<p>I know there are a lot of fact hungry people on this forum like myself that have hs seniors deciding between a few colleges. Anyone want to share a form they created to compare the schools? I've started one that lists the colleges across the top and then the things they would be rated on (academic rigor, location to home, dorms, food, cost, etc.) down the side and then a seperate column for weighting all the factors. Any not-so-obvious factors that might be important?</p>
<p>I thought we were down to three colleges but son insists that he hasn't really eliminated any of his 7 acceptances. I've announced Wednesday as decision day!</p>
<p>Been there- Done That. Made a nice little comparison chart for d based on her "final 4". As she may decide on a specific area of study (sports related), vs. more "liberal arts" course of study/ sociology, psychology etc we had to add a column specifically showing what school had the sports majors vs liberal arts majors. Though she looked at my nice little chart, she kind of glared at me, and said she'll just KNOW which is the right school and she doesn't need my chart. I also added along, copies of the different majors at the schools and that got a snarl. She eliminated 2 of the four. So we are down to SUNY Albany (liberal arts/criminal justice) or SUNY Cortland (sports & all the liberal arts too). As my d's 18th birthday is on Wednesday, I also gave her the Wednesday deadline so I laughed when I read your post. She did give me permission to send out the declination letters to all her other schools- so those letters went out this AM. I have a feeling my d (and maybe your son too) is just going to come to the decision without being able to articulate how it was decided (maybe it will come in a dream) but it will be the Right choice. and PS- Though I am listed as my d is going to U of Tampa, I think someone inadvertently did a cut and paste which wasn't meant to be. Tampa did make her Final four, but it fell by the wayside with SUNY Oneonta. I'll update the decision as soon as I know what it is.</p>
<p>Funny I should find this message as DH and I were just discussing this very topic earlier today. DD applied to two schools only, but it appears she's attempting to take the decision-making time up to the last day. I believe that DH and I will go over a list of comparisons with her this evening and tell her she has until Friday to make a decision. Good luck to both of your seniors on their decisions. I hope they'll all be very happy wherever they land.</p>
<p>Careful, Kathie. A really tenacious student can spin the process out until May 30, with 2-5 envelopes in hand, exchanging a long hard look with the mail pick-up truck at the post office as the driver starts up the engine.</p>
<p>I also started a list to help my daughter with her transfer choices. I have heard a few times, "Why did you let me come here?", so I feel entitled to help in the decision making this go round!!</p>
<p>She is having a hard time deciding between her dream school, which she is 90% sure she will attend and one other school that she will not get a decision from until maybe mid May. The other schools she applied to got axed after being accepted to her "Dream" school.</p>
<p>So if this school is her dream school, what is the problem? I haven't been able to get an answer from her and I'm not sure she really knows. She said she was going to do the pros and cons list, but wants to wait until she knows she has been accepted to the other school. In the meantime, she has paid her deposit to the dream school, applied for housing and a parking permit because she has to let this school know before she might hear from the other school. It sure does sound like she will attend dream school, but I am afraid to push her to really make that decision. Something is holding her back and I can't put my finger on it. Most likely the same thing that cause her to applied ED II to her current school without knowing if she would be admitted to dream school! Dream school must have some negative there that she isn't telling me, so I am trying to come up with a list of catagories so that she can list the pros and cons of each.</p>
<p>I can't believe I get to deal with this again this year!!</p>
<p>Kathiep, my daughter created a form that she used to rate her 3 choices and eventually make her decision. It was very well thought out and hit upon what were pretty important considerations. I'm at work and the form is at home, so I'll snag it and see if you still need it tomorrow.</p>
<p>So, I gave the started chart to my son with just the names of four of the colleges across the top and a couple of the features listed on the side going down. Explained how it would work and was willing to play secretary and advisor when son whisked the paper from my hand and said, "okay, got it. I'll go do it". </p>
<p>pokey, I sort of felt that way about one of my son's colleges. I'm not sure he can even put his finger on why this one college is not what he thought he wanted. He's usually pretty black and white minded and doesn't place a lot of trust in intuition so I thought a chart might help him sort things out. </p>
<p>Marny, I have print-outs from 2 websites (princeton review, collegecruising.com) for each college, a price comparison chart, the college guidebooks and any other misc. stuff I also did a comparison of the top three schools calendars so he could see the differences there. I have everything neatly filed in a box and if I were him, I would be poring through that information to see if I missed anything and would eagerly filling out the form. For us, him just taking a form without the usual arguments is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Pokey, I so identify with your exasperation at being in the middle of it again. The good thing, I think, is that once a student transfers, they have a huge investment in making it work this time. This may be why she's hesitating to commit. But once she does decide, it was our experience and many others I have talked to that the change works out great, and you'll be glad to have gone through it again.</p>
<p>So I just spoke to d#1 who recently spoke to d#2. It seems d#2 is leaning towards Cortland- and why?? Not because it has a good sports management program, or it will give her more flexibility in the event she wants to change majors--But the reason is that she will be closer to friends who are going to school in Binghamton-Syracuse-her sister in Ithaca. For the "driven Student", the main consideration is going to be the academic environment of the school. But for a lot of kids it may come down being close to friends-family- and alot of other intangable things.</p>
<p>I created such a form. The five categories were Overall Academics, Overall Location (including local highlights and transportation from home), Swim Team, Cost, and Perceived Social Fit. We graded each of her top schools (4 points for an A, three points for a B, etc.) </p>
<p>Turned out, each of her schools scored a total of 16 points. . .</p>
<p>Extracurriculars
Distribution requirements
Reputation for competitiveness
Athletics
Surrounding area and city (restaurants, stores, culture, sports -- and ease of getting to them; also safety)
Weather
Male/female ratio
Social fit (what you can find out about the social climate, politics, religion, diversity, whatever might make something a good or bad fit)</p>
<p>We never made a chart for either of my two in college now. They visited, did a lot of reading in sites like studentsreview and princetonreview and in "what these colleges are like" books, and then each had a clear preference.</p>
<p>That's funny, californian. It looks like you need to add some other factors or weight them differently ...</p>
<p>Right now, get the course catalogues from each school or use their web sites to start delving. Some of the issues to look at are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Core or distribution requirements at each college</li>
<li>How each college handles AP credit</li>
<li>Course descriptions within areas of interest (i.e., if the the kid wants to study anthropology, check out the course descriptions for each school in that department)</li>
<li> requirements for majors that your kid may be interested in </li>
<li>school policies as to double majors or interdisciplinary majors, if that is something that may interest your kid</li>
<li>school policy as to course enrollment. (example: can freshman enroll in advanced level courses if they have met prerequisites through AP credit?)</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, try to find out whether it is easy for kids to get the courses they want in your kid's area of interest, or whether classes tend to fill up quickly. Do ony of the schools offer priority registration, perhaps as part of an honors program?</p>
<p>Your kid should also go to the section of each college's web sites that describe student life and browse through the lists of clubs or other activities. Does it look like there is a lot available to coincide with the kid's interests? </p>
<p>This is a time when more in-depth research into what academics and student life is really like may start to differentiate the colleges. Try to figure out what the likely first year course load would look like for your kid. </p>
<p>I think the chart idea is very good- but it still involves looking at the same superficial factors that you relied on in creating the college list before applying. When you start delving more in-depth, your kid will be gaining new information that might help to differentiate the colleges in a very meaningful way.</p>
<p>Another category for comparison - check the institutional research department of each college for results of NSSE. That's the National Study of Student Engagement. A side by side comparison of schools can reveal remarkable differences in categories like hours of study time outside of class, participation in extracurricular activities, research opportunities with professors and so forth.</p>
<p>I agree with calmom it is now time to dig deeper- which college gives you more opportunities in something you want to do? What % of independent research? internships? what includes your major? How hard to do double major?
Read those catalogs, which one of them is looking more attractive with their courses, requirements? What are social clubs, activities? Is the meal plan flexible?
How college has been processing your information? are they easy to reach? / you going to deal with them a lot and having good system in place for registering, changing classes, majors is big help...
after serious reseach in numbers... go with your gut feeling...
what if you were told - no, you can not go to this school- how would you feel? what you would miss most?</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. About a month ago we had our son go through each schools catalog and view books and look more in depth at each school. We made up a financial comparison form, I printed out the write up's from Princeton Review and College Cruising and even the nces stats for each school: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/index.asp%5B/url%5D">http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/index.asp</a> with information on academics, student life, endowments, etc. I've had a little trouble seaching the NSSE website and finding the actual reports on each school. What I'm saying is we have done the in-depth sort of research but he's still not sure. Can you say information overload?</p>
<p>I think because he's going in undeclared he's stressed thinking that while one college might be good for the short term, it might not work for the long haul and that bothers him. On the one hand, he likes liberal arts colleges more (small classes, nice dorms, less people) on the other I think he liked the course selections at the state school but is concerned that he wouldn't be able to get into the classes he wants. My daughter goes to a tiny private college and I talked to several of her friends when we were visiting her in February. Most had gone in undeclared or changed their major and only one was planning to transfer. Somehow, students find their passion in these small classes and it all works out.</p>
<p>I've cut and pasted several suggestions and will see if those are features that son would like to add. Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm an advocate of the instinctive final decision. Over-intellectualizing the process only makes things more confusing.</p>
<p>I had my d. narrow her choices to 2-3 based on the academics, opportunities, and resources available at each possibility - the logical side of it. Now we are in the final stages of re-visiting her short list. My husband and I have told her that she will do well at any of these colleges, but now she has to go with her gut. Whatever decision she makes, we will support her. She also knows that there will be no second-guessing. Once she commits, mentally she will be a student at that college, and none of her other acceptances (or rejections) will matter.</p>
<p>If we were to compare these colleges on paper, it would be impossible, in part because they are similar types of schools but also because the factors that differentiate them don't have solid weight.</p>
<p>BTW, if he likes the liberal arts colleges, chances are he won't like the state school. I find that those who thrive at state schools are instantly turned off by the small size of the liberal arts colleges. They are vastly different undergraduate experiences.</p>
<p>D made her decision- with 24 hours to spare. The winner is SUNY Cortland. A school like SUNY Cortland seems to have a perfect balance. It is a mid size state U. In NY, many of our state colleges have enrollment between 5000-8000 kids which is really the perfect size for my d. For my kid, anything less than 5,000 was way too small. Too many people have the mistaken impression when they hear State U that the enrollment is 20,000+ with big lecture classes. There are alot of exceptions and some state U's really can meet the needs of kids who thrive in a smaller environment. In my d's case, she probably did take the school that was a better fit for her. Though most people would think SUNY Albany is the better academic school, Cortland does have all the sports and recreation majors that might be in her future. I think Cortland will give her more opportunity to explore ALL her interests.<br>
Kathiep- I remember your son was focusing on a particular interest (computers??) and is now thinking more in terms of liberal arts. I am sure that there are a few schools that meet both those needs. So I would suggest he would pick a school where he could go in either direction.
I definitely agree with Momwaitingfornew. Sometimes overanalyzing things makes it way too complicated. Let's be honest- how many of us (and now our kids) picked schools based on proximity to home-friends-boyfriends- Greek Life and Dorm Rooms. And most of us did ok. Good luck with the decision. I gotta send in the deposit before she changes her mind.</p>