Is this possible?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I'm taking my GS troop (juniors in hs) to Boston to visit schools in October. We're planning on three schools - Northeastern, Boston University, and Emerson and none of them offer Sunday tours/info sessions so we're going to see all three on Saturday. 9:30-11:30 (BU), noon-2:00 (Emerson), 2:30-4:30 (Northeastern). Is that possible or way too tight? How far are the schools from each other? We can always go back the next day and visit a little more if the girls want. </p>

<p>This trip is not to replace college visits with their parents but more to get them started on thinking about different types of schools in a non-pressured manner with their friends. We might find a recent graduate from our high school to give us the tour which would allow us to eliminate the "official" tour on Saturday and re-visit on Sunday, but that would only be if the college students schedule would allow for that and I could get them to definitely commit.</p>

<p>Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated. Oh - we're not arranging a "group" tour, just dividing the girls up amongst the leaders so that it's about 4 girls per adult.</p>

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<p>Are you thinking of eating on campus at one of the two morning stops?</p>

<p>I worry about visits that don’t include an information session. My concern would be to make sure that the visits are more than just walking around on campus and looking at the outside of the buildings.</p>

3

<p>I think that taking the scouts on college tours is a great idea! As part of the tour, make sure you talk to them about finding colleges that they can afford.</p>

<p>Unless everyone in your GS troop is wealthy and has parents who could pay out of pocket $50k a year for college, I suggest that you drop BU off your list since its financial aid is terrible. You also might want to check the financial aid for Emerson and Northeastern. If they don’t offer good financial aid, it probably would be a good idea to select for tours some colleges that do offer such aid.</p>

<p>Students are likely to fall in love with some colleges that you show them, so it would be good to show them colleges that they’re likely to be able to afford.</p>

<p>I strongly suggest that you add one public school to the list since public schools are the most affordable choices for most students. </p>

<p>It would be heartbreaking to give inadvertently students the message that only expensive private schools are worth attending. </p>

<p>You even may want to have a community college on the list. For financial reasons there are many middle class students who start at community college and then transfer to in-state publics.</p>

<p>Since it’s good for students to build their college lists from the bottom up, it would be important to give students good exposure to colleges that most of them are likely to be able to get admitted to and would likely be able to afford. </p>

<p>I’d suggest starting at a community college and then going to U Mass. Boston, and finishing with an affordable private school they probably can be admitted to.</p>

4

<p>Sounds ambitious, but also exciting. Eating and finding parking are the first thoughts I had. In theory you could fit all three in, but finding parking could take a little time, and it would be nice to fit in lunch. If the girls don’t bring their lunches, there are burrito places, etc. where you could get lunch to go. If you are planning to park once and walk or take the T to the others, it could be hard to fit in all three.</p>

<p>If you could fit in only one ‘official’ admissions event (tour or information session) at each stop, I’d go with the tours. Or maybe try to do three tours plus one information session.</p>

5

<p>I suggest parking in a garage, etc. near a metro station and then taking the metro to see the colleges. Otherwise, you will waste lots of time looking for parking.</p>

6

<p>Two colleges on Saturday and one Sunday, unofficial. Three is one day is too much. Pick the one that is furthest away from the other two you choose - print out maps of that school and a list of the majors or most popular programs - and have a current student give you a mini-tour.</p>

7

<p>How about looking at Simmons College? It is all women, a LAC, and located in the Fenway area.</p>

<p>[Admission:</a> Undergraduate Study : Simmons College - Boston, Massachusetts](<a href=“http://www.simmons.edu/undergraduate/admission/]Admission:”>Undergraduate Admission & Financial Aid | Simmons University)</p>

8

<p>But do think about the financial aspects. Most students end up going to public schools, so I think it would be good to include at least one public school. One of my well off friends kids’ went to an expensive private school, and even that school selected an in state public as the first school that the students visited on their college tour.</p>

9

<p>The schools are pretty closed to each other and within 30 minutes of cab ride from each other. If you use taxi or driving yourself, changing the order might make it a little easier in terms of commuting time like BU->NU->Emerson or the other way around. Parking will be a problem if you are driving yourself, so plan ahead where you will park. Otherwise, the order you have might be easiest for using the subway (the T).</p>

<p>Either way, I think it is way too tight. A little different take from siliconvalleymom, info session can be informative but 3 info sessions in one day is an overload especially for young high school kids. Emerson would be in the heart of the city and would feel like you are touring a city instead of a school, BU would have more of a campus while NU would have a little more of a campus feel than the rest. If I were you I would at least cut one school out and not make it too rush for the kids.</p>

10

<p>Emerson and Northeastern are certainly doable in one day - they are quite close by. From Emerson, walk to Back Bay station and take the Orange Line to Ruggles. That’s the Northeastern stop.</p>

<p>BU is a bit further away on the Green Line, which can be a pain.</p>

<p>While generally I’d agree about adding a public school to your list, there’s only one even remotely accessible from where you are going and that’s UMass Boston, which has no dorms so is probably not appropriate for a group coming from a distance.</p>

<p>Even though these schools have no official tours on Sunday, might you be able to contact a Massachusetts scout group and see if they have any former scouts who attend BU, for example? A former scout/current student may be willing to act as an informal guide for an hour or two, and show your scouts around.</p>

11

<p>While U Mass-Boston doesn’t have a dorm, some students do move to Boston to attend that school. Anyway, the purpose of the trip is to give the students some idea about what kinds of colleges exist. It’s not necessarily to get them to go to college in Boston. They need to know about public colleges, which are the most realistic, affordable option for most students.</p>

<p>Not having them visit a public college could inadvertently give them the idea that all colleges are as expensive as are the private colleges or that the public colleges aren’t good enough to consider. </p>

<p>If the students are driving in from somewhere else in Mass., perhaps they could visit a public university along the way.</p>

12

<p>I am a GS leader also. I think your choices for schools is fine. In some homes, all that is discussed is community college. This may be their only chance to see & learn about ‘better’ schools. Maybe some of the girls could get scholarships if it is not within the budget. Scouts is about setting goals, yes being realistic, but also to aim high. I am sure you have follow up meetings planned to discuss all the other aspects like cost, housing, etc. This is a great project !</p>

<p>An example: Our Cadette Troop went to Disney World in May. It was a choice that was laughed at previously because of the distance & cost. We worked hard all year and went. It was great. First time most of the moms or daughters had ever flown. Nothing wrong with high goals - it makes you work harder.</p>

<p>Will this be your ‘only’ college visit? If not, then take another day to do community or state colleges. They’ll see all options that way. (Sure you’ve already thought of that though :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>Seems like a tight schedule to include lunch & traveling. Are these campus’ close together? Even if you could allow yourself an extra 15 minutes.</p>

<p>Good luck !</p>

13

<p>“This may be their only chance to see & learn about ‘better’ schools. Maybe some of the girls could get scholarships if it is not within the budget. Scouts is about setting goals, yes being realistic, but also to aim high.”</p>

<p>If those girls come from homes in which all that’s discussed is community college, they aren’t likely to have the stats that would allow them to attend the colleges that offer the kind of generous financial aid they’d need.</p>

<p>Such students probably would benefit by learning not only about community colleges (and how to get the money to attend them), but also about 4-year public colleges that they could start college at or transfer to after community college. </p>

<p>What is the socioeconomic background of the girls in the troop? Do they come from college educated families or from families in which it’s a big achievement to graduate from high school? If it’s the latter, aiming high would be planning to go to college of any kind. The public colleges that many here turn their noses up at would be big deals to them.</p>

<p>One of my friends lives near Boston College, where she also teaches. Her kids went to one of the top public schools in the state. She said that the families of students at that high school included many professionals, professors, etc., but even the parents of top students might have their kids apply to Harvard, BC and U Mass, and feel that if their kid ended up going to U Mass., that was perfectly fine.</p>

14

<p>Too much in one day. I think the girls will start zoning out after the first 2. You are not allowing enough time between schools to include lunch, bathroom breaks, travel, etc. Otherwise, it is a great idea. No matter what the girl’s backgrounds are, this will give them something to think about and an idea of what is out there. At some other point, I would try to visit a CC and a state school, but it can be another trip.</p>

15

<p>Whatever you do, please provide them with information about how to fund their college educations.</p>

<p>This could be part of a separate session. Perhaps, for instance, you could invite a financial aid officer in to talk with your troop.</p>

<p>When my sons were in high school, I used to do a lot of volunteer work work with the school including helping students learn about college options and financial aid. Sons were in a magnet program that included very well off students as well as students who were homeless.</p>

<p>I found that even educated, middle class parents didn’t know about financial aid and how much college costs had increased since they themselves had gone to college, and they were urging their kids to apply to colleges that would have cost a lot of money that the parents didn’t have.</p>

<p>Many parents also didn’t know about the importance of filing taxes early so as to be able to fill out financial aid forms. Some didn’t know that colleges didn’t automatically give you the financial aid you needed. Some with very smart kids with great stats didn’t realize that the very top colleges may be more affordable for their kids than OOS publics.</p>

<p>Many poor kids don’t know that fee waivers exist for college apps and taking the SAT.</p>

<p>And when it came to the majority of kids who weren’t in the IB magnet program, for most of those kids, going to college of any kind – including the local public or community college – would have been a very big deal and difficult to figure out how to attain particularly since the GCs often were busy helping kids simply get high school diplomas or GED or stay out of jail or get food to eat. Many students would be the first in their families to graduate from high school. </p>

<p>So getting your scouts thinking about finances as well as the implications of taking the PSAT and SAT (including using sites to study for those tests) and getting as good grades as they can will be important.</p>

16

<p>Thank you, NSM, for bringing up such going points.</p>

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<p>Private does not mean better. More expensive does not mean better. But sending that message would be a concern of mine if I were leading this trip.</p>

17

<p>I think that this is a great idea, but I would emphasize that the purpose of this trip is to learn about how to look at colleges, and to think about what kind of school they might like - big or small, urban or suburban (you might take them to a more rural or small town school at another time) and is not necessarily about these particular colleges as they may or may not be affordable to their families. I think that it is actually helpful for a student to make an early visit to a school that does NOT interest him or her, whether it is for financial reasons or any other, and visit anyway just to see what it is like to visit colleges, to see what questions people ask, to start thinking about what it is like to go to college, etc.</p>

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<p>Wow - I walked away for three hours and I’m overwhelmed and appreciative by the responses!</p>

<p>First, levirm and takinitallin and some others have it exactly right - this trip is not replacing the parental trips and responsibilities, it’s to start motivating the girls to thinking about visiting colleges and maybe what types of schools they might be interested in - no campus, small campus, large, specialized and small, many majors (good for those totally undecided), etc. We have, at meetings, discussed other aspects of the college search - SATs, Common Ap, Fin. Aid etc. but until you get them out there, none of it means much (sometimes even after seeing some schools, it still doesn’t mean much!).</p>

<p>We are from NY and were originally going to Hudson Valley schools (Marist, Vassar, SUNY New Paltz) but decided this might be a little more fun and adventurous. We live in a small, very economically diverse community and the girls are very aware of the different options. One girl in the troop has a brother went to the local cc because their parents didn’t think he performed well enough in hs, he completed his Freshman year there and is now going to SUNY Binghamton. We have discussed costs but this is one area that I feel our high school does a really good job with, much better than I could.</p>

<p>We are planning on driving, parking, and staying in a hotel (5 in a room makes the cost reasonable, even in Boston). I had hoped to get around by foot or public transport, I guess cabs are a possibility too (again, divided by 3 makes it more reasonable).</p>

<p>I am a big believer in the info sessions and wouldn’t skip those, I would be more likely to have an unofficial tour by a current student/former graduate of our high school. Thanks to whomever gave me a geography lesson and suggested a change in the order - I guess I’ll go back and check the times of the info sessions to see if changing the order works. I’m starting to think we might do two full info/tours and maybe I can figure something out with the third. I really want to do three as I think it’s not worth the trip for just two. Maybe I’ll speak to a guidance counselor at our hs and find out who’s currently an upper class student at the different schools and see if their “info session and tour” will suffice as you suggest Midwest Mom. The girls know I always overbook us in whatever we do and they do rise to the challenge but I did forget about the glazed over aspect of too much in one day which would make the trip really much less useful.</p>

<p>CheckersMidwest - Congratulations on showing your girls success, very impressive that you earned the funds in one year! I’ve had two GS troops (two daughters) and the first troop did DisneyWorld in middle school and then Italy in high school. The younger troop (the one I’m doing this outing with), did DisneyWorld in middle school and then London last year in high school. It took a lot of fundraising (two years prior for each trip) and work but the girls were so proud at their success. It was the first time in a plane for some of my girls also and certainly the first passport for most of them. I still have one parent who still thinks I paid for half the trip because she doesn’t believe the girls could raise enough money! Ugh!!!</p>

<p>Lot’s of great information, thanks so much. More planning tomorrow!</p>

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<p>This sounds like a good plan except that your time schedule is WAY too tight. Tours and info sessions tend to start ontime and run late. Plus the kids will need some downtime and a break for lunch. The morning and afternoon are fine, but lose the one in the middle. You could do the third school unofficially on Sunday morning if they have a self-guided tour you can pick up in advance - or maybe, does Boston College do Sunday tours? Skip one of the three urban schools that don’t do Sundays and do BC instead, to add a little variety in terms of atmosphere.</p>

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<p>You might think about adding something to this trip that is NOT a college tour (Freedom Trail? Kennedy library?)</p>