Choosing Colleges

[bjgrazi]

What are some of the questions that should be asked when visiting a college?

How does someone even begin this process? How far would you let your child go away to college?

We still have time, but my daughter is starting to get into the mode of colleges. Most of her friends are seniors and I guess thats what has her interest going. Some of my friends are already planning on what college to visit and our kids are only in the 10th grade. Sould I be thinking about it this early?

 

[sharbear]

10th grade is a perfect time to start thinking about colleges. I have a junior in HS and we starting thinking about what kind of schools he would be interested in last year. I bought a magazine made by Newsweek last year. It's in with the magazines and it's called America's Hottest Colleges. There is also one out by US News called America's Best Colleges. They have articles in them about what to ask on college visits, what to look for in a college and general advise. I found it very helpful and a good starting point.

I have a junior and we have not visited any schools yet but are planning on doing so this year. We went to a college fair earlier this year and it was somewhat helpful. It was really crowded and hard to talk to some of the schools but it's a starting point. At this time my DS is looking into engineering and that narrows what schools we will be looking at. I think that my DS would like to look at smaller schools that are not in a big city but we will see.

My son is a A-B student taking honors in math and science. We will be able to afford a state university, a private university will be hard unless he can get some aid, we will see.

My DH would like our son to go to his alma mater, it's 10 hours away from us. I think that the other schools that we will look at are going to be no more than 4 hours away.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My dd is in 8th grade and we are thinking about it. So no, it is not too early. Here is a site that we look at to help us out...

http://www.collegeboard.com/splash

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

When you're visiting colleges, be sure to try and talk to students, not just admission counselors. Most of the campus tour guides are students, and are happy to answer questions. If it's a question that you thing may embarrass your child, wait until they're paying attention to something else or out of earshot.

I was a volunteer tour guide and spent a lot of time in the admissions office, talking to students and parents for 3 years, feel free to PM with any questions you might have.

 

[froglady]

I agree that 10th grade isn't too early! I wish we had started sooner, rather than having to rush from campus to campus in order to fit them all in. (My daughter had NO idea as to where she wanted to go, only that it HAD to be out of state and have a real winter with snow. We narrowed it down to East of the Mississippi. )

If you do any travelling in the next couple of years, you might want to fit in a tour, or at least drive through a campus.

 

[Kirby]

My son is a junior and visited his first college a couple of weeks ago.

Definately talk to students.

Walk over the whole campus if possible.

Visit large and small colleges to get a feel for the difference. My son went to the University of Texas at Austin two years ago for a State UIL competition and came back saying that he did not want to go to a big university like that.

Also, take a look over the town/city in which the college/university resides and see if they like the feel of that also.

Get a look at a couple of dorms and their rooms.

Look into their financial aid packages.

 

[Maleficent13]

When you're visiting colleges, be sure to try and talk to students, not just admission counselors. Most of the campus tour guides are students, and are happy to answer questions.

I would add to this and say, see if you can't talk to some students who aren't tour guides. Tour guides are representing the campus, and they have usually been instructed to say nothing but positive things about it. A lot of times, they're even on the payroll as a work study student and they don't want to jeopardize it by even suggesting anything negative.

A good thing to do is go to the cafeteria and eat sitting in the main dining hall and listening to the conversations. I guarantee you'll get a pretty good scoop.

BTW, I picked my college solely on the fact that it was the one I was accepted to that was farthest away from my hometown. No other reason. Lucky for me, they had an excellent academics program.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Look around at the town the school sits in. Look around at how accessible the campus is from a major town. I went to a private college where it was a dry county and the nearest large mall was an hour drive. The airport was an hour and half the other way. Think about if your child will have a car or will haveother ways to get around. I think I did a thousand tours of the campus while I was there. Nothing is a bad question and if the student or whoever you ask doesn't give you an answer you are satisified with ask someone else.

Look at everything when on a tour. Make sure to walk through dorms and classrooms and cafeteria. See what programs the school offers to students like movie night or concert night. Ask if they encourage participation within the community. Ask around to see what students do on the weekends or days off. Look at your child's interests when looking at schools. If the child is more outdoorsy then he/she might not be really happy at a college in the middle of a city.

If you need more suggestions, feel free to PM me. I work at a college now and go into high schools. I deal with questions like this all the time.

Good luck,
Tina

 

[gometros]

A good place to start is right at home. A lot of commi=unities have college fairs, usually hosted by a local school. We have one coming up tommorrow night, with about 300 colleges expected to be represented. It's a good opportunity to do a lot of up front research.

The college web sites are also places with a load of information. Me being a computer professional tend to rate the college by the appearance and information available on their web site.

 

[Pooh's Pal]

If you do not have any college fairs in your neighborhood check out this site. www.collegeboard.com
This web site is a wealth of information, SAT schedules, links to financial aid and every college website imaginable! You can do a search with location, major & activities.

Also, there are usually many college brochures located in the high school library, local library or high school guidance counselors offices. (at least there were when my DD was in school)

 

[chrissyk]

This is a good time to start looking. Also, take the younger sibs with you (if there are any). My younger sis narrowed down her list of colleges by going on my college tours with me.

Does your daughter know what she would like to major in? If it is very specific, she may do well to research which schools offer that program. I knew that I wanted to be an engineer, so that knocked a lot of schools off of my wish-list right there.

I don't know how far away from home is too far...I guess it depends on the student. DH and I were about an hour away from "home," but my sis went to college 7-hours drive away. That would have been way too far for me, as I was a bit of a homebody the freshman year It definitely depends on the particular kid.

 

[bjgrazi]

Thanks everyone!

She asked if she could go to a West Coast School, my answer is let me think about it -- ummm no. I feel nothing longer than a 6 hour drive.

She went on a class trip to Boston and they visited Boston Univ., Harvad & 1 other. She loved Boston Univ., loved the town loved everything about it. She wants to go to college in a city, not a small college town. She wants to be a lawyer - so she thinks.

 

[chrissyk]

You might want to tell her to think about a fallback career as well. My sis graduated from Suffolk Law a couple of years ago. She passed the MA Bar on the first try. She can't get a job as a lawyer to save her life, and neither can most of her classmates The one who found a job makes 35K a year as a real estate attorney...in BOSTON. That's not a liveable wage here.

It's a good thing that my sis has her engineering degree to fall back on. At this point, she is starting to consider Law School a bust, and she's probably going to go back to engineering. At least then she'd have healthcare benefits. Right now, she's temping at a law firm, doing work that a "trained monkey could do" in her words.

 

[gometros]

The College Board is one good site. Check out this article on the site:

http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,4-21-0-40,00.html

The Princeton Review is another very good research site:

http://www.princetonreview.com/college/

http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankings.asp

Since there is no law undergraduate degree per se, she should pick a good major that will allow her to pursue other areas if she changes her mind about law school. Technical degrees like engineering are a good prep for law school and provide you with other skills as well.

 

[christineann]

My daughter went to college visits with her brother and me when she was in 8th grade, and she said that she was glad she went so that she knew early what the colleges are looking for. We found the following information helpful: programs to help freshman make the transition to college (often called orientation phase II), the retention rate for students from freshman to sophomore years, dorm policies, availability of parking, whether or not the tuition includes books (some actually do), whether or not the campus empties on the weekend, alumni support, class size, percentage of professors who are PhD's, percentage of students who continue on to graduate school, student employment opportunities, meal plans, and study abroad.

Collegeboard.com is a great website. Another good one is campusdirt.com (school ratings by the students themselves).

 

[bsnyder]

Originally posted by bjgrazi
Thanks everyone!

She asked if she could go to a West Coast School, my answer is let me think about it -- ummm no. I feel nothing longer than a 6 hour drive.

She went on a class trip to Boston and they visited Boston Univ., Harvad & 1 other. She loved Boston Univ., loved the town loved everything about it. She wants to go to college in a city, not a small college town. She wants to be a lawyer - so she thinks.

I have one son who's a freshman at USC....it's 2500 miles away from home and he is loving it. And it's less than 6 hours away (by plane, of course) He started talking about USC as a freshman, and my initial reaction was "No way!"

If your daughter really wants to go to the west coast, I'd at least let her check it out. She may end up changing her mind in the end, but if you limit her from even exploring it, she may regret not having that opportunity.

Good luck to your daughter and to you. It's a very exciting (and stressful) time.

 

[gometros]

Wanna see a debate start in a topic you would think is free of debate?

If she want to go the west coast, UCLA is the better school