Anyone else starting the college search process?

[bballmom56]

Just finished reading the College Admissions thread and wondered who else is starting the college search process? We went through it 5 years ago with DD, and now it is time for DS, currently a HS junior. We eliminated one college last fall after attending the open house. We have about 9 other colleges we plan to visit, starting with an open house tomorrow at one of them. In April, I think we are scheduled to see 6 more. I love visiting the colleges and I just hope he finds the place that fits him perfectly as DD did. We are looking at 3 in PA, 3 in NY, 1 in VT, 1 in MA and 1 in NJ. Anyone else on the college hunt?

 

[monarchsfan16]

My sister, a sophomore, is in the very early stages of hunting (more like the denial stages ). I'm a college freshman, so we certainly learned a lot in the last few years, and I think mom wants to get my sister looking a little earlier than I did (April vacation junior year). My sister wants nothing of it
Good luck to you and your son! It sure is a pain trying to figure it all out

 

[bballmom56]

That's what I have found - that things have changed a lot in 5 years! Everything seems to happen sooner. We didn't even look at the schools for DD until July before her senior year. Now everyone is doing it much earlier. She also applied early action which got her the answers sooner. It looks like more colleges have moved away from early action and just have early decision or regular decision.

 

[christineann]

We did the college visits for my son in 2002, which helped narrow things down for my daughter, who is a senior this year. We visited several more colleges during spring break of her junior year. The college tours led by the students are very helpful as well as the open houses with information sessions.

What schools are you visiting in PA?

 

[bballmom56]

We are looking at University of Scranton, Elizabethtown, and College Misericordia. DS was there when we looked at schools for DD, but was only 12 at the time. We are re-visiting 4 of the ones we looked at for her, only with his interests in mind this time.

 

[Caradana]

You are clearly a very cool mom. We had practically no $, so the deal was, I had to wait to see who accepted me, and then we could make a day trip in April. I saw five colleges in three weeks in April. My minivan got stolen at Yale. (Yup.) They recovered it a day later across New Haven with no ignition.

I didn't go to Yale

Hope you have a smoother/more satisfying college visit experience than I had!

 

[CherCrazy]

Is your son a Disney fan too? You may want to look into UCF -- University of Central Florida. It's a great school, and great area!!

Friends of ours sent two of their kids there...bought a condo so they could save on the Room & board. Probably they got in-state tuition after a while if they changed their address. Kids got to work at Disney & Universal for a while. Sweet deal!!

 

[crazyme5kids]

Oh boy am I ever! My daughter didn't want to go so we never went through the let's start looking stage. She did come home one day last summer and announce she registered for the community school. I was thrilled tha it only took her one year off to realize she needed a degree. Now flash forward to Feb. She called and said I need to talk to you. After asking, are you pregnant, are you getting married or are you moving out, she announced she applied to Purchase. I'm not sure if she'll get in, but hey at least she is into going to college. I'll take it.

My son is a junior in high school. He on the other hand knows what he wants. We will be looking at Embry- Riddle in Daytona and Dowling here on LI. He wants to be a pilot. I am hoping to make a trip to Florida at the end of Aug. to see Embry-Riddle. Not sure if that will happen or not.

 

[bballmom56]

Caradana ~ I sent you a PM!

CherCrazy ~ Yeah, I'd say he's a Disney fan. Interesting thought with the condo thing. Hmmmmm, and a place for us to stay when we go visit Mickey -oh, and DS, too!

crazyme5kids ~ that's great for your daughter. Keep us posted if she gets in! And that is awesome for your son - mine doesn't really know what he wants to do or major in. Everything from media to computer info. systems to networking to business, to sports management. I'm hoping that when he gets on the right campus it will fall into place.

 

[crazyme5kids]

You know it's funny. It's so hard for kids to know what they really want to do in life. I'm still trying to figure it out and I'm 46. I'm sure things will fall into place for your son. My daughter has no idea what direction she wants to go yet. Nothing has really clicked with her yet.

 

[LindaR]

Yep, we started last summer with a trip to Boulder. Next weekend DD17 and I will check out a couple of schools in southern CA (and have a couple of days in DL for me!).

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Oh boy am I ever! My daughter didn't want to go so we never went through the let's start looking stage. She did come home one day last summer and announce she registered for the community school. I was thrilled tha it only took her one year off to realize she needed a degree. Now flash forward to Feb. She called and said I need to talk to you. After asking, are you pregnant, are you getting married or are you moving out, she announced she applied to Purchase. I'm not sure if she'll get in, but hey at least she is into going to college. I'll take it.

My son is a junior in high school. He on the other hand knows what he wants. We will be looking at Embry- Riddle in Daytona and Dowling here on LI. He wants to be a pilot. I am hoping to make a trip to Florida at the end of Aug. to see Embry-Riddle. Not sure if that will happen or not.

That is so funny because my ds just asked me yest. what are the majors at dowling? Gheesh, He just got accepted to St. Josephs and just applied to Stony Brook. He doesnt want to go away anyway. I also want him to look at CW Post and Hofstra. He really doesnt know what he wants to do, maybe business or political science or athletic trainer. Ds # 2 will be a junior in the fall and at least he knows in college he wants to major in criminal justice so far. He also doesnt want to go away, sigh, sigh. Will we ever have any peace and quiet in our house. Well maybe ds #3 will want to go away. Who knows. Good luck in your college quest for your children everyone!!!!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

DD is a freshman so I am just looking at the scholarship sites, all the requirements, and verbage.

Alot to take in from all the AP tests to SAT2 tests, etc...I think I am getting it.

There are a couple of things for her to sign up for this summer and she needs to study for the PSAT. The high school is having all the sophmores take it.

 

[cruisnfamily]

I have a question about these college visits. When I did it 20 some odd years ago, Dad and I jumped in the car and drove to upstate ny and took in a few colleges with tours at each. I never thought to ask him if he had made arrangements ahead of time or do they give these tours every day or what? I just wonder, do you have to call the schools and set up appts for tours or do you just show up?

 

[DISNEYFANRI]

Ds is a junior - haven't started anything yet.....DD is a college freshmand....doing a "transfer search" for her now.....

 

[DisneyMomx7]

2 Ds's are college and senior and 1 ds is a college sophmore so I remember it well! I actually liked going to look at colleges.

Have fun!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have a question about these college visits. When I did it 20 some odd years ago, Dad and I jumped in the car and drove to upstate ny and took in a few colleges with tours at each. I never thought to ask him if he had made arrangements ahead of time or do they give these tours every day or what? I just wonder, do you have to call the schools and set up appts for tours or do you just show up?

23 years ago I went with my parents once the decision was made and we stayed in a dorm and did the whole welcome to University thing.

Now with my dd some of the colleges have over the summer day tours but you have to sign up for them ahead of time. Sign ups are here already for some.
I am sure you can just go there and poke around. But if you want something more that is available too.

Example...my dd is going to try and get into this after next year.
http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/bims/camp.shtml

This year we are going to go to this....
http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/meetus/events/longsat/

 

[LukenDC]

You are clearly a very cool mom. We had practically no $, so the deal was, I had to wait to see who accepted me, and then we could make a day trip in April. I saw five colleges in three weeks in April. My minivan got stolen at Yale. (Yup.) They recovered it a day later across New Haven with no ignition.

I didn't go to Yale

I'm so sorry to hear about your bad experience at Yale. I attended Yale without having visited first and it was a perfect match. My parents were worried about the reputation of New Haven, but I never had any problems and actually liked New Haven. It was a great four years.

 

[bballmom56]

I have a question about these college visits. When I did it 20 some odd years ago, Dad and I jumped in the car and drove to upstate ny and took in a few colleges with tours at each. I never thought to ask him if he had made arrangements ahead of time or do they give these tours every day or what? I just wonder, do you have to call the schools and set up appts for tours or do you just show up?

Ahh, the internet is a wonderful thing! Every college has a website (usually their name, initials or some part of their name followed by .edu - you can do a google search, too). Check out their admissions link and you will get a lot of info. for campus visits. They will list their open house dates and also tell you how to arrange for an individual visit with a tour if you prefer that. There are pros and cons to both open houses and individual tours. We just did an open house today in PA and it was wonderful. DS was really impressed and pleased and so were mom and dad! Now we have 8 more to visit and see how they compare.

What a difference from when I looked at colleges! Anyone remember the Barron's guide? A huge book that listed all the colleges in the US with brief descriptions and requirements of each.

 

[Snowysmom]

We are currently doing the college visits with younger DS, a HS junior. Older DS is a college junior. Younger DS knows what colleges he does not want to go to from visiting colleges with older DS. Plus, what he wants to study is completely different from older DS so we are looking at some different colleges and well as some the same. Have fun visiting the colleges!