So D23 is getting her admissions decisions and award amounts. Many more to come. How do we finally help her make a choice?
I did this with S22 with success.
Brainstormed a list of 6-7 criteria: for him it was Cost, Reputation in intended Major, Ease of Trip Home, Campus vibe/culture, availability of alternative majors if intended doesn’t work out. I gave him 100 points to allocate to each. Cost was big so it got 25. Vibe / culture was less important, so it got 5. We worked on the categories and points allocated for quite a while. 5-7 categories really felt right.
Now we evaluated each school based on how well it rated for that criteria. He got a great scholarship to our state school- that one got a 21 (a 25 would have been full scholarship ). An 80k private with no aid for: a 5. When we were done, each school had a “fit score”.
We did this school by school and it confirmed what we already thought was the case- but it quantified it. It was fun to think through and tweak and he learned a bit about trade offs in decision making.
I think no matter how one catalogues and scores it, it is important for the applicant to decide what factors are important to them. We talk all the time about rankings, but each candidate should have a ranking unique to their wants and needs. Great job!
I agree 100% with this sentiment. My S22 did not end up at the most highly “ranked” school by a wide margin- but he did end up in the right place for him.
D23 will have different criteria and different weightings. USNWR ranking is NOT one of the criteria. I suspect she tool will not attend the most highly ranked school- rather the best one for her.
Not sure anything would be done differently- but ignoring the score, it has the student focus on what is important to them, and filters out a lot of noise. Ranking can dominate in competitive HS’s like my kids attend. Sweatshirts and bumper stickers convey serious bragging (literally) rights. You have to consciously ignore it and discretely create a system that values what you care about.
To be sure- I assist in structuring this with the kids (a spreadsheet). They make the determinations.
If we did this, cost would be 90 points out of the 100.
For my nephew currently looking at colleges, his big requirement is a marching band. For his father, it is cost). He’s actually a twin, so my brother is having to deal with two in school at the same time (as I did). Money is important.
I think they’ll have a lot of choices even with father looking at the money and the student looking for a band. His twin is looking for a hockey team. Academics might sneak in there too.
Just wanted to chime in and say thanks for this suggestion. My kid is an 11th grader so we are diving into college apps next year and going on tours this year. This is really helpful!