Making the Final Decision: What's Worth Considering? What's Not?

Parents Forum
1

<p>For parents who have done this before, if you had to do it all over again, what would you have paid attention to when making the final choice between colleges -- and what would you have spent less time thinking about? </p>

<p>I understand that it would have been best to consider everything important before applications were sent, but for many of us, we start to really understand this process just as the acceptances are rolling in. </p>

<p>So, assuming that the student has not applied Early Decision and likes equally more than one of the schools to which she's been accepted, what are the questions your would ask?</p>

<p>And, if your kid has a food allergy (serious Gluten allergy), how would you go about evaluating schools? How big of an issue are dining facilities?</p>

2

<p>For me, this is where fit comes into play. In theory, you don’t apply to places you wouldn’t like at least a little bit, so once acceptances come into play, assuming money, etc. doesn’t make any of them prohibitive, then you pick the place where you think you’ll be happiest. A happy student makes a better student.</p>

<p>But other things to ask about – drinking policy and what safety nets are in place for a kid struggling academically (how late can you drop a class, etc).</p>

3

<p>For the student who has narrowed the choices to 3 or 4, I’d seriously consider overnight visits, which helped S immensely to make his decision.</p>

4

<p>She will definitely visit overnight once we’ve heard back from all and narrowed to three or four as suggested. </p>

<p>I like asking about safe nets and resources for struggling kids? Who would you ask? How do you know what a good response is? I realize I sound a bit like an idiot with that statement but I’m assuming most colleges will say things like, “we have a writing center and most professors have office hours.” Are there better responses to this question?</p>

5

<p>At a lot of schools, the add/drop policy is pretty quick, like two or four weeks into the semester. At ds’s school, kids can drop or go pass/fail the day before finals start (I think, I know it’s LATE). I like that kids don’t have to decide so quickly whether to drop and are given time to pull out a decent grade. I’d ask at the admissions office or just scour the website for the answer.</p>

6

<p>^The drop/add date is typically different from the withdrawal date. Drop/add is the last date you can add the course or drop without it showing up on the transcript as anything. After drop/add, if you withdraw the course shows up as W or R, but there is nothing really negative about this if you don’t make a habit of it. There is also some kind of payment penalty which can be on a sliding scale (after date x you have to pay for 50%, after date y you pay 100%, etc.).</p>

7

<p>Sorry. I used the wrong terminology. Regardless, this is the policy I’m talking about: [Carleton</a> College: Campus Handbook: Academic Regulations & Procedures: Satisfactory/Credit/No Credit (S/Cr/NC or “scrunch” option)](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21531]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21531)</p>

8

<p>kelbee - at S’s orientation the parents had a separate program and one of the mothers asked if there was some way that they kept track of whether the kids were “present” or not, i.e. if her D went missing would anyone know that? It really made me think about the fact that for the first time in their lives we, as their parents, might not know if they were missing for some period of time longer than a few hours. The response was something to the effect that the roommate usually would alert security if the roomie didn’t show up when reasonably expected. </p>

<p>As for safety nets and resources, the more the school has a sense of community the better. In that vein smaller schools will be better. I would suggest asking about the advisement process (do they get a “major” advisor freshman year?) and how many students are assigned to each advisor. It can help if the student has established a relationship with a trusted advisor so they have someone to reach out to.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>It is likely that only the wealthiest private schools that can afford to not be enrolled to full capacity would even consider such a policy. At a school enrolled to capacity with many students not getting some courses because they are full, the idea of students enrolling in a full course, possibly leaving others unable to get in off the wait list, then dropping the course without penalty on the last day, effectively “wasting” the course, would be seen as intolerable.</p>

10

<p>See my link, but it’s not as late as I thought (though I think this might reflect a change in policy). I don’t see having taken a course almost to end and then dropping it as a waste at all. As the policy says, it encourages kids to go out of their comfort zone and take academic risks. Sometimes those risks pay off; sometimes they don’t. But I’m glad the school doesn’t penalize a kid for trying.</p>

<p>This is nothing I would have thought to ask with ds1, but it’s something I’ll keep an eye out for with ds2.</p>

11

<p>Re: [Carleton</a> College: Campus Handbook: Academic Regulations & Procedures: Satisfactory/Credit/No Credit (S/Cr/NC or “scrunch” option)](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21531]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21531) and [Carleton</a> College: Campus Handbook: Academic Regulations & Procedures: Drop/Add](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21446]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/academics/?policy_id=21446)</p>

<p>Looks like the S/Cr/NC option is available through the 7th week of the 10-week quarter there. Adding must be done by the end of the 2nd week, while dropping can be done through the 7th week.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>The community college students unable to register for classes which are full tend to resent those who late-drop the courses that they are trying to register for, since the late-droppers effectively “wasted” their seat in the course (also wasting the state subsidy for the community college, although they did pay the nominal tuition and took a W on the transcript as the “penalty”).</p>

<p>Penalty-free late drop is a luxury for students at wealthy colleges that are not enrolled to full capacity.</p>

13

<p>Being a community college grad myself, I get what you’re saying. But I don’t get what you mean about not enrolled to full capacity. I think the school is right where it wants to be, enrollment-wise, and ds has had plenty of trouble getting into some courses.</p>

14

<p>If my child had a serious medical issue (like a gluten allergy), the colleges ability to accomdate this would be at the top of my list. I would ask very specific questions before my visit and ask to see the accomdations in the dining facilities myself.</p>

15

<p>My advice is to go to admitted students events at the top 3-4 schools once your acceptances are in. While there you can see how the gluten thing will be handled (eat in the dining halls and ask questions to see how they accommodate students with dietary issues) and also get a good idea of fit - which is the most important thing in my opinion.</p>

16

<p>Visit them, overnight stays in a dorm. Most kids but not all end up in an apartment after a few years, so they can cook on their own. Go with your kids gut feeling.</p>

17

<p>kelbee, for my D, one very important thing when she was applying was whether she’d be able to continue meaningful participation in her life-long EC. It didn’t seem like that big a deal to me, but she was right. Her involvement in her college’s version of the EC has been an integral part of her college experience. </p>

<p>She’d read all about it online, of course, but wanted to see for herself. When we went to Admitted Students weekend, she pre-arranged to overnight with another student in the activity, and got to ask all her questions and even participate in a rehearsal which was going on that evening. That was really helpful to her.</p>

18

<p>If you are trying to decide between multiple admission offers, here are a few other things to think about:</p>

<p>1) how easy/hard is it to get to and from campus from home? When you have a clear top favorite, you will deal with the transportation, but how many flights home, whether having a car is necessary, how to get from the nearest airport to the campus, might be things to consider.</p>

<p>2) besides support services, compare the schools’ assistance with finding internships and employment post graduation.</p>

<p>3) if financial aid is a factor, does a school’s financial aid policy continue to make it affordable beyond the first year? If they award entering student merit scholarships, are the scholarships renewable? What is the criteria for keeping them? Some have high GPA requirements which might make them hard to retain.</p>

<p>4) Our oldest D was awarded Federal Work Study as part of her aid package. We were surprised to find how difficult it was to get a work study job on campus. My S (different school) was also awarded Work Study. He has not had a problem; even though his school is smaller there are plenty of jobs to go around.</p>

<p>5) Opportunities for social life: depending on what your student likes to do, are those opportunities available/affordable? Or will your student need to spend a lot of time, effort, and money to (see a movie, go to a concert/play/musical)?</p>

<p>6) There is always the X Factor. A few different ways to think of X:</p>

<pre><code> a. If you are selecting a school because of X (favorite EC, opportunity to play sport, because best friend is attending, best deal) and X were to go away, do you still want to attend there?

b. If you are at the point where you need to eliminate schools because you just have to choose one, is there one when you attempt to cross it off the list, you get a pang and feel a deep sense of loss of opportunity?
</code></pre>

<p>In truth, there are tons of wonderful schools out there, and many students could be happy at many of them. It’s kind of like marriage. There are situations where a student needs to leave/transfer (divorce) but once you have selected a school, even though nothing is always perfect, you learn to go forward and make the best of it.</p>

19

<p>Another thing I look at is the retention rate. To me that speaks volumes. I wouldn’t pick solely on that but I’d assume kids are fairly happy at schools with 95% retention rate and anything below 80% would give me pause. Also look at the 6 year graduation rate. One thing that can be a huge issue in some schools is not being able to get into the classes you need, thereby extending your time in college. </p>

<p>After that it requires going to the school and looking around at the other kids and having your child see if they could imagine themselves there, do they see people they could imagine hanging out with.</p>

<p>Go read rate my professor and see what students think of the main professors in the intended major. </p>

<p>Then it’s like when you buy your wedding dress. You just get that feeling when you put on the right one.</p>

20

<p>Fit, fit, fit. I also agree with eyemamom - retention rate is very important…and the third is the availability/quality of advising. With my first, her advisers (4 - major, college, and coop/internships, study abroad) have really made the difference between floating through college and actively attending college with a purpose. Of course your child has to engage with the advisers but that is another thread ;-)</p>