Okay, so D ended up applying to a lot of schools because we didn’t get to visit many campuses to narrow things down. Plus she wasn’t sure how to answer some of the basic question like big vs small school partly because she doesn’t know what attending a large university would be like. She did not apply any colleges in rural areas.
Our intent was to see where she got in and then start visiting working under the assumption that by spring 2022 things would have loosened up. And, they still might loosen up but many universities were remote for the first few weeks of the spring semester.
Another complicating factor is that she has received many more acceptances than anticipated in the EA round (7 of which she’s visited 1). It is possible that she could receive no additional acceptances in the RD round, but she could receive a few more.
Any suggesting for narrowing the field? Do we just pick two to visit in the short term and wait for RD round and plan spring break visits? She doesn’t get much time off school for college visits and still has many school and extracurricular obligations. We are in Texas so may visits would require plane tickets and travel days.
What does she want to major in, what is she looking for in a school, where is she already in, where is she waiting on, are there any financial constraints?
A lot of schools have virtual tours online, and perhaps she can contact actual students at the schools in her desired fields to ask them questions?
She can use practically anything to narrow her list once you have acceptances and finances in line. It’s ok if it’s not an academic reason. Maybe she doesn’t like the name/mascot/building arrangement, etc. It’s all ok. She can only choose one. Just make sure the academics at the school she chooses are what she’s looking for.
Once she has a Top X list, try to actually visit those.
I have a friend in the same boat. Her son has been accepted to 12 schools, except his top choice. They’ve narrowed it down to 5, all in the same state, to visit during spring break.
I’d start developing a criteria for culling the list, maybe starting by cost, location, strength of major, career outcomes etc…
Start having your child follow social media accounts of the schools, reading the school newspaper on line, and reaching out to see if she can speak to a student at the school. Many schools also do webinars for admitted students. Those interactions can start helping to narrow things down too.
She’s applied to schools with Art & Technology/Film programs although she has applied to schools without a broad array of majors (no art only schools) in case she changes her focus.
In terms of finances, the colleges and universities seem to be coming up with similar costs for attendance in a range we are prepared to pay. The outlier acceptance is U of Texas Austin where full pay is less than the cost at any of the other current options. At this time, this is probably her most prestigious acceptance (she wasn’t an auto admit) with the lowest cost of attendance. The major downside for UT for my daughter is that she’s lived in Austin her whole life.
The regular decision applications are mostly schools that don’t have an EA option. Of the 7 pending RD applications, 4 are reaches and 3 are matches.
We are in the same boat. After the EA round D was accepted into every school so far. The schools are all over the eastern US and she hasn’t seen a bunch of them. Money and major are the deciding factors for us. We will only consider visiting if the money is getting close to our comfort zone and she is excited about the class offerings in her prospective major. That made some schools fall off the list (unfortunately those are the ones we did get to visit before).
I just booked travel for a scholarship interview in two weeks. They did offer a virtual option but D doesn’t know this part of the country at all and another school she applied to RD is close and since I had airline miles and hotel points, we will go in person. Apart from this trip we will wait and see what RD brings and then decide on the top contenders to visit.
Last year my daughter and I visited 11 schools in 4 days. We made it a trip and added some fun.
Turns out this was better for us than the normal info sessions and tour which she was tired of.
Yes it wasn’t as in depth but we walked the campus, stopped kids, talked. Walked the adjacent area etc. she learned a lot. We got lucky at W&L where we bumped into a professor. A few schools - Wake Forest, High Point and Richmond were gated off but allowed us to drive through. She like none of the three
You do what you need to do is what I’d say.
Get out. See. Maybe the feel (size, aesthetics, etc) will give the ‘this is it’ feel.
But there is so much online from tours to info to info on clubs and more.
If you list the schools, some may be able to provide additional context.
I truly believe there are many schools one can be happy at. So whatever she chooses will likely work. And that may be the same for many schools on the list.
