Daughters Search Already Driving Me Crazy

<p>My daughter is a junior and we have been looking at colleges for a couple of months. The first college tour was at Providence College - she thought it was too big. We went to Holy Cross - she said it was perfect! Now all of a sudden she only wants to go to school in New York City!! She has never been to NYC but she is a dancer and all her friends are talking about going to college in NYC. She won't even consider any other school unless it's in the city. We are planning a trip to NYU and Fordham over April vacation just so she can experience a city school, but honestly, I feel like this is just a waste of money. Is this swing to the complete opposite of the spectrum normal during the college search? My fear is that she will only apply to these colleges and then when the time comes, panic sets in and she has no choices.</p>

<p>From what I've read so far, this is pretty normal. You just need to keep your own head screwed on straight so that you can do your best to see that she comes up with a balanced set of colleges to apply to, and so that she has a solid back-up plan in case the whole process collapses.</p>

<p>Best wishes.</p>

<p>Fordham's Rose Hill Campus is quite green, so she could swing a hundred and eighty degrees and still be okay there.</p>

<p>My D insisted she would only go to school in NYC. We did apply to other places, but when the smoke cleared, she had been accepted to several schools in Manhattan and chose the one that fit her best.</p>

<p>She was also a dancer (no longer does dance) but her love of NYC keeps growing. She is in London this semester, but will come back for her senior year. She swears she's never leaving NY again.</p>

<p>Good luck! The years just pass.</p>

<p>My S is just the opposite. He did not apply to any schools in NYC; UChicago was his only urban school and he chose a LAC in the smallest town imaginable and is as happy as his sister.</p>

<p>Maybe you should insist on an affordable, attainable, practical match/safety school, and then let her apply to a few of her NY City choices. Since she did like Holy Cross on the visit, it makes sense to apply there, also. I'm partial to New York myself and think that spending college years there makes a lot of sense.</p>

<p>My D's choices ran the gamut from "only schools with warm weather and beaches", to "only schools where she could play golf" to "only middle-sized schools".</p>

<p>Where she ended up was none of the above. Just roll with it...your D will figure it out.</p>