My nephew has been accepted so far to three schools he has not visited. He does not have the financial resources to visit any of them. Does anyone have advice on how to choose a college when you can’t visit (other than just perusing the website). At one of the colleges, I can have him talk to a friend’s son who goes there but I don’t have connections at the other two…
If you mention the colleges, maybe people can give brief descriptions of each?
Also try the website Niche? It’s super subjective, so take it with a grain of salt, but it may give him a general idea.
Currently- Boston College, Franklin and Marshall and College of the Holy Cross. Still waiting on 9 more decisions (it’s going to be a long week!).
Some schools will fund visits, call and ask.
To get a sense of the surroundings, he could explore the campuses using Google Earth
Phone the admission office and ask them to put you in contact with any other students who might come from his area.
Those students can speak to not only the academics, social life and surrounding area, but also to traveling in and out of the area.
Great advice! I love this site. So many helpful people!
He can also speak with his gc, who may be able to put him in touch with kids that graduated from his high school that are at those schools. And if he gets in touch with admissions, he may also want to ask if he can get in touch with a professor in an area he is interested in.
@wisteria100 he goes to a rural public high school and the gc (although nice and wrote him a good letter of rec) doesn’t seem to know much about the schools to which my nephew applied. He went over the common app with the senior class after most of the deadlines were passed. Most of the kids from my nephews school go to community college or state schools. But getting in touch with a prof is a good idea.
Agree that some schools will fund a visit. See which ones offer affordable financial aid when he gets his aid packages, then he could ask if they will fund visits. Worst case is that they say no.
Join any on-line accepted student groups, it will give him a good feel for the variety of kids he will be attending school with and what is important to them.
All good suggestions above. Another thing he can do is to try to get his hands on some of the good, descriptive college guide books. Fiske is my favorite and I also like Princeton Review and the Insiders Guide. He may be able to find them in his guidance dept. or a library.
Congrats to your nephew on his success.
@happy1 thank you! I was his college counselor since he couldn’t afford to hire one. I’ve learned a lot through this process. I will order him the Fiske book from Amazon if they have it.
@Emsmom1 I meant that his HS guidance counselor’s office may have the book available. But if you can’t find it for free somewhere or want to keep if for a period of time then order it. Amazon definitely has it. The full name is Fiske Guide to Colleges.
^^And that was a very nice thing for you to do for your nephew.
Honestly, it’s been fun. Stressful, but fun
The local library might also have a copy of Fiske. It doesn’t matter if it is a few years old.
There are a lot of videos of colleges on Youtube and such that are formal and informal tours of schools. I know that you probably looked at College Vibe on this site - the issue is that there are a minimal number of views. Ask his counselor if he is part of any counseling web based groups (e.g. professional FB groups, etc). Maybe some of them can look at those colleges and hook him up with students of theirs that have gone there? The admissions counselor can also refer him to dept secretaries, who are usually very happy to hook them up with work study people in their department. And yes, some colleges fund visits. Part of our process when we look at a new school is to google directions from our house. That gives us a good idea whether a school back east will be a 12 hour trip (e.g. Vassar) or a 5 hour trip (e.g. Boston College). So… a little levity for you. When we visited Boston University, there were three kids who looked like typical students that you would put on a student panel - executives-of-the-future types. There was one kid who stood out - I can’t really explain how, but he definitely didn’t look like a NE boarding school type. The first three kids talked, and they were impressive and wonderful and sounded exactly like the other impressive and wonderful kids at the other impressive and wonderful colleges. The fourth kid started talking. He told a story about how he was from a school that sounds similar to your nephew - depressed area, high school class of 30, an hour from the nearest entertainment (Walmart parking lot). He was one sentence in before he had the audience in his pocket. None of the kids from his school had ever crossed the state border, and most didn’t finish high school. He had never met a non-white kid or a non-Christian. He received a full ride to Boston University, and the whole town pulled together to get him an airplane ticket and cardboard boxes and old suitcases to get him there. He talked about how scared and proud he was to take the flight, take his suitcases and cardboard boxes on the subway and buses all the way to Boston College. He arrived at the orientation table to be told that he had not been admitted. Luckily, he pulled out his paperwork, and they sent him down the road (on the subway, which is a good 10 minute walk from BC) back to BU. BU has random roommate matches, and they put him with… a gay, Jewish, black man from NYC. He told the story about how the BU campus and professors pulled together to create a family for him with such love and visualization that the entire audience was crying and laughing, applauding at the end. Our DD featured Zach in her “Why BU” essay, which I am guessing was very typical.
@shoot4moon what a fantastic story! I love it!!
Read sites like this one and published books like The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges, the Fiske Guide to Colleges, the Ultimate Guide to America’s Best Colleges, The Princeton Review’s the Best 381 Colleges. You start to hear common threads about each school and get a sense of their personalities.
Admissions will also be happy to put admitted students in touch with professors or current students who can help answer their questions.