My son is a rising junior in high school, so we’re starting to think about colleges. I want to take him to visit some colleges this summer, but I don’t really know of places that he would like. All he knows is that he’s fine with leaving the state and wants to go to a college with small class sizes. He has a 3.7 weighted GPA (his school doesn’t show an unweighted GPA or class rank on his report cards), and he hasn’t taken the SAT yet. He’s quiet and shy, so I worry about him making friends and want him to go to a college where it won’t be too hard for him to have a social life.
Well, hard to say without more information such as class rank, intended major, standardized test scores. But, for starters, if he attends Dartmouth College, he will have a social life.
What are your son’s interests ? Likes & dislikes ? Does he prefer an urban or rural environment ? Religious ? Staunchly conservative or wildly liberal ?
What is your home state (so nearby colleges & universities can be suggested) ?
Grinnell College in Iowa is an excellent LAC with a very open & accepting environment, for example.
Skidmore College in New York might be another comfortable environment.
Although I rarely recommend this book, Colleges That Change Lives might be helpful to you & your son in better framing likes & dislikes as well as establishing priorities.
Nevertheless, affordability is a very important factor to consider.
One place to start is the budget. At least in our experience, the universities that my daughter’s got accepted to varied in terms of the total price for everything for four years from about $60k total to about $280k total (we did not qualify for need based aid, but did qualify for merit aid at some schools). That is a rather huge range, and the high end (full price with no aid at all) would have taken a chunk out of our retirement funds and been a disaster if it went 5 years (the majority of students in the US do not graduate in 4 years). We also found almost no correlation at all between academic strength and cost, with the academically strongest school that either daughter got into being the second or third least expensive.
However, to find a school that is a good deal financially will constrain your choices and usually mean giving up something else. Sometimes students get an idea for a “dream school”, and find that the dream school is not affordable.
You probably therefore want to start off thinking about what you can afford. You might want to write a list of a few obvious choices (such as your in-state public schools, and a few good private schools in the area) and run the Net Price Calculator for each of them. If you google " net price calculator" you should be able to find it. At some point your son is going to need to know what the budget constraints are, unless there aren’t any.
Small class sizes usually means a relatively small school. You should probably visit a few large schools and a few small schools in your area, look around, take a tour, and see what your son thinks. We found that many schools allowed my daughters (not parents) to sit in on classes, and some allowed either just my daughter or in some cases both of us to have a chat with a professor. In many cases the school tours were given by students, who could talk about their experience at the school.
One of my daughters did decide that she wanted a small school. For us, the in-state public schools were either very large, or academically not appropriate (school required B average and 1100 SAT for a student with straights A’s and ~1500 SAT). We checked out some very good small schools (Liberal Arts Colleges) in our area of the US, but they were very expensive and in some cases seemed pretentious. I have heard here on CC that there are some very good LACs in the south or midwest that have good merit based aid. Others could give suggestions. However, for us given where we live it is a lot closer to cross the border and check out some very good small schools in Canada. We ended up with offers from several very good ones and my daughter did end up at a very good school with small class sizes (eg, first semester freshman year she had two classes with 15 students or less).
It might take some looking around, so it is good that you are starting to look now. You might want to tell us your state and approximate budget if you want more useful suggestions. Also, a “3.7 weighted” GPA can mean very different things at different high schools since GPA is calculated so differently at different schools. Is this about 2/3 A’s with the rest being B’s, or about half A’s and half B’s?
A key question is budget. Run the net price calculator at a couple of colleges (maybe try your state flagship and then a popular name private university) and see if the numbers are anywhere near what you think you can afford. There are different strategies depending on whether you’ll qualify for financial aid (and so are looking for schools that meet full need), or won’t qualify for FA so want in-state options or schools that give merit aid, or are willing to pay full list price wherever.
It seems like lots of high school students take the default position of wanting small classes because bigger classes seem different from they are accustomed to. It’s like they assume that unless they are at a small college, every class is going to be with hundreds of students in a huge lecture hall. What they don’t know is that even at most big universities (much less the medium-sized ones), a significant % of one’s classes will likely be fairly small. So disregard size for the time being, and try to find schools where the students tend to be friendly, inclusive, happy, cooperative, & humble.
Some colleges’ students really do tend to be gregarious and welcoming of strangers, while others really do have a competitive & snotty what-no-Canada-Goose-coat? attitude.
What part of the country are u in?
There are ways to have small classes at most any size school. Some big schools have honors programs that will offer smaller classes. Oregon State is a good example. Other larger schools that don’t have doctoral programs have smaller classes for everyone. Cal Poly is a good example. It takes some vetting though to know for sure though.
As for narrowing the list further, he will be the driver.
Does he want a small, medium, large or giant campus? If he doesn’t know, find the three closest small, medium and large campuses, and have him take the tours and just walk around. He’ll develop a gut feel. After we did that, my son didn’t narrow to a single size, he just eliminated one, giant schools like Texas A&M or Ohio State. His own flagship was the largest he’d consider, 30,000. For him it was really about other factors.
What major? For example, if he wants engineering, you’ve automatically cut your options from over 3000 to below 600.
Now the other intangibles that he has to determine. What about weather? Hate cold or heat? Want 4 seasons? Region? Is there any place he would definitely not go? Deep South? Upper East Coast? California? Midwest? What hobbies does he like? Hiking? Fishing? Skiing? Surfing? Culture? Food? Are big time college sports important to him? Does he want a classic college experience or would he prefer being at a school with a very narrow focus?
Get him talking about what he wants his college experience to be like. It is VERY important that this include non-academic things. There are LOTS of great schools. Focusing simply on academics can, and frequently does, result in unhappy students. On paper, the education looks like a good fit, but once they arrive, they aren’t prepared for being so poorly matched with the other aspects of the culture associated with their choice.
Once he narrows it down, report back and posters can guide you. Good luck!
P.S. If you haven’t read Quiet by Susan Cain, it’s worth your time.
We live in the west. He does not want to go to school in the south. He likes winter more than summer. I have saved enough money, so the cost of the school is not a concern for me.
You also might want to read the threads "Parents of the H.S. class of 2018 (or 2017) : GPA 3.0-3.4 " These threads give great info on schools that students in this range applied to and eventually chose. Many of the students GPA is usually represented on this thread had somewhat higher GPAs than this range but were not looking for super-elite colleges/universities like so many on this forum. (Your son likely fits this 3.0-3.4 range, as the unweighted GPA is what is usually assumed on this forum.) Good, solid A/B students…nice kids, nice parents…admissions to fine schools…a refreshing read!
^^I also recommend the book Quiet.
Depending on how close you are to these, a couple of places to start looking- Willamette in Salem, OR; Lewis and Clark in Portland; U of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, University of Portland, Seattle University. Most of those don’t have engineering, so if engineering is a likely major then you’ll have to go a bit bigger.
Major is a very important part of this equation. Picking a random example, I could mention Grinnell (and a plethora of like schools) and then if you said engineering is in the mix, we’d have to start over. Engineering is very important to know because so few schools offer it. It is far easier to switch majors out of engineering than into engineering, especially if a school doesn’t offer it.
Also, just because you can pay any price doesn’t mean you should. Given equals, he can choose the less expensive option, and you can, as an example, gift him half the savings upon graduation.
Lastly, there’s a strong misconception that there is a perfect school for each student. There really isn’t. There will be a group of great fit schools, each and every one of which will have something wrong with it, that they won’t likely discover until they’ve landed.
During the summer it only makes sense to visit large schools where there is a lot of activity. For smaller schools, go on their website, search for academic calendar, and look for schools that start classes at least a week before your son starts classes. Then you can spend that week visiting some schools while classes are in session. Try visiting a small liberal arts college like Whitman, a medium sized university like Santa Clara University, and a large university like University of California at [fill in the blank] or University of Washington. Go on the tour, on the information session and, though more useful as a rising senior, try having your son sit in on a class or two.