We are at the beginning of our search process and I’d love to hear any tips on staying organized. I feel like we have a long list of schools to go see (16 total), and I don’t want them to all blend together and start to forget what we liked/ didn’t like about each of them.
We took photos during our tours of things we wanted to remember, for better or worse.
Buy a rubbermaid file tub and make a file for all the materials from each. If you jot down a list of impressions of each, add that. I like the picture idea!
Ditto on taking snapshots on college tours. Also, we created a google spreadsheet where we had columns for all the info we can’t keep in our brains about the schools, such as school name (and link), location, # students, their median test scores and GPAs for incoming students, first impressions, details about scholarships (with links), deadlines, school codes (for ACTs and SAT, AP, etc), net price calculator estimates, and various other things of interest to my student or me. We share access to the sheet, so either of us can add or edit aspects as we go along.
This has been incredibly helpful, allowing us to color-code the ones she ends up applying to, organizing by area of hte country or by deadlines or whatever. It’s saved our bacon this time around as well as last year when my now-college freshman was applying (similar columns, vastly different school choices).
We almost never keep the physical papers, except for the personal notes or letters my daughter decides to keep from college coaches she’s in contact with (D3 runner).
+1 for spreadsheets. I use them for everything I have trouble deciding. Which car to buy, which stereo system to buy, which colleges I’m applying to, etc. Just freeze the panels that have the college names so you always know what you’re looking at.
I can’t edit my previous post but just make sure you have the important information in the spreadsheet. I list the colleges in the rows, and I have columns with:
- Tuition price (on my spreadsheet it’s the full tuition all though you could make a second one for the NPC price)
- The Colleges-Niche overall grade
- Location as well as which metropolitan city it’s in close proximity to
- Acceptance rate (makes it super easy to see if your college is too reach heavy). You can make it more specific by using the 25-75% statistics for test scores, GPA, etc.
- Application date deadline date
- How long they take to give you a decision (I put rolling if it’s a rolling admission system)
- A column for misc. notes. For example: If a college requires you to live on campus for a particularly long time or if they’re in a really sketchy area or if they’re a religious school, etc.
Big, dry-erase wall calendar - 12 or 18 month view. We tracked ALL college related dates starting with ACT, SAT, and AP exam dates, then progressing to school visits, interviews, application deadlines, scholarship deadlines, expected acceptance dates, accepted student visit dates, financial aid deadlines, deposits due, etc. The final entry that went on was “Leave for college” sniff.
I used spreadsheets too but the wall calendar was a big-picture, in-our-face reminder of what was coming up. We kept this calendar college-specific and didn’t use it for day to day appointments. It was also posted in a place where kiddo had no choice but to see several times a day.
Some kids might be stressed by this so it may not be a strategy for everyone. For us, having everything laid out was helpful. Color coding and crossing out things as they got done was emotionally satisfying too.
afterwards: When I went to visit S at college last month, I saw he had a smaller dry-erase calendar on his dorm wall where he was tracking upcoming dates for the semester. 
^ I also got a 1 month dry-erase calendar with a sidebar for notes.
Great tips everyone! Thank you. We’ve seen 4 thus far, and I just want to make sure we stay on top of everything before it all starts to mesh together!!