<p>My d insisted on waiting until she had firm data (GPA, rank scores) to start looking at/thinking about schools. So now we know she is in decent shape & has many options. But...we can't seem to pare it down! There are so many choices!! I regret not getting started a year ago!</p>
<p>We don't have time for tons of visits but we have a few available weekends this spring. The summer is much better, but isn't that a lousy time to visit schools? We could wait until the fall but that makes me really nervous...</p>
<p>You are in the perfect sweet spot, imo. Stop panicking and start thinking logically. Just because she can get in a lot of schools doesn’t mean they are ideal for her.</p>
<p>It’s time to start having her figure out what she’s looking for in a college - size, location, major, housing situation, m/f ratio, etc,</p>
<p>I’d suggest if she truly doesn’t know to start with state schools and let her see a large public and a smaller private. </p>
<p>My son concluded - no schools in the south, no tech schools, no big party schools, no small schools, a particular major, but with the ability to do something different if he didn’t end up liking that major, no lax bro’s, didn’t care about sports, wanted music classes available. </p>
<p>It just takes a lot of conversations and from there you can start forming the list. </p>
<p>I used collegeboard a lot and then looked at the, students who liked this also liked that.</p>
<p>good advice eyemamom. If your schools has Naviance it will also help you figure out where she will likely get in. I used Princeton Review and college ******* websites to get a feel for the campus. Also, check out the college pages here to see accepted students stats.</p>
<p>One of the most important things you can do is figure out how much you can pay for school, and run an EFC calculator to see what schools will expect you to pay. Pay close attention to the financial aid policies at schools so you don’t apply to a school that is unaffordable. Check out threads about merit aid, and investigate state school auto merit and scholarship deadlines (often early).</p>
<p>Love naviance but the red/green aspect is annoying. She thinks if a score is highlighted red it’s OUT, even though there may be on a 1/10 difference. And it’s an AVERAGE for goodness sake!</p>
<p>Take her to any campus, doesn’t matter which one, pick one close to your house, and just go. It will give her an idea if she likes the feel of that campus. Is it too big, too small, to rural, too urban, whatever. After that tour, have her write down her feelings about the campus so she remembers them. Then go to the college search websites and select which campuses match that feeling. I don’t know if you can link sites here but I especially like the search tool on the SAT website but the one here is pretty good too.</p>
<p>I would also look at the post here about the current classes acceptances. It’s LONG, but you can get the idea pretty quickly. Look at the “stats” these kids are posting and where they are getting accepted. It will be an eye opener. You hear so much about needing a 4.0 and perfect test scores to get into college and you will see that it isn’t the case. Also look at the thread about the 3.0-3.5 GPA’s and those acceptances and you will see that those GPA"s are getting kids into some really great schools around the country.</p>
<p>It does not have to be a stressful process unless you make it one.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to discuss finances (if that’s an issue) with your D. If there are parameters regarding cost of colleges, talk about it with her honestly and let her know upfront what the limitations will be. That is one way to start paring things down. </p>
<p>My two S’s didn’t really get serious about college selection until end of junior year. It all turned out fine for both.</p>
<p>If you are willing to share your daughter’s SAT scores and GPA, the state you live in, and what she wants to major in (or whether she is undecided), people here can probably give you some suggestions.</p>
<p>I mention your state not because I think your daughter should limit her choices to one geographic area – many kids don’t do this – but because it may be easier to visit nearby schools, especially in this early exploratory phase.</p>
<p>Also, remember that visits are only one part of the research on colleges – and are not necessarily essential, given all the information available from other sources. For example, my daughter visited a bunch of schools, two of which turned out to be her first and second choices (and she was already familiar with her safety school because her brother was attending it), but she never visited two of the schools she applied to. They were outside our geographic region, and she figured she would visit after the acceptances came out if she found herself in a position where she was seriously considering them. As it turned out, she didn’t find herself in that situation, and she never visited.</p>
<p>I would talk about fiances but I would not limit your visits to schools that cost more either. You never know how much a school might cost until you get your aid package. Often, at least around here, the private schools have generous aid and end up costing less than the state schools for better students.</p>
<p>My biggest suggestion is to go visit some schools during spring break and discuss what your daughter liked and disliked about the schools.</p>
<p>Trying to hone in on school size, location etc often changes once a student sees some real schools. The thought of going to school in a city or in a rural area will feel more real if you are on a campus in Boston or one in the middle of PA.</p>
<p>Same thing with school size. Go see one that is smaller and one that is bigger to get a sense of which feels better.</p>
<p>As you see more schools (my son visiting 6), the easier it is to make up the final list of requirements because I guarantee you, some of those “got to haves” will change.</p>
<p>I once read that when you need to make a decision between two things, you should toss a coin – and make sure that it goes way up high in the air so it takes a second or two to come down. By the time it hits the ground, you will know whether you are hoping for heads or tails, and therefore you will have made your decision. You don’t even have to look at the coin.</p>
<p>You can apply the same sort of thinking when planning college visits. For example, if you’re planning a visit to some New England colleges, you might want to suggest going to Wellesley and point out that it’s the top-ranked women’s college in the country. If your daughter agrees, you (and she) know that she is not averse to the idea of a women’s college (and maybe you should go see Smith, too). On the other hand, if she makes gagging noises and says that she wouldn’t attend a women’s college if it was the last college on earth, you’ve both learned something from that, too.</p>
<p>As for when to visit a school. Of course when classes are going on is the best time but there is not “bad” time to go. We have done several visits over the summer because that is what works with our schedule. Our basic plan of attack was to visit the schools they wanted to see last summer (our kids are juniors as well). We just had more time to do that then and really for no other reason than that. We visited 4 campuses last summer, kids figured out what they liked/didn’t like about the schools. Then we focused on schools that had what they liked about the campuses we have visited. We have squeezed in a couple other visits on days off of school and have 3 more scheduled, weather permitting, in Feb and March (possible 4th one)–keep in mind we have twins so we are doing double duty on some of these.</p>
<p>Then, in the fall, if they are really unsure which ones they want, we will do second visits, maybe overnight visits to their top couple choices. As of right now, today anyway, they both have a definite #1 choice. If they get in and the money works out, they will go there, done, easy. If they don’t get in, that is where it gets a bit harder because they each have 2 or 3 back-ups they really like.</p>
<ol>
<li>Calculate your family’s EFC (estimated family contribution) using one of the many online calculators.</li>
<li>Determine what your family can afford to pay each year in cash.</li>
<li>Determine how much borrowing the family and the student is comfortable with.</li>
<li>Become friends with each school’s net price calculator.</li>
<li>Run the NPC with your data before you put that school on your list. Only put those on the list that you are pretty sure you can afford. </li>
<li>Very few schools meet full need without loans.</li>
<li>If you have the cash to afford $55,000 per year, ignore this post.</li>
</ol>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Private School A</p>
<p>$50,000 per year.
$35,000 EFC
$20,000 merit/need scholarship…which is actually a very large award. But it still may not make the school affordable to you.</p>
<p>$30,000 total family contributtion required.
$20,000 cash available.</p>
<p>It’s not bad to have data first so that you have an idea of what is and isn’t possible. Every family has different criteria, but the financial piece is the most important thing to get out in the open first. </p>
<p>Does she have any ideas for major? Is she in the running for National Merit? Are you looking for Financial Aid, or merit aid or will you be full pay? Is it OK for her to be 2000 miles away with transportation involving multiple flights, or are only direct flights OK? Or within driving distance?</p>
<p>When we were getting started, I made both my D’s go to a Preview Day at a local college that I knew they had no intention of attending (although it is a good school) so they could get a feel for the marketing rah rah that goes on so they could be more discerning when it counted, plus I wanted them to get a feel for urban v. rural. v. suburban; what a 5000 student campus felt like v. a 20000 student campus etc.</p>
<p>This is a good time to get started. If you have a February break you might be able to visit a couple of colleges in session, or you can wait till your spring break. Like others have said, try to visit small, large, medium, urban, suburban, rural just to get an idea of what you’ll be crossing out. It’s helpful if these are target colleges, but it’s not absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>I also think it’s a good idea to visit safety colleges first - it’s easy to like colleges on those first visits, so don’t use up that karma on the reaches. :)</p>
<p>You are not late. My son did not start looking into colleges until this fall (senior year!) Add to that the fact that he did a fall sport, and you will understand late. Even so, we have pulled together, done research, and have gotten on track.</p>
<p>The internet is amazingly helpful in its ability to practically bring colleges to you. You can even do a ‘virtual tour.’ Yes, your child definitely needs to visit before committing to attending a school. But my son has applied (and been accepted) to schools that he hasn’t had the chance to visit. We now have a whirlwind college tour coming up. :)</p>
<p>Summer visits can be helpful to check out the campus layout, buildings and neighborhood. This may help to cross off schools that are a definite “No.” If a college remains a possibility, then a 2nd visit when school’s in session would be in order.</p>
<p>Also, check out some college review books (Fiske’s?) from the library to get some more information on specific schools. And this website, and its contributors, are invaluable.</p>
<p>Crumbs- welcome to the search. My D is a Junior as well. We did start earlier but I believe most of her friends are just getting started. You have more than enough time. </p>
<p>We started by attending a preview day at a nearby school. I wanted her to get the feel for a traditional small private school with D1, and a medium sized private school, with DIII. We learned a lot. She really wants a pretty campus ) She wasnt a medium size school not small - about 7000 ish She wants to know her professors, and she wants a program that is hands on where she doesnt have to wait until Junior year to start classes in her major. She could care less about sports, in fact it would go more in the minus. She is very mindful of what the students wear (sigh)- are there artsier students liker her, or too many uggs and northfaces. </p>
<p>Once you have a couple parameters, including what you can afford to pay and major, the list becomes quite small to work from. </p>
<p>I do think the first step is what you can afford. So I agree to start there. If you have a budget of say 25,000, and you will not qualify for financial aid, it may be best to avoid the heartbreak of falling in love with schools out of your financial reach.</p>
<p>Agree with idea of attending local, easy preview days. We did this and it helped D to have a better idea what she was looking at and for and game her some basis for comparison. We also found that quick, 2 hour visits in the summer of schools that were in the long list (local) helped to pare down the list considerably. When a kid sees 2-3 comps back to back, they have a better idea of what is a fit. Early on, D found it much easier to articulate what she liked about school X when she could say, “I really didn’t like this about school Y.” We did some school year vacation visits where possible, but are following up with extended visit at school that she liked well enough in quick summer visit to apply to and is now admitted. To address another thread, though, she decided to pass up the admitted student days later this month and do her own 2 day visit without the raw raw, red carpet stuff where she could tailor her class schedule around what she really wanted to experience. She is now set up with 5 classes, meeting with a department advisor and and overnight midweek between the official events when campus should be more normal.</p>