<p>At a cost of over $40,000 per year , I felt it was in my best interest to know what exactly I was letting D get into. While she picked the schools that she was interested in, I did a lot of researh regarding graduation rates, professional school placement rate (since she was interested in pre-med) being an AA diversity was very important no only from a numbers perspective but also as part of the culture of the school. I did want to know if the schools did a good job of embracing studnets of color. </p>
<p>There were specific things that she was looking for in the college process: she wanted a small shool with a focus on undergraduate education with none to very few classes taught by TA's, and extensive study abroad program and school with strong alumni ties and a place that students are there because they want to be there not because of the name. For years she had thoughts of HYP and Columbia in her head but after spending time on each of the campuses, she was not feeling them so they got eliminated.</p>
<p>I did read the common data sheets for every school she applied to so I knew how she stacked up against the pool of admitted candidates. It was important to knwo the average amount of debt students graduated with and to look past the numbers because almost every student who applies to a selective school has the numbers to get in as SAT scores, and GPA only gets you over the first rung of the hurdle. What I have found that people put too much stock in the numbers and don't think about the fact that the schools are building classes based on the institutional mission which changes from year to year. Fit was very important that if accepted would she be happy and she applied to schools fromt he mindset that if it were the only school she was admitted to that she would be happy to attend. In the end daughter applied to 7 schools and was accepted at all 7 (Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Bryn Mawr, Barnard. Tufts and Mount Holyoke) Finishing forst year at Darmouth and is very happy.</p>