<p>S2 is down to his top 5 and trying to decide. He has visited all of them but one and is waiting for one more merit aid decision.
Soccer seems to big his top factor in the final decision but we are looking at retention rates, 4,5, & 6 year graduation rates, and much more. There is so much information available I don't really know what is critical when guiding him in selecting a school.
S2 is literally all over the map as far as the academic level of the school and really does not have a stand out favorite.
I don't even know anymore what are the really important factors and wonder if I could get some suggestions?</p>
<p>What’s important to your son and you?</p>
<p>I will start with some criteria people usually consider:</p>
<p>Location (does he need to be at any location, urban vs suburban)
Ranking (prestige, difficulty)
Size (large, medium, small)
Money (how important is FA to your family, how much could you afford)
Major (is your son married to his major or will he change his mind)
EC (he wants to play soccer, does he have other must have ECs)
Life after graduation (how important is it to have a strong career center, medical school,law school, other graduate schools)
student life (drinking, Greek life, football, school spirit)</p>
<p>For scholar athletes I think it is important to consider what it would be like to attend the school without playing the sport. Things don’t always go as planned, eliminate any school that is only appealing because of the sport. Then consider educational value - what is the return on your academic investment. If all the remaining schools are equal the quality of life on/around campus could be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>I would tell my son to go back to the point when he decided to apply to these schools…what made him apply? Then, since he’s visited make a list of what he liked and what he didn’t like. Have him focus on the tangible things like oldfort mentions: location, size, available majors, cost, dorm life, student life which might be soccer for your son. Presumably selectivity, retention rates and all that were discovered before apps so that all colleges were fair game, so focus on the less tangible things.</p>
<p>He’s got plenty of time but if he’s the type that can’t make decisions make a chart with factors that he thinks are important and have him rank each of the 5 colleges 1 through 5 and add the numbers up! That might help him visualize the best fit for him.</p>
<p>I firmly believe housing options are very important. I personally handle almost any type of weather, city size, etc, but if I am not comfortable in my nest…then I am miserable. I have found this to be true with my own children and my nieces and nephews. They are always happy in their college lives until something goes wrong with their housing…ie, bad roommate, bugs, etc.</p>
<p>Do any of these schools have a special preview day coming up for admitted students? We found attending those events extremely helpful. For one of the schools it was our second visit, and we saw a lot we hadn’t seen the first time. It made it much easier for my daughter to make her decision.</p>
<p>His criteria is the opportunity to play soccer as a freshman (goalkeeper) and hot chicks!
Food of course and dorms are up there. Academics are important to him but that seems hard to really figure out. Just because a school isn’t as selective doesn’t mean they won’t get a good education. He doesn’t care about location and all are small schools which he wants. He has liked all of the schools he has visited (Prob. 7). When we ask him if soccer were not part of the equation which school would he choose he says “I don’t know.”
Our biggest criteria is cost and graduating in 4 years. We have 100K for all four years and he has to make up the rest somehow. Ease/cost of travel would be great too so we could actually see some games. We want him to be happy but he doesn’t know since he has never spent much time out of So. Calif.
He has an unweighted GPA of 3.97 and 4.05 weighted. 24 ACT which is one frustrating part. Has taken several AP classes and had A’s & B’s.</p>
<p>My three kids did this process all differently. My oldest needed our guidance and we learned the process together. We thought we had picked the perfect school, but it was too big, too academic, and too far away.</p>
<p>My middle son was most involved in that spreadsheet of criteria, and I’m still finding his notes which he compiled from a college guidebook that rated those components. Academics and food were his priority. Turns out, this kid is so busy to get to the dining hall with all of his activities that he just gets his own food. Sadly, he forgot to notice they had a language requirement. I think that’s been the only frustration.</p>
<p>DS3 was completely different. We toured at least a dozen colleges, but he visited this one school, without us, for a weekend and came back in love. Although he was accepted to several amazing colleges, he went back to the one he visited. The first time we saw it was on freshman move-in day.</p>
<p>Suggestion: skip over-analyzing, since the biggest factors that make a difference are still unknown: roommates and professors. Get a sense of where he’s most comfortable, what’s most affordable, and which ones have the right academic options. Then ask his GC for advice.</p>
<p>Have you asked your son where he can see himself spending 4 years? When I was transferring from a 2 your community college to a 4 year school, one school seemed way too “elite” for me, and another had garbage strewn down the cafeteria steps for 3 days. Like Goldilocks, the third had people who seemed more like me, so that was where I went.</p>
<p>Good idea to not over analyze but the financial end of things will be a deal breaker if he doesn’t graduate in 4 years. He is really set on his major which wasn’t the case with S1 but he still is on track to grad. in 4 years. I had to make his final school decision which he was so happy I did and loves U. of O. He couldn’t decide either.
Wish there was one that he was just loved. We thought he had decided on Westminster/Utah after we visited and then he cooled down a few days later. Not sure why other than he is concerned about 40% Mormons which wouldn’t bother me. My gut tells me that is where he will end up but we will see.</p>
<p>Going to a school with 40% Mormons is a big deal if you are not a Mormon. It may not bother you, but he is the one who would be attending the school.</p>
<p>I don’t think academic reputation gets enough attention in general throughout the admissions process. For example, it’s very important for applications to graduate school. Will the student be challenged at the school? Will the school offer the right type of academic programs, not only in the major – e.g. someone who needs to work on writing should probably go to a place where they have a good composition and writing program so that the student can improve. Also the better the school in terms of academics, the better the students and the quality of conversation outside of the classroom. Having said that, the location/size/feel of the school are very important factors – and students will respond differently depending on their likes and experiences.</p>
<p>I’ll link to an old (OLD) thread of mine… my approach seemed to help a lot of people, and others came on thread with good perspectives as well.</p>
<p>[A</a> way to decide - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=51596]A”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=51596)</p>
<p>Why is going to a school that is 40% Mormon be bothersome? 60% are not. Some of the best people I have met are Mormon. I asked him why that would be a concern to him and he says “I don’t know.” Maybe he just doesn’t want to tell me.</p>
<p>Copterguy, my only comment is that academic reputation and the like should be filtered out when you do the applications. They should be willing to attend all the schools where they apply…why the heck should kids apply to a school where they feel they won’t be academically prepared. The OP’s son is trying to decide about which college to choose. That’s when the location/size/feel/dorms/food etc. start to factor in.</p>
<p>OP, I had no idea that Westminster tilted so heavily toward Mormon. S1 looked at it in 2005 and we have a friend with a son there now…I thought it had a more regionally diverse student body?</p>
<p>It’s really difficult - I would not have wanted to be in the minority when i transferred, but I would not have let anyone else take the suggestion that “we” were inferior. Some kids are put on a tightrope in these situations. Fortunately, it is ultimately not a bad position for them.</p>
<p>Hi Momofthreeboys: Yes it is 40% Mormon. Read it somewhere and then checked with admissions. They have some commuters and it is Utah so there is that draw.
Our son stayed there for two days and he said it seemed diverse but he didn’t talk to anyone about their religion preferences.</p>
<p>There are thousands of great school out there, you have to narrow them down somehow. My D2’s first criterion was a place where she could continue her sport on the varsity level, second was a place with cold weather. Academic quality, financial aid, on campus housing, size were also factors, but I don’t see anything wrong with having preferences like weather or sport participation as factors. Doing so let us rule out all the NCAA Div I and II schools. And anything in the South or Southwest. There still were plenty of schools to have to sift through!</p>
<p>It’s only February. Your son doesn’t have to decide yet. Let him just live with the choices and my guess will be that when April rolls around he will have a favorite.</p>
<p>my 3 girls, why did your D2 rule out D2 schools? I thought they balanced academics/athletics pretty well.
Yes, hopefully by April he will decide but since he is a goalkeeper he is starting to get some pressure to commit by mid-march.</p>
<p>Basically because, although she was and is committed to her sport, she wasn’t good enough to compete at most D II schools. It’s an individual sport so it was easy to judge where she would fall based on times. She’s a junior now and continues to compete. She’s not a star, and only garners a few points for her team at a meet, but she still loves the physical act of training and competing, and the team has been a great social group for her.</p>