (she really started to look at finances at this point).

 

The spring of her junior year, she had narrowed the field down to 4 in-state public colleges. One she discounted as being too large for her tastes (we visited twice and she didn't care for it either time), and one she discounted because it's 20 minutes from our house (she decided that it wouldn't be any different than going to the community college, which is half the price).

 

So that left her with two colleges. She has applied to one early action / early decision and, if she isn't accepted, or if she's deferred, she'll also apply to the second one, because their deadline isn't until the spring. But she's really, really hoping to get into her first choice!

 

But I would highly recommend going to visit the colleges your son is considering! It was hard for my dd to make a decision, simply based on catalogs and website information. She really had to 'get a feel' for them.

[Blue Hen]

I just spent two hours on the IPEDS site, great information. DS has the information for IPEDS and the other sites and I think he'll be able to discover some schools to go on the 'should visit' list. I know I did. It was so easy to see the summary information to at least quickly narrow down the list.

 

Carole

[Brenda in MA]

We used the College Board's on-line system to help ID colleges that were a potential match for ds.

 

I also found the discussion forum college confidential a little helpful in getting a sense of the atmosphere at some of the schools. You do have to be careful, though, because the number of posters relative to the number of students at a school is pretty small.

 

If money is a concern, you might also look at the financial aid stats and what scholarships are available. Through reading cc, I've gotten the feeling that certain schools are more generous with scholarships/aid than others. If money is a concern, it's good to know that up front. Some of the schools we've looked at have specific academic scholarship for specific SAT/ACT/GPA, and others specifically say that they give little merit aid.

 

While we were on the road last spring looking at schools, we happened on a book in a Barnes & Noble that described the atmosphere at some of the schools. We read the sections on the places we'd been, and this book seemed to be pretty accurate. We read about how much of a study vs. party school a place was, what the local town/city was like, and how many of the students belonged to the Greek system. I wish I remember the title, but it was something like the Insider's Guide, and it was a thick book. You might find it by browsing a local book store. After all the visits we've done, I think that the atmosphere at a school will be very important to how comfortable my son will feel there. He wants excellent academics and research opportunities, but if he doesn't fit in with the social scene, I don't think he'll be happy there.

 

When you do visit a few schools, see if they will let your son meet with a professor. My son was able to do this at a few schools, and it really helped him to understand what the research opportunities might be like at that school.

 

I also agree that you should help your son try to figure out if he is interested in strictly science or possibly engineering, too, because that will really effect the list of schools he might be interested in. Almost all LACs have science (bio/chem), but very few offer engineering.

 

My son still isn't sure if he's interested in computer science or engineering, so we felt it important to choose schools that offer both majors. That way, he will be able to switch majors if his interests lead him in a specific direction.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Blue Hen]

After all the visits we've done, I think that the atmosphere at a school will be very important to how comfortable my son will feel there. He wants excellent academics and research opportunities, but if he doesn't fit in with the social scene, I don't think he'll be happy there.

HTH,

Brenda

 

That's my son to a "T" DS wants the excellent academic and research opportunities too, and wants to feel comfortable with the social scene. He really dislikes when the college has their football/basketball teams on the school's home webpage so the social aspect of it, of a non-sportsy kid, classically educated (loves to read, discuss history, debate science,....) fitting in, will be important to him.

[Nan in Mass]

Junior year, *I* picked a few colleges within easy driving distance by type - large public university, smallish private college, very small private college, small state college, larger alternative college, very small alternative college, some were liberal arts oriented, some not. It was very stressful for him to visit colleges at first, so I picked them and we did them all in one week. By the end of the week, he was much more comfortable with the idea of going to college and actually had some opinions about what sort of college he'd be comfortable at. I also spent quite a lot of time coaxing my son to think about what he wanted to do for a living, or if he didn't know, what sort of things he might like to spend four years learning about. We let the whole thing mull for a few months, and then we began to make a list of wants. It ran something like this: probably within driving distance not flying distance, not too big, must have most of the things I might want to study, not in the city, not a party school, must have a climbing wall, and must be willing to let me switch from gymnastics into a new sport, must not require homeschoolers to take lots of SATIIs, and I must have some chance of surviving the workload while enjoying trying some new things once I get there. I suppose I should have been able to predict this list LOL, but the sports part was a surprise. Visiting colleges that we were sure he wouldn't want to go to (local so we know about them) gave him the confidence to ask the college personel lots of questions. That practice spilled over into asking real questions when we later visited colleges he *was* interested in. We narrowed down the choices to one special one that he will apply to early decision, and 8 or 10 others (since we're not sure who will want him) that would be ok. If he doesn't get into his first choice, then we'll scramble and send out lots of applications to the others. This child is rather odd, so it is hard to predict who might want him.

HTH

-Nan

[Mandy in TN]

What a wonderful thread! Tuesday night I was at a hs mom's meeting and lamenting the lack of people that could share how they went about the college selection process.

 

Ds is a junior and we have also done the college board website. We will be visiting his in-state public safety school in Nov. Then, we plan to visit his long shot in the spring. There are several others that we may go visit next fall while waiting to hear from the long shot. After reading Nan's post I may spend some time making a list of all the schools between here and my mom's house and plan to stop at a variety of types on the way down for Thanksgiving.

 

This thread has definitely helped me to feel like we are on the right track!

Mandy

[TraceyS/FL]

i agree!

 

i've been trying to figure out how to guide this process. I have a 7th grade that has ZERO direction with what she wants to do, which is fine - she is young. But i feel like *I* at least need to have a handle on what is around us, what might work for her. My parents didn't do much in this area for me - didn't discourage, but also didn't encourage. I didn't have the guts to tell them what i really wanted to do - so i still haven't done it. I also know from my experience that dumping DD into a school of 45,000 like i went to would be a bad idea.

 

So, here i sit pondering the "local" options and costs and all that jazz...... thanks!

[Gwen in VA]

I know this is obvious, but I thought I would say it anyway:

 

your job as parents is help your child to find a GOOD school --

 

1) one that will help prepare him/her for the life after college,

2) one where he/she can develop his God-given talents (both academic and extra-curricular),

3) one where he can grow mentally, spiritually, (and I guess physically),

4) one where he can be challenged and he can challenge others,

5) one where he can spend some time with at least a few like-minded folks.

6) Etc., etc., etc.

 

Your job is NOT to find the PERFECT school! Each and every school has its drawbacks. Each and every school in some way is not the right school for your child. By all means, search for the RIGHT school, but just be aware that there is no perfect school out there!

 

Also, financial aid/merit aid may play a determining factor in where your child goes to school. Make sure that all of the schools your child applies to are at least "acceptable" schools. Especially with the economy the way it is right now, when next April rolls around you and/or your child may find it very difficult to turn down that full ride scholarship. Make sure now that your child and you consider every school he applies to a reasonable (perhaps not the best) school.

 

Searching for the perfect college is a bit like searching for the perfect church -- it doesn't exist! Some are significantly better/more appropriate than others, but the perfect school is NOT out there!

 

BTW, the college search process is TOUGH! My third child is only in 9th grade, so I have a few year break here, and I am enjoying NOT thinking about the college selection process! Looking at colleges is a wonderful adventure and will help you get to know your child much better, but all of you who are in the middle of this have my sympathy!

[Nan in Mass]

If you can't choose between two things, then probably either would be just fine.

 

Lots of people don't get into their "perfect" school and wind up perfectly happy someplace else GRIN. Like Gwen says, trying to take the attitude that probably there are several good fit colleges out there helps ease the stress of the whole situation.

 

Of course, this doesn't work when you are trying to go to the same college your brother is at. Sigh. But we're still trying to give the message that there are LOTS of options in life and lots of time, not just one.

 

-Nan

[Kareni]

A few suggestions:

 

Check out the college book shelves at your library and the local Borders or B&N. Look for some books that are descriptive. Loren Pope's books are great at detailing the advantages of smaller, liberal arts colleges. Also look at the ISSI guides such as All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith and Choosing the Right College 2008-9: The Whole Truth about America's Top Schools. These last two books are written from a conservative viewpoint but all readers can get a good feel for whether the colleges reviewed would suit their child.

 

I also recommend this site: AdmissionsAdvice.com: Helping Students and Parents Make Smart College Choices and the related discussion board.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Ria]

Our twins are sophomores in college this year, and our 11th grader is just beginning the college search. One thing we did with the twins that really helped was to first figure out two things: 1. What size school did they want? and 2. Where in the US did they want to be? Our kids both decided they liked smaller colleges, and they both wanted to be within 2-3 hours of home. Once we had those parameters, we were able to go to the college board website and input that information along with their desired majors (dd: nursing; ds: engineering). We got a great list of colleges. Next we looked at the college websites, and decided which schools to visit.

 

One thing we did not do was limit schools from the search because of their tuition; we know that private colleges often have a lot of grant money available.

 

Long story short, dd chose a small school that offered her a full-tuition scholarship and admission to a highly competitive 5-year BS/MS program (she'll graduate w/ her masters as a nurse practioner). Ds was accepted at a very competitive private school, but they gave him a 1/2 tuition grant, thus making it possible for him to attend.

 

Ria

[danielle]

I have two sources for gossip about schools. It's sometimes the "feel" of the place that makes a difference. We've only visited 3 colleges so far, but visiting made ALL the difference. All of them were schools that other people we know loved, but dd disliked all of them for various reasons. I'd suggest that once you narrow down your choices, you search on College Confidential and read any comments and discussions. They can be brutal, but informative.

 

Also, dd and I have been laughing our way through The Insiders Guide to the Colleges, (by some Yale student group), which profiles the academic atmosphere and social scene at a lot of places. Of the colleges we're familiar with, they've been dead on. For example, at my alma mater (Univ. of Chicago) they christen it, "where fun goes to die". They accurately characterize the social scene (no sports, heavy discussions) and accurately portray it as a great place for intellectual nerds. They also do a great job of profiling Northwestern, in our town.

 

BTW, a plug! A kid with a bunch of APs and off beat interests should definitely check out Univ. of Chicago.

Danielle