<p>As a parent I found it only clicked when my D set foot on campus.</p>
<p>Right now for your S its just numbers on tests, comparing stories/dreams with friends in high school, and its like AGES (defined as anything more than 6 months) before it becomes a reality. Meanwhile, YOU are pushing to make it sink in…Good luck. </p>
<p>So let your son “test drive” a range of schools ASAP and see and “feel” the differences. Pick a large public, an ivy, a small private, maybe even a CC for comparison. Let HIM sit in an underfunded Public school lecture hall with over 500 students, eat lunch where it may feel like high school, notice the furniture trashed in the dorms. Then hit the Ivy and small private and compare the deeper interaction with the profs, the swank woodwork and the sushi bar (YOU’LL be paying for) and determine city vs. burbs, big vs. small, northern winter vs. southern shorts in feb… </p>
<p>For many ‘utes’ its usually about peer group impressions, which few of his friends now have. But once your son sees HE has to decide which new peer group he wants, and then work for it, it may become more real. TRY to minimize your interaction on the visits, let him drink it all in (pun intended).</p>
<p>If he does not know current college students who may let him crash overnight, most schools will do a tour, but then let him walk the campus by himself for awhile. Repeat with 4 or so schools and you may find a new perspective…</p>