<p>my son is a Jr in HS. He has no clue or interest in picking a school. i feel like i am doing all the work and I have no idea what he wants. What should I do? He is only a Jr. but I don''t want to wait until the last minute.</p>
<p>We were in a similar situation a year and a half ago. My best advice is to find a college that might be a good fit for him (doesn’t have to be a perfect fit) somewhere nearby, and arrange a visit. I know for our son, doing a campus tour made a big difference in his engagement in the search process. Up until then it was all kind of abstract and easy to put aside.</p>
<p>Spring break of Jr year is a good time to explore colleges. By now you (and he) know his academic gpa and some strengths and interests. You can come up with a tour of several campuses that may be affordable and acceptable. You can use weekends to visit area college towns, especially those instate that may be most affordable. High schools often have college reps visiting them- encourage your son to sign up for their HS visits- these may mostly be in the fall. Perhaps visiting an older friend at their college for the weekend would get him enthusiastic about college life (at this point you don’t care if it is the nonacademic aspects that he relates to, anything that gets him interested in college).</p>
<p>Typical maturity level for an 11th grade boy; you are not alone!
Is there a college nearby that he does NOT want to attend? Have him visit there with a friend, without you, on a day when he does not have school. He should take the official tour and go to the official info session. That way, he can “practice” visiting a college, and he will see what questions people ask, what people look at, etc.
Also, has he taken the SAT or ACT? Usually, just taking one of these tests and receiving the results gets them to start thinking about college.</p>
<p>Tell your son he is going to [the college he hates the most] unless he can articulate a list of colleges that are better for him. Tell him to complete this task by the end of spring break. Key to success: put on a serious look when you tell him this.</p>
<p>We had same problem as a Jr. Had visited several schools during various travels with absolutely no interest. He then went and visited one school that just immediately clicked with him. Came home and agreed to study for the SATs so that he would have a chance at acceptance.</p>
<p>The bloom is off that school at this point, but at least it got him rolling.</p>
<p>My current senior son had zero interest in the whole college process until the fall of senior year (when all his classmates finally started talking about where they were applying). Fortunately, I had DRAGGED him to a couple of safeties over the summer and FORCED him to apply. I couldn’t even get him to look at the brochures that came in the mail.</p>
<p>For my current Junior…I have asked him to give me a list of 5 schools he was interested in after the AP tests are done, and before school gets out so we can plan some summer visits.</p>
<p>Only a junior! According to the CC timeline, he’s late. Hope he’s taken his SATs at least.</p>
<p>This is hard-earned advice from the mother of sons – 21, 25.</p>
<p>Take him around to colleges, and make sure that he takes the SAT and any other testing that’s required. Make sure that he also knows how much work is required for college apps: getting recommendations, writing essays, having a transcript sent – all things that can’t be done the day applications are due. Also make sure he knows the deadlines for college apps, and what your financial and any other parameters are.</p>
<p>If when he’s a senior, you find that you-- not he-- are doing all of the work finding a college for him, that would be a good sign that he’s not ready for college even if he’s very smart and says he wants to go. Older S – smart guy, high stats – said he wanted to go to college, so I did all of the work finding colleges that met his desires, and I stood over him to make sure that he got the apps in on time.</p>
<p>Result: S happily went to a college that he loved – for the wrong reasons. He had a great time watching his favorite sports teams and being involved in an EC that he loved, but he flunked out because he didn’t go to class or show up for tests.</p>
<p>Lesson learned. With younger S, I left in his hands where he would apply. He missed the deadlines of all colleges he said he was interested in. A few weeks after missing the deadline, he had arranged an Americorps volunteer position for himself (S loved to volunteer, and literally had a position created for him in our town).</p>
<p>Despite being National Merit commended, he almost didn’t graduate from high school because of severe senioritis. As a result, H and I told him that we wouldn’t help pay for his college until he had gone for a year on his own dime – with acceptable grades.We also wouldn’t pay for his college apps.</p>
<p>S lived at home, paying rent, during his gap year, and applied to 2 colleges of his selection. He was totally responsible for picking them and for getting himself to a merit scholarship interview at one. He got into both colleges – including getting merit aid from his favorite (merit aid probably was due to his scores and gap year activities), and went happily there – with very high loans. He is now a junior, and has been on Dean’s list throughout his time in college even though he’s very active in ECs and also has a 10-14 hour job.</p>
<p>Do not worry.
If you are willing to consider private schools, on spring break take him to a nearby small school and a nearby large school for tours and info sessions (not interviews until he is ready). If city vs. suburb vs. rural is also possible, you will want to have sampled one of each of those, too, so those 2 visits may become 3.</p>
<p>Once he is awoken from his slumber by those visits, you can focus on in state or out of state.</p>
<p>Once you have GPA and SAT scores, and get some idea of size and location, you should post for advice. You should then also make a point of not looking at CC posts regarding higher scoring kids, as you will just get distracted or annoyed.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>*My best advice is to find a college that might be a good fit for him (doesn’t have to be a perfect fit) somewhere nearby, and arrange a visit. I know for our son, doing a campus tour made a big difference in his engagement in the search process. Up until then it was all kind of abstract and easy to put aside. *</p>
<p>Best advice EVER…</p>
<p>This totally worked for my son when he was a junior. I think my son thought college was going to be just like 4 more years of high school.</p>
<p>But, once he visited a very nice campus with awesome facilities and fun off-campus hangouts, his eyes were OPENED. And, off we went on many, many other campus visits with his full interest and cooperation.</p>
<p>BTW…the first visit doesn’t have to be a school that is a “fit,” but it should be visually pleasing with nice facilities. The point is to spark interest.</p>
<p>I also agree with post #2. Also, he may see that it is time to start thinking about college seriously if there other juniors on your tour or in an information session that you attend. </p>
<p>My children thought that it was unusual to look this early (junior year) because their friends were not looking. That is because most of them were really interested in only applying to our local flagship. Some applied to some schools without having seen them and then toured after acceptance. One friend’s parents just hired a college counselor in the 11th hour to sit with their child and go through the process (parents were minimally involved). Even though I took my children to see lots of schools early on, their opinions about when to think about college were based upon what their friends were doing. Most of them did not speak to each other about the process much and it was not because they were “competitive” and hiding where they were applying. This subject is just not something that their circle of friends seem to discuss. My younger son has no idea as to where anyone other than his 3 closest friends were accepted. This information is posted and constantly updated by the high school, and he would not take the time to look. It is just not important to him.</p>
<p>The best thing we did with our three sons was to have each of them go off to a pre-college class in the summer before junior year. It piqued their interest in school and all its possibilities, and gave them confidence that they could manage college work and college living. All three wound up applying and being accepted (though not necessarily attending) at the schools with the pre-college programs, so it was also a great introduction to the respective institutions. There are dozens of these programs;they last from two to eight weeks and have all kinds of interesting courses. Some give full college credit; some don’t, some give a minimal amount. There is a lot to choose from. If your son seems at all interested, do some selective looking on your own in February and have him look at the schools during spring break.</p>