College info/help

[parrothead365]

Ok, so it's been forever since I have been on here and longer than that since I have posted . DS is now 17 and a HS junior. We are getting ready to do the college visit thing and I have know idea what to be looking at. DS is fairly bright lad that is planning to joining the AFROTC program. He has so far racked up a 28 on the SAT (is that good?) and the SATs are in a week or two. What do I need to look for in a good school? I would really appreciate any pointer my disboard family can give an old sailor loke me.

 

[LindaR]

Well, its pretty easy to research on the internet and get some choices narrowed down, but we found THE most important thing was to make sure to visit the campus WHILE school is in session.

Look at the students, feel the "vibe".........does your kid fit in, feel comfortable?

When we were doing this, we visited a couple of schools that SOUNDED fantastic but once we got there and looked at the students......and took the tour, we realized that this was NOT a match for HER.

Funny example.....and I will not use the school name, but it was an all female school (that's ok, she picked that criteria). While we were waiting for the tour, I noticed that every person that passed us did not make eye contact and they all looked very unhappy, gruff, too serious.....just very standoffish.

I never said anything. After the tour was 1/2 finished (break time) she told me we needed to leave. Got in the car and she apologized for wasting my time. Why? She said this is gonna sound very "shallow" but I need to go to a school with people who have shaved their legs before, MAYBE opened a fashion magazine or at least HEARD of one, and know how to smile!

Exactly! She went on to say that academically, it was fine.....but SHE would never fit in there and would be miserable trying to supress her personality to fit in with what she had seen!

Your kid has to be able to envision living there and living with the people you see and fitting in and being happy, otherwise its not a good fit.

I hope that kinda makes sense! During visits REALLY observe everything! Not just the person giving the tour. Food choices, dorm setups, campus open to the public or not (security)..........good luck! And have fun! We toured campuses in CA, CO, PA, MD, VA and had a great time.

 

[parrothead365]

Thanks!!! good stuff

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We have 2 college threads going if you want to jump in. One for the students entering this fall and another for the kids entering last fall. My dd is a freshman.

28 is a good score, not great but doable. Great scores are 32 and up.

However what is his math score? That is the big deal with some schools.

For example at the college my dd's is at a math score of 22 is needed on the math, just to take the reg. college algebra.

To start at Trig or Precalc math. you need a 23 and up.

To take finite math, calc and other higher level math related to your degree you need a 26 and up.

Anyway, after reflecting back on what to look for in schools, we are certainly going to be looking at the course catalogs & prereqs as part of the school tours with my younger dd when she is at that point.

Bottom line is do some touring, look critically at the degree programs, and find a match. My current college freshman does not feel that her school is a match for her right now. So now she has to do what she should have done in the first place. But then again she was unsure of her major, so that makes it harder.

 

[Just Jan]

Well, its pretty easy to research on the internet and get some choices narrowed down, but we found THE most important thing was to make sure to visit the campus WHILE school is in session.

Look at the students, feel the "vibe".........does your kid fit in, feel comfortable?

When we were doing this, we visited a couple of schools that SOUNDED fantastic but once we got there and looked at the students......and took the tour, we realized that this was NOT a match for HER.

Funny example.....and I will not use the school name, but it was an all female school (that's ok, she picked that criteria). While we were waiting for the tour, I noticed that every person that passed us did not make eye contact and they all looked very unhappy, gruff, too serious.....just very standoffish.

I never said anything. After the tour was 1/2 finished (break time) she told me we needed to leave. Got in the car and she apologized for wasting my time. Why? She said this is gonna sound very "shallow" but I need to go to a school with people who have shaved their legs before, MAYBE opened a fashion magazine or at least HEARD of one, and know how to smile!

Exactly! She went on to say that academically, it was fine.....but SHE would never fit in there and would be miserable trying to supress her personality to fit in with what she had seen!

Your kid has to be able to envision living there and living with the people you see and fitting in and being happy, otherwise its not a good fit.

I hope that kinda makes sense! During visits REALLY observe everything! Not just the person giving the tour. Food choices, dorm setups, campus open to the public or not (security)..........good luck! And have fun! We toured campuses in CA, CO, PA, MD, VA and had a great time.

My oldest daughter just graduated from college in May. When she was a senior in hs she toured the schools on her list. She commented on a few of the. One comment was ..."when they keep having to point out their safety all kinds of red flags popped up in my head" (out of state city school).

The college she ended up attending she toured twice. First visit was a rainy overcast day in the spring of her jr year. And though she liked the school she decided to tour others as well. She toured the school again in Oct of her senior year and really fell in love. She said, "Mom, it just feels like home! that's why I chose the school"

 

[laurafergie]

I have 3 in college. You mentioned AFROTC - find the schools with the BEST programs for that. Then really look at the departments in the major DS in interested in.

Has DS taken any AP or Dual enrollment classes? Will those credits transfer to the schools he is interested in?

And this has been mentioned before - and I CAN NOT stress this enough - make sure he fits in. Make sure HE CHOOSES, not you.

MY DS23 hated hated hated Virginia Commonwealth Univ. He is very conservative and that school is not. He transferred out after almost flunking out, and is much happier. Now DFD19 goes there and loves it death. My other DD is at UVA and if ever there was a hippy, she is one - but she is blooming at that ultra conservative school - go figure.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have 3 in college. You mentioned AFROTC - find the schools with the BEST programs for that. Then really look at the departments in the major DS in interested in.

Has DS taken any AP or Dual enrollment classes? Will those credits transfer to the schools he is interested in?

And this has been mentioned before - and I CAN NOT stress this enough - make sure he fits in. Make sure HE CHOOSES, not you.

MY DS23 hated hated hated Virginia Commonwealth Univ. He is very conservative and that school is not. He transferred out after almost flunking out, and is much happier. Now DFD19 goes there and loves it death. My other DD is at UVA and if ever there was a hippy, she is one - but she is blooming at that ultra conservative school - go figure.

Amen to that. We choose for dd because of "circumstances" and she hates it.

She wants to be in Austin TX. (We moved her SR YR).

Now we cannot afford out of state and so she applied to our alma mater and did not do much touring. Big mistake.

Good news is we are going to try and figure it all out the right way.

 

[PirateSnowmen]

I agree with the other posters who have said to make sure to tour while school is in session. It allows you to see the other students and your son will probably decide pretty quickly if he fits in or not.

I'm currently a college freshman, and when I was looking at schools in high school I really made sure to research schools online before I went. Make sure you know the schools strengths & weaknesses. I went into college as a meteorology major, and my school has an excellent meteorology program. After the first semester, I realized that it definitely wasn't the right major for me. Now I'm majoring in early childhood education, and thankfully my school has an excellent education program as well. Try to have him keep in mind all of his interests and make sure the school covers all of his interests. You never know if he'll switch majors. If I had come to school majoring in education, decided it wasn't for me, switched to meteorology and found out my school didn't even offer meteorology, I would have been out of luck.

One time I was taking a college visit with my dad and after 5 minutes of walking around campus I absolutely knew it wasn't right for me. One of my best friends currently goes there, and I spent a weekend there with her last semester and it reaffirmed my feelings about the school. Nice school, but just not for me. The school I go to really feels like home to me. I love everything about it. I went to high school with a girl who decided to go to college in Colorado (we're from Texas), and she'd never really visited the campus before she moved into her dorm for the fall. After about a week she decided she didn't like the school at all, and she was pretty much stuck there for the semester. She still goes there, but she's looking to switch schools this coming fall.

Also, make sure they offer any extra curricular activities your son likes. Let's say, for instance, he's an avid rock climber. Make sure they actually have a rock climbing wall or that there's one near by. It would be a real bummer to finally get to school and realize they don't have one of the things you absolutely love to do.

 

[missypie]

There are a whole lot of friendly, helpful folks on collegeconfidential.com.

 

[LisaR]

Can I ask everyone how you go about touring a college? Do you need an appointment? Do you have to be in a certain grade? My DD is just finishing up 10th grade so it is early for us but when we go out of state on a few upcoming vacations, I thought it would be cool to hit a few places. Nothing formal but just to get a feel for size and just to see something different. I certainly don't expect her to make up her mind but if it is right down the street, why not? Or wouldn't that be acceptable at this point?

 

[Christine]

Can I ask everyone how you go about touring a college? Do you need an appointment? Do you have to be in a certain grade? My DD is just finishing up 10th grade so it is early for us but when we go out of state on a few upcoming vacations, I thought it would be cool to hit a few places. Nothing formal but just to get a feel for size and just to see something different. I certainly don't expect her to make up her mind but if it is right down the street, why not? Or wouldn't that be acceptable at this point?

Usually, all college website will have a link for "Future Students". Go to that. You will also usually find another link about visiting. Those will tell you how to sign up, what the organized visit dates are, tour times, etc. You don't have to be a senior. Many juniors go also. I don't think it's EVER to early to start visiting if your child shows that interest.

We didn't do many visits but we did visit the school my DD is currently attending and it was really fun.

 

[bballmom56]

Can I ask everyone how you go about touring a college? Do you need an appointment? Do you have to be in a certain grade? My DD is just finishing up 10th grade so it is early for us but when we go out of state on a few upcoming vacations, I thought it would be cool to hit a few places. Nothing formal but just to get a feel for size and just to see something different. I certainly don't expect her to make up her mind but if it is right down the street, why not? Or wouldn't that be acceptable at this point?

As one who has been through the college search process twice, I don't think it is ever too early if the student has interest in it. And if it is a local college for you, definitely spend some time on campus either to attend a musical or theatrical performance, or an athletic event, or something your son or daughter would be interested in. At least they would get a feel for a campus and maybe be able to determine if they want a small, medium, or large campus.

We started the college search by determining what area our kids wanted to be in. DD did not want to be more than 2 hours away from home. She also knew she did not want a large school (over 7500 undergrads). Then we took her stats (gpa, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores) to see where she would be a likely candidate. From there we took her likely majors and extra curricular interests (she wanted a college with an intercollegiate riding team) and narrowed the possibilities further. We visited about 5-6 schools, she applied to 3, did overnights at the 3 and selected her school which was a perfect fit for her.

 

[christineann]

Visit the college websites, which have the tour schedules. I believe that all the colleges we visited asked that the visitors sign up so they could make sure there were enough guides or that there weren't too many people on a given day. Make sure you visit on a weekday when class is in session; you can't tell much about a school and its students during a holiday break. There were a couple of schools which my kids just said didn't feel right; each got a great feeling about the school he and she eventually attended when we went on the tour.

My daughter was in 8th grade when we toured colleges for my son, and she said that she's glad she went to the visits with us, because it gave her an idea of what the schools were looking for before she started high school. There were a lot of younger siblings on the college tours.

My kids also attended the information sessions by visiting college reps at their high school and picked up brochures and catalogs, which were good sources of information early in the process.

 

[golfgal]

Can I ask everyone how you go about touring a college? Do you need an appointment? Do you have to be in a certain grade? My DD is just finishing up 10th grade so it is early for us but when we go out of state on a few upcoming vacations, I thought it would be cool to hit a few places. Nothing formal but just to get a feel for size and just to see something different. I certainly don't expect her to make up her mind but if it is right down the street, why not? Or wouldn't that be acceptable at this point?

I think the summer before junior year is an excellent time to start. First, you are going there anyway so that is good, second, junior year their grades are the most important for college selection since that is the last grades on the transcript that will be sent to the colleges when they apply, third, it will give her an idea of what is required for her to get into the colleges of her choice so she can work on it for 2 years if need be.

You can check on the various websites and make an appointment online or call the school directly. I wouldn't worry too much about classes being in session at this point, just get a feel for the campus for now and you can always go back to narrow it down later.

I think that kids that wait until senior year to start this process are at a disadvantage. Plus, she can start taking the ACT/SAT earlier in her junior year so she has more chances to get a top score.

 

[golfgal]

Ok, so it's been forever since I have been on here and longer than that since I have posted . DS is now 17 and a HS junior. We are getting ready to do the college visit thing and I have know idea what to be looking at. DS is fairly bright lad that is planning to joining the AFROTC program. He has so far racked up a 28 on the SAT (is that good?) and the SATs are in a week or two. What do I need to look for in a good school? I would really appreciate any pointer my disboard family can give an old sailor loke me.

A 28 will get him into most medium selective schools and below pretty easily. If he backs that up with a good GPA, it will get him into some more selective schools. If he wants to get into some very selective schools he will need to get that over 30 and even over 32. Have him take an ACT prep course or sign up for the ACT online course on the ACT website (it is $20 for a full year's use).

If he wants to go ROTC that gives you more choices because the cost of school is so much less for you. We have a good friend that went to the AFROTC at Notre Dame-between the scholarships he got and his ROTC he didn't pay anything for college AND he got put on inactive reserve when he graduated so he never actually had to serve. He just had to get an annual physical each year. It worked out pretty good for him. He got released from his "duty" about 2 weeks before the first war in Iraq in the '90's so that was a little tense not knowing if he would be recalled and sent over since he was a computer programmer.

 

[clh2]

Interesting comments...I was hoping to take DD up to the University of Minnesota this summer...I really appreciate the comments about going when school is in session.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Interesting comments...I was hoping to take DD up to the University of Minnesota this summer...I really appreciate the comments about going when school is in session.

Absolutely. It is very different. When we were there for over the summer a lot of things were closed, had different hrs, etc. You really did not get a feel for the university.

If you can swing it, it is a good way to size up a college.

 

[golfgal]

Interesting comments...I was hoping to take DD up to the University of Minnesota this summer...I really appreciate the comments about going when school is in session.

In MN, every college has a large campus visit program during MEA (teacher convention weekend) which will be October 21st and 22nd for 2010. That is often a good time to go visit. Just an FYI.

 

[parrothead365]

Thanks everyone I knew I could count on the DIS to Help out. We have two visits already planed for next month. one small and one mid size. I think we will make a road trip to 3 large schools as soon as we can. DS carrys close to 4.0 and does take AP and Honors classes. So far he is concidering U of Central Florida (OOOoo that will kill me) U of Florida, Alburn, Ohio State and Valdosta State in GA. we will see what happens. Again thank you all for all the really good info.

 

[kbeverina]

You should check out Virginia Tech since he's willing to go out of state--ROTC was pretty big when I went there.