<p>Poetgrl - I have a lovely young lady as a student in my Honors course. We had a lengthy discussion in class the other day about types of intelligence, passion, and how the two combine to create true leadership. After the class the young lady came up to me and said that her true passion was really culinary school, but her parents wouldn’t let her go. Such a shame. Hopefully, she’ll get a business degree or something and go to culinary school after her BA. I told her how unfortunate I thought it would be if she spent the next 30-40 year of her life in a job she didn’t love.</p>
<p>I wish all students could have the type of supportive parenting you (and everyone else here) are demonstrating.</p>
<p>Yes, well, thank you all. I would prefer if she went to school first and then culinary. I see no reason to rush, and will happily support her through both.</p>
<p>Charlie Trotter is closing his restuarant and going back to school to get his Masters in Philosophy, though, so I suppose it is better to be a lifelong learner as a chef than to be miserable in college when you are younger.</p>
<p>Regardless, I didn’t mean to hijack. I think all the points on this thread are very good, and very useful to anyone with a rising senior.</p>
<p>I see four problems with waiting until receiving acceptances to visit colleges:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Students could waste valuable time applying to colleges that they would have found out they’d never attend had they visited beforehand;</p></li>
<li><p>Waiting until acceptances are sent (often, April 1) to visit compresses the decision-making process into a one-month period, as many colleges have a May 1 response deadline;</p></li>
<li><p>Waiting doesn’t protect students from making decisions based on superficial factors–it just delays it (and some factors are valid; for example, the weather is a valid concern for my tennis-playing son, as most DIII colleges don’t have indoor courts) and</p></li>
<li><p>Some colleges consider visiting as the best way to show interest, and look at demonstrated interest as a factor in admissions; delaying visiting until after acceptance could mean that that acceptance will never come.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Start early start early start early. Our DD thought I was NUTS when I insisted we start between soph and jr year, but only until the first senior on a tour said “GEEZ - I wish i had started when you did.” So much less pressure , especially if the student is verbalizing (like ours) that “I don’t want to stay near home - I want a completely different environment.”<br>
The other side benefit is that if they like a school, they may ratchet up their effort level for the grueling Junior year. Worked wonders for ours! If you are wondering how to find the time, we removed all but the most essential chores from her list, and instead required an hour or two a weekend on Sunday with the doors closed and me as the “secretary” - her as the “boss.” Worked like a charm - mostly. :)</p>
<p>I agree-it’s hard to be objective about your own kids but you do need to step back look at the from the outside–what do other’s see about your child-both good and bad. Then, be realistic. The Ivy’s have a 6% acceptance rate. NO ONE is a shoe-in, don’t take it personally.</p>
<p>I especially agree with visiting schools before you apply. It can really help you narrow down choices and you don’t end up trying to decide between 2 schools you don’t really like in the end but you had no other options. There are a LOT of threads on these boards about kids in that situation, didn’t visit before applying, narrowed down their choices after acceptance to 2 or 3 schools and didn’t really like any of them. So far in our search, the school that looked like the best fit on the internet turned out to be the school that after 5 minutes on campus we knew wasn’t right.</p>
<p>I agree on the visit early part, too. We had 2 schools at the top of our list based on how they looked on paper and on the internet - both of which S crossed off once we visited. Another one, which he almost refused to tour, became his absolute number 1 once we visited.</p>
<p>If you visit only after acceptances, it’s too late to drop some and substitute others. Although, it is certainly understandable that the expense may preclude visiting all schools on the list. </p>
<p>We also crossed out a few based on consistent themes of descriptions we read here on CC. Some schools we just knew wouldn’t be a good fit (too urban, too rural, to kick-a$$, etc.) based upon the ways students here described them.</p>
<p>My S was a lot like Mathmom’s S - really smart but hated the whole application thing process and dragged his feet ALOT! It was torture (for me)! Wish I had good advice to others going through that, but all I can offer is to hope you have a good college counselor (we did, thankfully) and find a way to calm your stress because you will have a lot! My type A worry-about-everything attitude and his calm laid-back I’ll-do-it-tomorrow and I’m-not-jumping-through-their-hoops personality was a real struggle.</p>
<p>I too am in the visit visit visit camp - I forced D to visit her safety and she surprisingly fell in love with it and it became her #1 school. It made the process less stressful knowing she loved her safety.</p>
<p>I agree with OP’s advice. Brilliantly said. I don’t think you can start early enough. I started educating myself when DS started Grade 9. He hopped on when Grade 10 was done. i narrowed the universe to 30-something schools. Together we narrowed it to 9. We visited them all (key element) from FL to MA to CA to TX. He applied to 8, got in 7. Picked 1st choice!!</p>