As my son’s Senior Year is coming to an end, we’ve begun to reflect about how he was introduced to his chosen college. We equate him finding his chosen college with going to the prom with one date and leaving with another. I’d love to hear others’ stories ( partly because I love this stuff ) to show students and parents just starting out just how different the search process can be and that things work out in the end.
This is my son’s story. He knew that he wanted to remain instate due to some excellent financial incentives, as well as some good options in universities . He received a postcard in the fall of his Junior year inviting him to attend an info session where representatives from three popular schools in our state would come to together to introduce their schools. He went in with some preconceived ideas regarding one school as his top choice. He listened closely to all of the presentations, and was quite surprised that one school rose above the other 2 based entirely on the presentation. The presenter was very well organized and informative , but extremely enthusiastic and approachable . The school was the clear underdog of the three for most of the people in the room. I think that was a part of the draw for my son. My son met the presenter after the info session. She was very approachable and friendly. By the end of the evening, we had scheduled to attend their Fall Open House.
We arrived on campus that beautiful Fall day. Each session made him more and more excited about the possibility of attending there. The Honors seminar sealed the deal. He left campus that day with a goal of admission . I am happy to report that he met that goal and eagerly awaits beginning his Freshman year. The other morning we discussed that info session , and my son said "
What if we had never gone to that info session? I could’ve missed the great opportunities I’ve been given."
Good luck to people just beginning and congrats to those whose search is over.
Funny, we received a postcard from the college in fall of junior year. A friend had mentioned this school, but we didn’t know anything about it. Even though the meeting was in Miami, I thought it was worth the risk for me to drive there.
They showed a video of the school, then 3 people spoke who were alumni or a parent of a student. I could see my son getting enthused. Two months later, he was applying for colleges, as a junior. In the WHY X College essay, he could talk about this meeting. In hindsight, it probably led to rejections that he hadn’t visited most of the schools he applied to, and never any official visits.
@bookworm We definitely had the advantage of making visits to the school he ultimately chose because of the proximity to our home. It also helped him know that he had made a good choice because he saw the school several times in a variety of circumstances. That being said, he also engaged the school from a distance. Liked their social media pages, contacted the department for his proposed majors, emailed admissions with questions that couldn’t be easily found on their website. It benefitted him in the end with an acceptance and substantial financial opportunity .
A LONG time ago, when you learned about colleges by looking at their catalogs, I was in the HS library (NOT media center) browsing through their collection of college catalogs. Someone, whom I did not know, asked me what I was looking for, and I said “science or engineering”, like Caltech. He said “There’s a new school that has science and engineering” and told me the name. I wrote and requested a catalog, found it interesting, applied, and eventually got in off of the wait list. There was no visit, no comparative ratings at the time, and not much other sources for evaluation. I first saw the campus when I arrived for freshman orientation and moved in. It turned out great.
@carolinamom2boys I’m an idiot. I somehow missed the “equate” part and have to admit I was a little disappointed to get to the end with no story about (1) how your son left the prom with a different date, and (2) how it led to choosing a college. Ha! You have to admit that would have been a great story.
It would have @1Dreamer . Unfortunately , it would’ve required convincing my son to go to prom, an impossible task . But fortunately , I have one more at home. I’ll see what I can do , check back in a few years.
When I was 15, I visited the campus with some high school friends. I thought it was the most beautiful school, in the most beautiful location I could possibly imagine. It was the only university I really wanted to go to, and the only one I applied to. (Back then, you could do that sort of thing.)
With my kids, a whole different story. Lots of research and search engines led me to the university my daughter ended up in. I was the one who thought it would be a good fit, and told her about it. My practical son picked his school by major - and weeded out other schools largely by 3 criteria – it had to be near mountains, it had to be liberal, it couldn’t have a big greek scene.
I first heard about my school - very briefly - through a friend who graduated from high school the year before me. He had mentioned that he was going there, to which I replied, “oh, that’s nice”. Then, the summer between junior and senior year, this was one of a few schools recommended to me. I was looking to send my SAT scores to a few more schools. I originally had Florida State among that list, but came back to my parents a week later with UNCW as a replacement for FSU. It was always identified as a great fit for me, and I applied very eagerly very early. But although I always liked the school, I mostly saw myself staying up North. It soon became a bit of an underdog next to my Northern reach schools. But when those schools began to eliminate themselves, I engaged with UNCW’s social media pages. When I (somewhat surprisingly) was accepted, I began interacting with the other prospects in chat groups. And my love for the school grew and grew. A year later, there are no signs of it slowing down.
Fiske for D1’s school. For D2, an older HS student’s mom mentioned that her daughter had gotten in, and I laughed at the name (“Harvey Mudd? That is really a college name?”) Not laughing any more.
My undergrad alma mater was also where both parents and three grandparents earned their Bachelor’s degrees, and where my father earned two Master’s degrees. My younger sister also earned her BA there.
So from a very early age I was groomed to be a Badger, and those aforementioned family members didn’t even consciously try to influence me. But I wasn’t always a Badger fan:
At about age 4, my dad and his dad (both UW grads) took me to a football game against Michigan at Camp Randall Stadium. This was back when Michigan was a top-5 team most years and Wisconsin was lucky to win three or four games in a season. Yet, the stadium was packed. (tbh, it was – and still is – kept packed at least partly due to the greatness of the marching band. their “stop at the top” step is unique and they play for 15 minutes after the game: the 5th Quarter. If you’ve never been to a game at Camp Randall, go.)
Anyway, I cheered for Michigan because I loved their helmets – still do.
People around us apparently gave my dad and grandpa a hard time because I wouldn’t stop my vocal support of the visiting Wolverines. I don’t know how much of their “angst” was really good-natured ribbing, since I was just a little kid… but my progenitors were feeling the heat a bit. “The Badgers are wearing red – that’s our team!”
Another vote for the mailings! I’ve lived in NY most of my life and had never been to Fordham’'s Rose Hill campus. My S was looking at a number of Jesuit schools (not for the religious aspect, but he liked urban mid-sized universities and a lot of the Jesuit schools fit the bill and were in his academic range). Although we saw a number of Jesuit schools on the east coast we never considered Fordham because…you know, the Bronx. Plus it was too close to home. But he got one of those letters from Fordham and we figured why not go check it out. We walked on campus and were stunned. My S’s eyes lit up the moment we arrived. Gorgeous campus, felt very safe, tour guides were so intelligent & personable, the school had an excellent program in his academic interests etc. He ended up at Fordham, lived on campus (we did agree in advance that we would never pop by and he would not come home for dinners/laundry etc.), and had an fantastic college experience. And to think we almost didn’t even visit…
PS I have an almost identical post on another thread so apologies to anyone reading this again.
My daughter decided in middle school that she wanted to attend an HBCU, though was willing to consider our state schools (quite good) as possibilities. Unfortunately, few college fairs or college recruiters in Seattle include HBCU’s. So D and I went down to Oakland for a huge HBCU fair when she was in 8th grade so we could look at pretty much all of them in one place. At that point, I knew of only a few-the big names most people know of.
As we wound our way through the aisles, talking to reps, alumni, parents of current students, we began to get a sense of the differences in the schools and their programs. The we got to the last aisle and there was one table where no students were talking to the rep. I’d heard of this school, primarily because of its choir, but I suggested we go over to the table. D was tired and didn’t really want to, but I said that we’d come all that way to learn all we could. so let’s go look. It turned out that the rep was actually the head of admissions, and would be in Seattle the following week. He was a fountain of information, not just about his school, but college application advice in general. And we did meet with him again the next week here in town.
We visited the college and several others the following summer, and D took spring break tour the next year of several more. This college remained at the top of her list for many reasons-small size, LAC, strong freshman support, a good program in her major, a commitment to social justice, the fact that everyone seemed to know one another, and more. But it was also one of the most expensive, so she knew merit aid would be important. It is NOT one of the schools with automatic merit. D decided to graduate a year early, and applied last fall. She was admitted. with merit, and will attend next fall.
My husband went to his state university because his parents thought that would be a good place for him, and he didn’t have any better ideas.
I went to a school that I put on my list because several people in the classes ahead of me at my high school were there and they liked it. It was not my first choice college – I wanted a smaller campus – but it’s where I ended up.
My son went to his state university because he didn’t want to go far away from home at that point in his life and because it has a good program in his major.
My daughter went to my alma mater. It was the type of college she was looking for anyway, and she decided to take advantage of her legacy status and apply ED.
No literature. No fancy introductions. No great adventures or discoveries of unexpected treasures. We’re kind of boring.
My son found out about Olin at a college fair at a nearby school during Freshman year of high school. We never heard of it before, and the rep told us about the free tuition (back then), and the type of curriculum. It sounded too good to be true and had my son hooked. He went on an overnight visit in his junior year and made it his #1 choice.
Junior year of hs we got a very unique marketing postcard from school. Investigating, we found that it had top 3 criteria that DS was looking for so it went on the list.
A few months later we attended an info session that they put on in our city. Again we were very impressed.
That summer we visited during a college tour road trip. The visit was between academic sessions so there weren’t too many people on campus. DS wanted to visit the physics department. The admissions people tried to get someone from physics to meet with us and it ended up being the chair of the department. The man spent almost 3 hours with DS and gave him a tour of his own lab. That was the clincher.
Miles p, could you share the name of the college? PM me if you’d rather.
I am really impressed how the meet & greet, and the advertising does help. I’m not sure if it PSAT or SAT scores that began the flood of brochures. I donated them to the HS.
When we moved to Florida, I looked up which schools had chapters of my sorority. Only 3 schools, FSU and two s all ones I’d never heard of. Oh well, no big deal, my kids weren’t planning on going to college in Florida anyway. Then one of those small schools had 2 of the top male lacrosse players from our school commit. Then that school played a game at our high school (not really sure why). One day I was reading an article in the WSJ about Newman Center dorms being built as private dorms at non-Catholic universities and here was that small school again.
We continued the college search in the regular way, going to schools my daughter had been recruited to, going to college fairs, talking to people. She actually considered a service academy for a long time. As the summer between jr/sr year progressed, she played tournaments and we talked to schools. In late July I was reading an article online and it said this small school was starting a womens lax team. I said to D " that school where X and Y are playing lax is starting a women’s team’, and D went online, found the recruiting questionnaire, the coach answered her immediately. We went for a visit in September and that was it. I made her look at other schools but she wasn’t interested once she saw this school. From not knowing anything about the school to committed in about 2 months.
For other daughter, we went to a college fair. It was a zoo. All the tables from southern schools were packed 10 deep trying to talk to the reps, but one of the middle aisles had very few people at tables so D and I went there just to be able to breathe. There was lonely Wyoming. We talked to the rep, took a brouchure, I said ‘oh, we can afford this’ and that was it for her. She did visit in Jan of junior year and she waivered a little as it was so cold and students weren’t on campus, but gave it another chance and is thrilled she did. My BIL did go to Wyoming, but I don’t think she ever would have considered it without that college fair.
For DD2 we got a mailing from a school we’d never heard of that had direct admit into her major and grad school but being full pay we were not all that interested. Summer before her senior year we stopped by the campus on a whim on the way to a vacation. We were just going to pick up a brochure and wander around on our own but the office quickly found a student to give us a tour. Most interesting guide we’ve ever had- we still talk about the crazy fun tour he gave us. Admin officer talked to her afterward, gave us info on merit - everyone was so friendly, esp since we had no appointments . Merit offer turned out to be fantastic and she received her graduate degree last weekend from the school.
