<p>This started to be talked about on another thread, but it seemed worthy of its own topic. For those parents who have kids in boarding school applying (or soon to be applying) to colleges, what did you think of the list the college placement office drew up? Did you or your child tweak it? How involved have you been in the process of college selection?</p>
<p>Not sure how it works at your child’s school, but my child’s school did not draw up a list. My child submitted a list to her college adviser (one that we jointly discussed but my opinions closely mirrored hers with the exception of 1 or 2 schools). She gave him the list. He saw she had a balanced list, in fact a little too cautious, and told her she could drop a few safeties. He suggested 3 other schools she might want to consider since they were similar to the schools she was looking at - one was his alma mater. 
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<p>Based on our meeting with him, I got the impression all his advisees weren’t so easy. Some students had lists that were skewed too far on the reach side. </p>
<p>As far as my involvement, I accompanied her on her college visits and we usually took separate tours when there was a choice of more than 1 tour guide. I always let her voice her opinions first when we got back to the car. 95% of the time we were on the same page, so it was an easy and enjoyable experience. </p>
<p>Through both the boarding school and college application processes, I have found I learn a lot about what makes my kids tick.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school she also submitted a list to the college counselor. She had a pretty good idea of what she wanted and which schools were good matches, so the counselor only suggested a couple other schools. It was a largish list and she had to narrow it down over time, but again, this process was driven by the student.</p>
<p>The college counselor consults with the students on the list. Parents are given guidance about the process. The list of schools draws upon the student’s input. The student might express an interest, whereupon the counselor adds schools which are known to have good programs for that interest. I regard the visits with children to college campuses as a winnowing process, working down from a good list. </p>
<p>I have not felt any need to supplement the college placement office. When they’re applying to college, it should be driven by the applicant, not the parents. I know you can find all sorts of articles in the newspaper about parents hiring private college admissions counselors, but we have not. I have no way of knowing how many parents go to such lengths. If a school has good college counseling, I don’t think it is necessary.</p>
<p>We added only one - after the school asked if anything was missing we wanted to see on the list. It had all the program requirements she wanted, and she’d already met academic scholarship requirements. Over break we sat down and she agreed to the addition as a back-up to her first choices. The school counselor also added one of her own we hadn’t considered but were very pleased with.</p>
<p>But mostly - I like that we get constant communication from her school about the process, we’ve been given passwords to Naviance and Common App so we could monitor in real time. I like the transparency. It actually gives me the confidence to not want to meddle. They seem to have their game plan well developed.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to this Naviance system I’ve heard about. In time, in time…</p>
<p>Yes, I too am quite curious about Naviance! And DS too young, so will have to wait. His boarding school mostly concentrates on the juniors and seniors, so he has not yet been part of the college process. </p>
<p>It’s great to hear that parents so far have been pleased with the boarding schools’ approach, and that there is quite a lot of input by the student, and in some cases, it is the student more than the school that compiles the list of colleges.</p>
<p>I was coming at this from the only data point I had, and that was at the jr boarding school level. There, the kids are naturally a lot younger, and so the placement officer is more proactive. Then, too, parents are often relatively local, and prefer their kids to remain so. That tended to cut down the list of choices substantially. In addition, the universe of secondary boarding schools is much smaller than the number of colleges out there, so the process was relatively simple in comparison.</p>
<p>I am hopeful that when it is DS’ turn, he too will have developed his own knowledge and preferences to the point where he could draw up a good list. That said, I find it rather daunting, and I am an adult. So many names of colleges I barely know the first thing about!! At this point, DS is a BRWK with no obvious, nicely defined career path, so I don’t have the least idea what sort of programs or majors he’d be interested in. Where on earth to start?</p>
<p>In the jr BS world, the SSAT gave a good starting point. Are the SAT scores generally used the same way as a starting point on defining the possible universe of colleges?</p>
<p>Back in the day, I chose a couple of obvious choices from my home state, got accepted, and was done. How do busy boarding school kids find out enough about a wide range of colleges to come up with a reliable list?</p>
<p>There are so many colleges out there that I think it makes it easier to find good schools but requires legwork to filter through the options. Liberal Arts schools are a good place to look for a student who is unsure of their major or interests - as many 17/18 year olds understandably are. </p>
<p>To narrow down choices, it’s good to visit a few colleges - small, medium, large; urban vs rural. Are there geographical preferences? Is greek life something that appeals to your child or is it a turn off? Look outside the typical NE boarding school options. Forget your preconceived notions of certain colleges that for many of us are 20-30 years dated. A lot has changed and a lot of college reputations have changed. My child and I found the Fiske Guide to be a good overview. </p>
<p>Naviance is a very interesting tool but it does have its limitations. You can see acceptances, rejections and waitlists on a grid measuring test scores and GPA. However, you have no idea if those dots represent kids with excellent ECs, wonderful athletes, legacies or some other hook, so outliers should be discarded. What I did find interesting is that some colleges really liked grads from my kid’s BS. Other colleges, no special pull. Also, some colleges (Georgetown comes to mind) seemed very stat driven - acceptances hovered in the upper right hand corner of high GPA and high SAT/ACT scores, with very few exceptions. Other schools, including some with lower acceptance rates, seemed to take a more holistic approach. </p>
<p>Another good source of info is the Common Data Set filed by each college every year. Google CDS and the college name to find them. Gives a lot of useful info on how important each component of an application is weighted, along with a lot of other interesting tidbits of data. SevenDad, I think you’d really enjoy those. :)</p>
<p>Here’s a Georgetown one as an example.
<a href=“https://gushare.georgetown.edu/PlanningAndInstitutionalResearch/Public%20-%20Website/CDS_2011-2012.pdf?uniq=-wv5gve[/url]”>https://gushare.georgetown.edu/PlanningAndInstitutionalResearch/Public%20-%20Website/CDS_2011-2012.pdf?uniq=-wv5gve</a></p>
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<p>There’s the web, visits by college representatives (for example, about 100 colleges visit at Concord Academy each year), and guidebooks. Plus, each year they hear about which colleges the seniors will be attending.</p>
<p>photodad - That’s where the parent’s input can help. Encourage your child to look beyond the most popular 10-20 colleges that so many BS kids look at. In my opinion, there is no substitution for visiting, preferably when college is in session, which makes summer visits much less useful. This means using the long weekends, March break, and the last week or two of summer when many colleges are in session but BS hasn’t started yet. It does require a lot of planning, time and some $. I would also suggest your child reach out to grads from their BS that are a year or two into colleges that they are interested in. Most will give honest feedback.</p>
<p>In the interim - especially since there are so many families on FA for which the cost of travel/visiting is just not possible - I suggest scouring Youtube. There are a lot of “non-propaganda” films these days where you can get some flavor of a school if you can’t visit.</p>
<p>I agree that visiting is extremely important. It was relatively easy for us to visit a lot of schools because my daughter only looked at schools within a 6 hour drive from home, but it still took a huge chunks of time over vacations and breaks. There were a couple of schools that seemed almost perfect on paper but which none of us liked at all in person (we even visited one of them twice just to be sure). Likewise there was another school that didn’t seem a great fit but which she loved upon visiting and became one of her top choices. If you can’t visit during the search, it’s important to attend a revisit day. Many schools will pay for or subsidize travel for a revisit for students on FA or a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>And then there’s the kid who knows (and has known) EXACTLY what he wants to do and EXACTLY which (few) schools are the nuggets for that program. He’s only a sophomore, but he’s already dragging us to one of those schools over winter break and planning EXACTLY how to apply. Kid’s list is pre-determined. See mom’s ambivalence? See what fun we’re already having?</p>
<p>(Oh, and it’s highly unlikely that he will get into his top choices.)</p>
<p>@ChoatieMom: Though I planted the idea of Deep Springs into my older daughter’s brain (it’s like Thacher, but college!), now she’s quite intrigued…much to my wife’s chagrin. The only downside I can see (besides distance from home and the transition – if it does come – to being co-ed) is that it’s only a 2 year college, and students would have to repeat the search, apply, transfer process midway through college. But I have a year or so to go before we start to think about in earnest. Considering taking the kids to my wife’s and my respective alma maters to give them a feel for different types of schools (urban university vs. small LAC).</p>
<p>@SevenDad: If you have reasonable children, you have reasonable approaches and choices. I envy you.</p>
<p>We’ve given up on our alma mater although DS first words were “Go Blue!” (sounded more like “go boo”). I think telling him from the time he could walk that he could go anywhere he wants as long as it isn’t Ohio State has backfired. OSU is looking better and better given what he wants to do/where he wants to go (and I can’t believe I just typed that). Kids.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for the great ideas! Creative, thanks for suggesting CDS. Can you just imagine if boarding schools offered the same information?</p>
<p>Choatie, hang in there. It may all work out in ways that are hard to imagine at this point. I try not to ‘pre-worry’…still not very good at it, but I try.</p>
<p>@Choatiemom, </p>
<p>Hang in there - it’s not as tough as it seems. Been talking to a mother on the college boards with a freshman doing the same degree as our children want. And LOVES it. Gave me the name of another mom in the same boat and whose kid is happy. So fingers crossed for us in March and then I’ll give you pointers when it’s your turn. Unusual paths are often satisfying ones. I know I should be chasing IVY’s but I want my kid healthy, happy and fulfilled which means going where the best programs are. I’ll send you a PM.</p>
<p>It will work out. I have a BS Sr. aiming for film school. I have to admit it was very difficult for me to totally agree with the list of colleges GC and student came up with. I felt that most of the schools were reach schools. I’m happy to report that their game plan is working out, DD just got an EA letter from one of the schools.</p>
<p>ˆˆˆˆ@muf123: Where’s the “LIKE” button? Congrats to your DD…having one acceptance in hand already will surely make the holidays more cheery for all!</p>
<p>Did not apply to any on the list provided by the counseling office. Already had a list (a requirement) and did not deviate from that list.
BS college counseling may be a surprise to some.</p>