<p>I think a major part of my daughter's college (UG) choice needs to be how it will affect her eventual admission/cost, etc. of getting a graduate degree. I'd love to hear from some of you that have 'been there, done that' about what we should consider, what we should look at, and maybe how to find the info we need about colleges being considered. </p>
<p>We are in Florida, so the state schools will likely be her safeties, and I think she will be OK with the idea of starting at a State U with a plan to head apply to perhaps a more pretigious school for grad school, but I don't think that will be her first choice. I think she'll want a smaller private school, but the cost may make that difficult. I think of EFC is going to be in the 25-30k range, and that might not be impossible, but wouldn't be easy. I know we will be tempted to stretch the budget if it means she can go to a school she loves, buti am concerned about what that might mean when it comes to being able to afford any grad school.</p>
<p>Her interests are in the areas of the sciences and anthroplogy, and she seems on track to have good stats and is in the IB program at her High school.</p>
<p>Any advice on UG school selection with a future grad degree in mind is appreciated!</p>
<p>look at hendrix college and see their grad school placments! u of f,fsu, ucf,usf are all fine schools, but they are impersonal monsters! if that does not bother you or your daughter fine, but otherwise I would not just think state u for undergrad! and lots of private schools give great scholarships, and the price could be the same of less!</p>
<p>Good state universities are plenty fine for going to graduate or professional school.</p>
<p>If your actual ability and willingness to contribute is significantly lower than the EFC that financial aid offices calculate, then she needs to find schools with merit scholarship opportunities or lower list prices. Be sure that she knows the cost constraints early in her search so that she does not end up applying only to unaffordable schools.</p>
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<li><p>Research opportunities. Look to see if there are any formalized research programs at the school that pair students up with professors. When she visits, she can visit research labs to see what undergrads are doing: are they doing grunt work (cleaning pipettes, administrative stuff) or are they presenting posters, assisting with experiments, doing literature searches and possibly coauthoring papers? Have her talk to some undergrads who are currently doing research and see what they think. Do people start in their sophomore year, junior year, or are they usually shut out until their senior year?</p></li>
<li><p>Departmental breadth and depth. Flip through the college’s bulletin to see what courses are listed there. Are there a wide range of courses in her possible majors offered? Are there a few interesting niche courses, too? Are there supported cognate courses in other departments? (What I mean is, an anthro major will need to learn 1-2 reading languages before admission to graduate school - what are the language offerings like in some interesting and useful languages? A science major will no doubt need math skills - what are the math offerings like?) If you can get access to class schedules, even better. See what classes have been offered in the last 4 semesters, and see if they will satisfy the kind of things she wants to take classes in to go to grad school.</p></li>
<li><p>Professors. Other than research opportunities, is this a place where professors are approachable? Can your daughter go to them to ask for help with selecting graduate schools? Will they write recommendation letters, or will they get their lab managers to write the letters? What kind of advisement will she get? Don’t assume that large public universities have bad advising; sometimes the professors there are invested in students, too.</p></li>
<li><p>If she’s interested in professional degrees - internships and summer/term-time opportunities. What kind of services does career services have? Some career services offices offer good advice for applying to graduate school, whereas others only focus on jobs. Some career services offices offer a wide range of internship opportunities for people in different fields, whereas others only focus on the finance/IB/management consulting type tracks. Visit the CS office to see. What kind of city is it located in? If she wants to do, let’s say, federal government work, DC is a no-brainer - the city floods with summer interns, but during the fall and spring she’ll have to compete with far fewer students. But there are other places that have great internship connections. How good is CS in getting students into useful internships? (These are not so important if she wants a PhD.)</p></li>
<li><p>Other resources. What is the library like? How many journals does it subscribe to, and what are the book holdings like? Do students find themselves having to do interlibrary loan more often than not to get important articles? Do they have to go to other universities’ libraries in the surrounding area to get access to materials, or is it all right there? This is more likely to happen in anthro than the sciences. Are there quiet places to study?</p></li>
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<p>I’m going to second the sentiment that good public universities are great places to prepare for graduate school. Honestly, where you go matters far less than what you do there. If your daughter is reasonably ambitious she can position herself well for graduate school. If you are in Florida, UF is an excellent school, and Florida State is also a respectable university - she could use either one of those as a springboard.</p>
<p>One other thing. Sometimes I see people here say LACs are not good places to go for grad school because of lack of research experiences. I will say that’s patently untrue. Top LACs specifically recruit young, ambitious, driven PhDs who want to incorporate undergrads into their research, and they give these PhDs substantial research budgets to do so. Even mid-ranked LACs usually have professors who do research or are located nearby universities that students do research at. And the intimate connections, small class sizes, and nurturing atmosphere of LACs can be great development for the small concentrated environment of a PhD program. I went to an LAC and I got excellent preparation for my PhD program. It’s more about school characteristics than the type itself.</p>
<p>Family philosophies differ on this but ours was that we wanted our kids to have the best possible undergrad education that we could give them - the best possible fit - and wanted them to graduate debt free (or rather, with any debt being ours, not theirs). And they were responsible for their own grad school expenses. It’s our intention help with grad school to the extent we can without going into debt or severely constraining our lives - but this is not a commitment so they have to do the cost/benefit analysis with the assumption that they will be responsible for the cost.</p>
<p>Our reasoning was that a great undergrad experience would set them up for whatever it is that they wanted to do with their early lives - it would provide a sense of direction, relationships they could rely on, experiences that would inform their future career and personal choices. After that, they were adults and they, not us, were in the best position to decide what would be a worthy investment of their time, money and effort.</p>
<p>Thank you for the thoughtful reponses! @juillet, Wow…lots of good, specific things to think about and look for in a school! Thank you. We are thinking that you are right in that the state schools might be a good option as far as preparation for an eventual graduate degree…and might be best for minimizing cost. I know everyone says everyone can find their niche in those big schools, but it hard to visualize her at a school known for partying and football.<br>
Since you mentioned UF and FSU, I wonder if you have input on UCF or USF and other Florida state schools.</p>
<p>Something to note: as Juliet said, LACs can be great options and Florida has a great public LAC! New College would give you in-state tuition in addition to an excellent education. Of course, I can’t speak to their strengths departmentally, but I would definitely look into it, as it can offer great undergrad focus that’s almost impossible to find at other public universities. Also, [their</a> placement at graduate schools isn’t bad!](<a href=“http://www.ncf.edu/graduate-school]their”>http://www.ncf.edu/graduate-school)</p>
<p>Yes, NCF is great if your daughter’s looking for that smaller school experience at a public school price.</p>
<p>I’m not from Florida and I don’t have any direct experience with those schools, but from what I’ve observed UCF is smaller and a decent public university. It’s also relatively selective (45% of applicants admitted; SAT scores in the above-average range, most admitted freshman have a 3.5 or higher from high school). I looked on my field’s website and it appears that the faculty are reasonably active wrt research. USF is a Research Very High (RU/VH) university, and apparently it’s one of the 41 RU-VH universities designated as “community-engaged” by the Carnegie Foundation. It looks like it has a solid student body based on it’s admissions standards, and the faculty in my field look reasonably busy. Again, no personal experience, but both of them look like they would be solid choices.</p>
<p>If she’s interested in small schools, one strategy is to look at the USNWR list of national liberal arts colleges and shoot for ones where she’s in the top 5-15% of applicants. If she’s in IB with strong stats and relatively high SAT scores, the sweet spot will probably be somewhere in the #40-80+ range. She’ll be eligible for merit aid at these schools. I probably could’ve gained admission to a top 30 LAC, but I went to the #62 LAC on a full merit scholarship. Check out the list of Colleges That Change Lives - many of them are less selective colleges with strong educational programs where your daughter may find some merit aid.</p>
<p>Another thing to look for - since your daughter has what seems like slightly disparate interests, look into the ease of double-majoring. If she’s interested in both anthro and the sciences, she could double-major in - let’s say - anthro and biology, or anthro and chemistry, and become a physical anthropologist. One of the downsides to my wonderful LAC is that they made it really difficult to double-major, but some colleges/universities encourage it and make it easier.</p>
<p>Thank you so much juillet! I think your advice about the ‘sweet spot’ for possible merit aid, along with the keeping in mind the double major idea is great. That really helps to give us something to aim for. Much appreciated!</p>
<p>A note about paying for graduate school…</p>
<p>Goingto grad school in anthropology and getting an MA is a waste of time. There are virtually no jobs for someone with just an MA except in perhaps cultural resource management or perhaps museum admin. If she wants anthropology, she needs to go to a PhD program. Not just any PhD program but one that fully funds its students. No one should ever pay with their own money for a graduate degree in anthropology. </p>
<p>You should really on pay with your own money for professional degree programs such as an MBA, MPA, MPH, MD, etc. Even then, there are opportunities for partial to full funding for some grad students. </p>
<p>Funding/aid for grad programs works in a totally different way than undergrad.</p>