<p>how do you narrow down your college choices? looking for an urban setting, not too expensive, wants to be a physical therapist (my son), we think. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Start by limiting your list to schools within a region you like, are in an urban setting and offer a PT Program. Should be a reasonbly short list.</p>
<p>Since there’s no undergraduate PT degree, his options for college are really wide open. He’d be expected to have taken some courses to prepare him for grad work, and likely to have some experience in the field (volunteer, co-op, etc.). This site might be helpful to you.</p>
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<p>If you’re looking for cheap, then you may want to consider in-state schools. Also, it would help to have some stats.</p>
<p>For something like physical therapy coupled with not too expensive, you’re looking at your state schools.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. First of all, you don’t need to major in physical therapy or anything like it in undergrad to become a physical therapist. You can major in pretty much anything, just like medicine, as long as you take the pre-requisites.</p>
<p>Second of all, depending on the family’s financial situation and this student’s grades and other qualifications, private schools also may not be “too expensive.” They didn’t outline what “not too expensive” means. That means something totally different to my family (who thought $3,000 a year for a state college was about their limit) than to some of the wealthier families on here (who are happy if they are paying $15,000 out of pocket for their children’s educations per year).</p>
<p>In order to narrow, you need a big list to begin with. So</p>
<p>-Find schools that have the qualifications your son wants. Don’t worry TOO much about cost during the initial step - just have your son search online for classes that are in urban areas (that’s really the only qualification you have that matters at this point).</p>
<p>-Ask your son what other criteria he has for his schools. Will he thrive at a humongous public university or would he prefer to be at a smaller regional college or liberal arts college? Does he like cold weather, or would he prefer a temperate region? Does he want religious schools? What kind of student body would be like? Are there any specific activities he wants at a school that all schools may not have, like equestrian or Model UN or something? Is he interested in studying abroad?</p>
<p>-Start paring schools off that really big list he made in step 1 based on the new criteria in step 2.</p>
<p>-In the midst of all this, you can use a financial aid calculator ([FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org)) to estimate how much your EFC might be (I emphasize the words “estimate” and “might”) to get a rough estimate of how much you would be expected to pay per year at some of these schools. But I still wouldn’t rule out schools that your son completely loves, either, because he could get a substantial scholarship to some of them, or garner enough outside awards to cover a significant portion of your contribution.</p>