<p>Must confess to feeling very overwhelmed by the college selection process! DS is a 10th grader and already has some fairly firm ideas about the sort of college he wants to attend but doesn't know which schools match his criteria. So far none of the colleges in our state have excited him, but he is planning to use one or two as safeties.</p>
<p>So when do students/families start to develop a list of potential schools? Is 10th grade too early? It seems like so much can change between now and the actually application.</p>
<p>Everyone is different I guess. We started with our 3 kids in Feb. of junior year, looking at schools with different qualities (big versus small, urban versus rural, loose versus structured, etc.) rather than trying to actually pin down specific schools for the list. Then more visits in the summer and a few in the fall, though visits in senior year can be stressful. We didn’t discuss colleges at all during 10th grade, but it is good to keep college in mind when working with guidance on class schedules (which your child has already done).</p>
<p>I think it might be a little early for any firm plans but I think it helps you/your child to have some sort of idea of how they compare to where they would like to go and based on current grades, etc. Maybe it will motivate your kid, maybe it will help you both to get a more realistic picture of options. My son has no interest at all in colleges right now as a 10th grader but I sign him up on college websites and toss the brochures at him when they come in. Maybe he’ll absorb something through osmosis.</p>
<p>I have a 10th grade daughter (her brother just went off to college this fall, which put the application process on the radar for her). She’s a good student. We encourage her to keep her grades up, and to think a bit about what she might want to do in college and what kind of school she might want to attend. At her high school, 10th graders take the PSAT. Her scores on that will give her, and us, some sense of what might be plausible for her. A kid with decent grades but mediocre test scores will not be looking at the same options as a kid with the same GPA, high scores.</p>
<p>College selection? Probably too early, but there are a few things that are worth doing. </p>
<p>Assuming she took the PSAT it’s a good time to assess where she might stand. Is she above or near the National Merit cut off scores for your state? Are they lower than expected? Higher than expected? I think it’s too early for kids to know whether they’ll like big or small schools. My younger son loved Caltech (despite not being a science kid) when he was dragged along on older brothers college trips, but by the time he was a senior, he was adamant that his college had to be bigger than his high school, though he still liked the quirky vibe at Caltech. </p>
<p>At this point I think the main thing is to keep up with testing deadlines - it’s easiest to take SAT subject tests in the spring of the year that you take the course that lines up with it best. Often students realize that math, or history or an AP science course taken sophomore year would have been great preparation for the SAT subject tests.</p>
<p>The other thing is just to make sure you don’t close doors. Math and language are two subjects that many states allow students to drop earlier. Most selective colleges want to see three years of a foreign language and many prefer four. Math should be taken at least to pre-calc and preferably calculus.</p>
<p>It’s also not too early to run financial calculators and think about how you are going to finance college.</p>
<p>Our student’s advisor during soph yr suggested we see some schools–it was a great opportunity for our student to begin to think about the likes/dislikes…
large
small
urban
suburban etc</p>
<p>A good opportunity to begin to gently bring the idea of college selection to their minds…</p>
<p>And FWIW, dont be surprised by how overwhelmed they feel after a day of touring…
there is so much for them to begi to comprehend …</p>
<p>After a day of touring, dinners in the evening are a good time to talk through–what did ya think? Liked? disliked?..etc…</p>
<p>On the tours, MOST families will be touring w students of Jrs…perhaps a few srs trying to deicde…
so if you don’t do any touring, you are not behind.
If you can swing it…it can be helpful.</p>
<p>mathmom is absolutely correct about this one: “It’s also not too early to run financial calculators and think about how you are going to finance college.”</p>
<p>If you have not yet done so, run the EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans<a href=“lots%20of%20good%20general%20advice%20about%20financial%20aid%20there%20too”>/url</a> and at [url=<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board]College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) The specific formula for the FAFSA changes each year, so the numbers you get using this year’s formula won’t yield your EFC for future years, but they will be in the ballpark. Get straight about how much your family can pay, how much you are willing for your child to take out in loans, and how much you expect your child to come up with from summer jobs and/or working during the school year. If you and your child understand the money issues that your family will face, a lot of the process will be much easier.</p>
<p>My oldest son, who is now in his second year of college, went to his first college fair at age 12 – right after he received his SAT scores from the Johns Hopkins program. Best thing we ever did. He got a chance to meet and chat with some admissions reps to find out what courses he should consider taking in high school, what kind of extra curricular activities he should do, what kind of questions he should ask himself about colleges and their programs, etc. Only one school treated him like a little kid. All the others (there were about 50 schools there) gave him some time and attention.</p>
<p>The night made him think about what he wanted out of his high school experience. He never obsessed over the application process or testing. He actually, looking back, had a lot of fun with his essays and filling out the paperwork. He has no regrets on his college choice or what he did when he did it.</p>
<p>One thing that we did in 10th grade was to make tentative plans for coursework throughout the 4 yrs of HS. While our GC thought we were crazy, I could easily see that (particularly for the sciences) the courses a student took the first couple of years determined what higher level courses they’d be able to take later. Since rigor of coursework is an important factor, we didn’t want to get to Jr year and find out “you can’t get there from here”. Of course this is all HS specific, but I think it’s a good idea to learn about the prerequisites for AP classes, find out if certain classes are only offered every other year, see if there are courses where you can “double up” (eg. FL classes on the block schedule), etc.</p>
<p>“went to his first college fair at age 12 – right after he received his SAT scores from the Johns Hopkins program.”</p>
<p>we went to a CTY college program when DD was in 10th grade, I cannot recall one 7th grade. Though when we went to a learning program at Penns Archaeology museum, the Dept had a session on why you might want to major in archaelogy ;)</p>
<p>For D1, we did one college visit in 10th grade to a match/safety school in our area that admits a lot of kids from her school. Just to give her a flavor for what a college visit is like. And, honestly, it gave her a little kick start academically, because she realized she wanted to go to a bit more selective school than that one. She could live with it, but… We will be doing one visit with D2 (10th grade) this year to while we are on vacation over spring break.</p>
<p>We did a lot of campus visits during D1’s junior year, and she was pretty set on her list of where to apply by fall of senior year. That positioned her well for EA/ED/rolling admission applications in the fall.</p>
<p>There is an advantage to doing some serious planning at the end of sophomore year. If you are doing visits during junior year, it is useful to take the school calendar for junior year and lay out the long weekends/breaks where colleges are likely still in session, and take advantage of those windows to plan visits to various regions where your kid would like to check out schools. It is a lot cheaper to buy airfares, book cars, etc. if you do it well in advance. This is especially important if your kid plays a fall sport… D1’s fall sport coach was a nightmare about letting them miss any practices or tournaments for college visits OR SAT/ACT testing, so fall of senior yoar would NOT have been a good time to go on many visits.</p>
<p>Also, you will want to look at the SAT schedule if your kid is going to take subject tests, which some colleges require. You can’t take the regular SAT on the same Saturday that you take subject tests. And some subject tests are only offered once or twice a year. Many kids take the SAT twice, and 2-3 subject tests. So laying that calendar out before the start of Junior year also is very good positioning so you are not scrambling at the start of senior year with limited SAT dates available.</p>
<p>Include informal/casual looks at colleges when you are vacationing to get a feel for what college campuses are like. Then when he and a parent make that spring break trip of junior year to see selected colleges he will be familiar with the general concept of what a campus is like and able to concentrate on the differences between them.</p>
<p>I never think it is too early, but I am an obesesive planner who did her first college overnight in 10th grade. Now, my 10th grade son thinks it is way too early.</p>
<p>What my approach has been is to divide the overwhelming process into separate areas: Financial; Academic (including testing); Lifestyle (climate, size, etc). </p>
<p>Financial - I believe as a parent I’m going to be in charge of the financial, so I can start the planning on this now withhout stressing the kid. Under that umbrella I am lumping merit schools and gathering lists of schools to set aside for when the kid is ready for planning.</p>
<p>Academic – I am partially responsible for. I have to sign off on HS class schedule, so I’ve looked ahead as to how class X now effects class Y by senior year. I’ve also developed a list as to when to test. I mapped out when SAT II tests line up with the high school courses. My kids isn’t a planner and I don’t want him to be cramming in senior year testing with applications, etc.</p>
<p>Academic2 – I assume son is responsible for test prep, the level/tier of college (within budget) and major interests. This can wait, but I do encourage him to take a variety of classes and consider summer learning.</p>
<p>Lifestyle – This will all be on him, but by the time he is ready for this I hope to have a viable list of 40 schools based upon the financial affordability. </p>
<p>VISITS – We live an area saturated with solid colleges and easily find ourselves on campus for different events from sports to camps to academic bowls. So, to some, we have been incorpoarting visits for years.</p>
<p>For us, one long spring break visit would not be a good way to do this. We have found that 3 or 4 colleges a trip is the max any of us can stand. They all run together after that.</p>
<p>Welcome JavaMom (great screen name BTW!) I’ll second the suggestion to visit the HS Class of 2013 thread. I also have a 10th grader, and she is very aware of the college process since her sister is now a college freshman. She’s a good & diligent student, and she’s already been exposed to testing since she did ACTs in 7th grade for Duke & SATs for John Hopkins in 8th. Our district encourages the high achieving freshmen & sophomores to take the PSAT (which she has now done twice) and all sophomores take the PLAN.</p>
<p>She insisted on going to the local college fair last month. I thought it was too early & was a little peeved that the GT GC’s suggested it to them. But it did give her an idea that there are a ton of schools & that there are lots of variables. I’ll start poke at her to visit a few over Spring break or the summer. </p>
<p>So, is it too early? No, not really, but the kids change tremendously from sophomore year till graduation. Heck, they can change completely from the beginning of senior year till graduation. It’s good to be aware, especially about things like testing and also if there’s some type of special hook that will have to be taken into consideration (such as auditioning for programs or athletics.)</p>
<p>It depends on what colleges you are interested in. Some colleges look very clesely at the level of difficulty of the classes you take over the four years of high school. In order to get into those honors classes in 9th grade, you really have to be fcused on the issue in 8th grade. So, it is not too early for some tenth graders to start thinking about what college you may want to attend.</p>
<p>My current college freshman visited his first colleges the summer after his sophomore year. I thought it was very helpful to do this before the start of his junior year. It let him know what the schools were looking for and he could plan from there.</p>
<p>My current hs junior joined his older brother on many of the college tours, so he actually started the summer before his freshman year. He isn’t burned out yet from looking and seems to be formulating a good list of schools he likes.</p>