<p>DS has visited many schools, but most visits were over the summer. He didn't walk away with strong feelings about any place in particular.</p>
<p>So, among the schools he is considering, how do we help him figure out where he will really "fit"? I think the schools he is considering are similar academically, but I'd like him to find the place where he will feel happy and be successful. What are your tips for finding out more about the campus vibe and assessing "fit"?</p>
<p>Schools include Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), U Rochester, Worcester Polytechnic (WPI), and Northeastern. We live in the mid-west. So visiting again might not be possible. </p>
<p>He's a better than average student (3.6 GPA, 2140 SAT, National Merit semi-finalist so far) at a pretty well respected high school. Hardworking, but not a nose to the grindstone 24/7 type. Moderate involvement in ECs, Eagle Scout, and works part time. He does not sit in his room playing video games.</p>
<p>His criteria include "an engineering program" (covered in all cases), "lots of activities", and "able to get a job after college". These schools offer good merit scholarships, as well, which is an important criteria for mom and dad.</p>
<p>He may just be someone who’s OK with things in a general way, and fit might be less of an issue for him. If you were saying he was turned off by everywhere, that would be different. But it sounds like they were “good enough,” and that’s a nice place to be.</p>
<p>One way to deal with running out of time on visiting - and we are in the same boat, interested in the east but living in the midwest - is to find schools near you that are like schools he might be reading about. He’s curious about a small school in a city that is all about engineering? Maybe you can see MSOE in Milwaukee and see how that “feels.” Then he might feel more comfortable applying sight unseen, and save visits for spring when he knows where he’s accepted.</p>
<p>I’ll also venture to ask - does he have to go east? Maybe he was hoping the eastern schools would give him some magical new feeling, and he found out they’re not as different from the Midwest schools he’s familiar with after all. That’s something my kids have learned - and they have committed to the faraway school idea only if it does offer something truly special.</p>
<p>Emmybet might be right…he might be fairly happy at any of those schools. Maybe he’s just not terribly particular and is a positive person?</p>
<p>We had a similar situation with our son. He was fine with anything, but nothing terribly impressed him. His comments after visiting Princeton and Cornell, were that he couldn’t find anything wrong with the schools. But after visiting Carnegie Mellon, completely different reaction…he was actually excited and interested in the school. Seeing the schools on your son’s list and the priorities, that really sounds like a great bet for him. All except the merit aid issue :(</p>
<p>I think going out east is exciting to him in some unexplained way. He says he doesn’t mind the weather issues, for example. He also says he wants to experience new people, more diversity, and not go where everyone else in his HS goes. Interesting point of view, I guess.</p>
<p>I actually think being in the northeast is a great idea because he has interest in computer engineering and the technology industry is much stronger there than in our immediate area. RIT and NEU have co-op programs which I think he’d enjoy and he’d gain from them. But, it will be his decision and making decisions is often hard for him. Would like to see him feel more passion and less indifference.</p>
<p>If he’s indifferent, maybe we should encourage him to stay in-state?</p>
<p>I can’t speak for your son, but my son would have been happy at any of those schools. In the end he chose the one with the strongest program in his prospective major (computer science.) He ended up at Carnegie Mellon and it was a great place for him. He’s a senior. My one quibble with those choices, is that I think Worcester might start to seem too small and the town doesn’t provide a lot to do. (Though at least it has five small colleges.)</p>
<p>I think it’s quite possible that there are kids who don’t have something specific in mind when they think about fit – that they could fit nicely and easily into many places. Which is really a great skill set to have! I have one who cares to some extent about fit, and I have one who is really all about fit, and wouldn’t do well in a place where he doesn’t feel some broader emotional connection.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t sweat it, personally, and wouldn’t even try to find “the one.” I would take the tack we did with ds, who sounds about like your ds in temperment. I told him he is definitely a “bloom where planted” kind of kid so that he felt like he would be successful wherever he landed. :)</p>
<p>^agree. consider such details as city/suburban/rural and small/medium/large and of course, public vs private… But, there’s not too much difference (once you factor the particular caliber of the kids at these schools). </p>
<p>My son got into a slew of terrific schools and he finally decided on the “THE” school based on such details as “not too much emphasis on football or greek” and on the time he spent over night there. But he could have been happy at any of them. It seems that your son might be like that too.</p>
<p>Our Eagle was active in Debate and Knowledge Bowl. He was keen on some of the technical schools but ended up at a more liberal arts style college (ie, hard charging but not all-day-long-slogging-at-problem-sets school). </p>
<p>So, what does the student do for fun? If it’s hiking or fishing or kayaking, then you need a more outdoorsy situation. If it’s debate, then maybe a large campus with an engineering school and a strongly verbal student body might appeal. </p>
<p>You might have a conversation about the engineering. Most engineering programs are pretty nose to the grindstone deals. Is there a chance he might be happier as a math major? Statistician? Chemist? </p>
<p>Maybe he hasn’t been drooling over a school because his inner “nose” hasn’t found the right thing. Our state has a couple of colleges where there are 2/3 programs. For instance, at Whitman College a student can do two years of biology/liberal arts and then transfer for 3 years of engineering (usually bio engineering, I believe).</p>
<p>You’ve listed some very techy schools. Please visit some other “Styles” so that he is aware of the full range of things out there. We know one kid who loves Ripon and a couple others who liked Wooster. Also there is Kenyon in the midwest and Grinnell. Maybe something a bit wackier might appeal.</p>
<p>One thing to remember is that at any school, your child is likely to interact with only a few dozen students at most and have a much smaller circle of friends. So if you are talking about a school of >4000, chances are there will be some of ‘his tribe.’ </p>
<p>Interesting experience we had as we went through this: DS, a math/science kid, loved Caltech and MIT during visits. By the time rejections came through in spring, had decided Caltech was too intense and maybe MIT was too. During accepted student visits, DH thought Carnegie Mellon would be a perfect fit compared to JHU which was the other main option. But DS didn’t really see the difference between the two and chose JHU (in fact, DH was still talking wistfully about CMU as we dropped DS off at JHU, and I had to tell DH to get over it :)). And now I am really happy DS is there as he has lots of non-science kids around him and he seems perfectly happy.</p>
<p>So lessons I take away from this:</p>
<ol>
<li> What feels like a perfect fit in the fall may not be in the spring.</li>
<li> What feels like a perfect fit to the parent may not seem that way to the kid.</li>
<li> Most kids can be happy at a lot of different places.</li>
</ol>
<p>Be glad he’s not picky as that makes potential rejections in the spring that much easier.</p>
<p>BTW, look at Case Western Reserve also. I think they give good merit money for NMS.</p>
<p>On his visit to RPI, amid all the techieness of students and grand piano player practicing in the Union, a meeting with CompSci Prof Krishnamoorthy, a meeting with Minds and Machines Prof Bram Van Heuvien, and a get together with a marching band alum from hs left our son saying, “I can see myself studying here.”</p>
<p>"what do you think was different about CMU that sparked his interest?? "</p>
<p>It was hard to put a finger on it, exactly. I’m sure part of it, was that during the college search, CMU came up so often as tops in computer science and technology, especially in job placement. Something about it, when we got there, he just seemed to feel like he fit in there…it felt like home. It’s a nice sized school, in a decent college town. The college is so steeped in technology and engineering…they’re not too excited about sports, so you’re not going to get alot of football dudes and cheerleader types. This is gamer/techie heaven. And of course, you have tons of the arts kids, who have to be incredibly talented to be there. Very eclectic mix. Very welcoming, friendly people. Funny, though…after just two months he changed his major to economics, which is his true love. Thankfully, they have an amazing business/economics program, too.</p>
<p>For the kids who are interested in computer science and engineering, probably the top of the heap is MIT, Cal Tech and Stanford. CMU is a close second, and the odds of getting accepted there are far better.</p>
<p>It can be as simple as a young person “seeing themself there” as many have said. Frankly I don’t think parents, in general, can figure out the fit thing. Some kids have strong visceral reactions to campuses and other kids don’t seem to go through this. Some kids look for aspirational qualities. For my kids, both had quick decisions about various campuses, in casual conversation it appears it was a combination of the actual campus feel and the kids…did they see, meet, feel like the kids were kids they wanted to spend four years with. I think it would be a tougher call on a huge campus than a small campus but my kids limited their visits to small campuses. It’s definitely not something parents can figure out easily. Both kids had a great visit list and personally I felt all the colleges fit their (academic and physical) requirements and I could see the kids at any of the schools but they definitely had strong feelings.</p>
<p>I completely understand that you could only visit over the summer, but that may be why he didn’t click anywhere. I think fit has everything to do with the other kids they see walking around – if they seem like their kind of people.
The only other piece of advice I would offer is to make sure he applies to one or two closer to home. I know so many kids who wanted east or CA or whatever and then when push came to shove really didn’t want to go quite that far away.</p>
<p>My D is applying to 7 schools (I’m pretty sure she’ll get into all but 1). Each school was selected for different reasons. She has not visited any of these yet – this is her choice…afraid she’ll fall in love with the look of a school and not get it or not get $$ (applying blindly is cheaper than a visit, so I’m good with that!). Obviously I won’t know if our methods will work for a year or so, but since she hates making any kind of decisions, let alone these big life-changing ones, here is what we are doing:</p>
<p>She’s listed about a dozen things that are important factors for her, such as: weather, location, number of students in her major, cost, lacrosse, dorms, etc. Then she ranks each school from 1-7 (with 7 as the best score) for each factor and then adds all the totals for each school. That is showing her which schools have more of the things she is most concerned about regarding “fit”.</p>
<p>Factor school 1 school 2
Weather 7 5
Location 1 7
Total 8 12</p>
<p>Once we see some more info on financial aid/scholarships etc, then she’ll probably pick the 3 or 4 tops and do the classic pro/con list along with impressions from visits.</p>
<p>My D is varied in what schools have “clicked” for her, too. She likes cities in the east, but she has midwestern city schools and a couple of eastern small town schools on her list, too. We started by looking at programs, but also the overall school - she has a specific interest but doesn’t want to be at a school where 90% of the people are doing that.</p>
<p>Interestingly for this thread, she fell in love with CMU, too - she’s one of the artsy kids. I had no idea that during our tour she was increasingly “seeing herself” there; we didn’t even look at her dept closely, although it has a huge, great reputation, and reading up on it has confirmed her good feelings. Getting in will be nearly impossible, but she’s going to try, anyway (audition-based).</p>
<p>From your son’s comments about RPI, it sounds like he does know what he likes. He just isn’t necessarily the type to have a “fall in love” moment. My D1 had more of a practical approach, too, very specific pros and cons of schools. Yet just by chance she did find a school where it “hit her like a rock” that she should go there. This isn’t entirely necessary, of course, but it’s exciting when it happens, so I understand your hoping he’ll get that feeling.</p>
<p>I hope he can do some more visits, either fall or spring. Best wishes!</p>
<p>Most kids can’t tell “fit” from a website. My oldest son once mentioned during the “process”…all the websites look alike. He is correct. All have pics of kids clustered around a prof. All have kids “hanging out” on some grass, all have kids holding a beaker (or other lab equipment) and all have a sports shot, a cafeteria shot etc. and all have ethnic diversity in their photos. Unless their is a snippet of a building or a snippet of the distant landscape all the photos could be interchangeable. We visited quite a few school where huge amounts of the kids were really wild looking with crazy hair, tatoos and facial piercings…never seen one of those pictures in a website.</p>