Process We Went Thru in Applying to Colleges Last Year; Useful List

Parents Forum
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<p>Thought I'd post this as its own topic, and hope that it will be useful to a number of parents / students going through what we did during the college selection and admissions process last year. Good luck to all! :</p>

<p>It's the rare, rare HS student that can cover the college search / application process all by themselves and do it well. Absolutely help them, unless they're only applying to one college and it's a safety LAC. </p>

<p>Our kids also shouldn't, solely on their own, just pick a few colleges + apply to them and then wait for acceptance/rejection (although a fair number of HS students ultimately do that and just attend a LAC, often because they're not fully aware of the many other possibilities). </p>

<p>There's also the necessity of researching a best fit for the student, cost of attending, % covered by aid based on your income level, taking tours (video and/or in person), application review, essay review etc, etc, etc.</p>

<p>Sharing what we went through together last year, here was our list:</p>

<p>---Have a specific goal: Ours was admission to a highly selective college, either private or public was okay, and size didn't matter. The college should have a business school or alternatively a strong Econ department, and be ranked nationally for that area of study.</p>

<p>---Brainstorm: Made a list of 20 or so colleges, with some in each category of safety, fit, reach, large reach.</p>

<p>---Researched each college on list regarding majors they offer versus majors DS was generally interested in. Deleted from list as needed.</p>

<p>---Researched college rankings and probable job placement probability based on the college and probable major (ie, pick a combination of college and major that will likely land your child a job, that they'll enjoy, following graduation). Add/delete from list as needed.</p>

<p>---Research college costs vs probable financial aid: Fortunately we got to skip this part. But if applicable add/delete from your list as needed after researching this.</p>

<p>---Video tour the various colleges, keeping in mind that the videos will only show the best views and wonderful comments---so take it with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>---Visits: We set aside one full week to drive + tour the top choices that were somewhat near each other and also realistic fits prior to applying to any. We ended up seeing 8 colleges and putting a whole lot of miles on the car. Ideally do it when college is in session (your HS spring break?). We ended up doing it during the summer between Junior and Senior HS years and the campuses were fairly quiet. Add or delete some choices following the tours --- 2 of DS top 8 fell off the list entirely after touring them.</p>

<p>---Important!!!: Build an Excel spreadsheet listing the MULTIPLE due date choices and "will get a response by" dates for each university for every type of admission they offer (ED date, EA date, RA date, or if rolling admission). Yes, a single college often has more than one admissions due date (often 1ED, 1EA, 1RA). It's a tough puzzle if you're applying to multiple colleges that each have multiple admissions date options, and you won't be able to accurately keep them all in your head! For each college you're applying to, go to their website and make sure of the rules for each type of application (example: If you apply ED / early decision to a college, most other colleges you'll also be applying to won't let you apply ED or EA to them too then --- only RA). So, and I hope I'm explaining it clearly, once you've chosen a college to apply to in the ED or EA round, that will limit your application type / due date choices at many other colleges (because of those other colleges application rules) to only the RA deadline. </p>

<p>---Let your DS / DD fill out the applications and do the essays themselves, but we (1) discussed general essay topics with DS, and (2) reviewed the common app in full and suggested some minor changes to it before letting him send it out.</p>

<p>---We also had a friend in the "college app biz" that agreed to review and make suggestions on DS essays. There was a fair distance between them, so it was "email essay and chat on phone" style. I'm not saying that you need a pro to review essays, but DO NOT let them get sent out until someone besides DS/DD reads it. DS didn't want us to read them, so we came up with the above alternative.</p>

<p>---Results for those who want to know how it turned out: Last Oct/Nov, DS applied to 7 colleges (1 ED round (first choice of college), 1 rolling admission (safety), 3 EA round and 2 RA round). Was working on several more supplemental essays for 10 more apps that would be due in early January if necessary (couldn't send in sooner because of various ED / EA rules at all the colleges). He was accepted into rolling admissions safety 2-3 weeks after applying; accepted into ED first choice school in mid-December. He called/emailed the other 5 schools that had his apps to withdraw them (so he wouldn't accidentally take an "accepted" spot from someone else at those schools). Happily got to throw away the additional supplemental essays he was working on!</p>

<p>Feel free to ask me any questions about the above bullets if worthwhile.</p>

<p>P.S. For those of you who might be thinking "They applied to 7 colleges to start, and had 10 more on the back burner for January???", --- a very large number of those schools have crazy low admissions rates regardless of your child's stats. Also, we had no hooks (like first gen, URM, athlete, legacy, etc) to increase DS chances so were left with using the "take full advantage of the ED/EA application rounds and also apply to a significant number of schools" method.</p>

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<p>I think the goal setting is a good start, followed by a financial discussion of realistic ability to fund schools by the family.</p>

<p>Most students will not need to apply to 17 or more schools. Many “vet” their choices and can whittle this down to 7 or even less in many cases. </p>

<p>Write down each and every dead,one for each and every college. I know folks really live excel, but personally I found that a dedicated college calendar worked better…it was a visual with ALL of the information written in each date needed. This gave us all the whole picture in a calendar format that was very easy to read and use. Kids also used a different colored pen for writing in school related or other important happenings or events. It would NOT have been smart to try to complete an alp placating the day before leaving for a family wedding, or during midterms.</p>

<p>I would suggest that the deadlines you set for yourself be at least 5 days before the deadline set by the school. You never know when there will be a computer snafu, server shutdown, or power outage (last year a number of ED deadlines were affected by Hurricane Sandy, the year before by the New England snowstorm). Plan ahead…get things done early.</p>

<p>Another thing…with regard to financial aid. If you are applying EA or ED, check for priority filing deadlines for ED or EA applicants. These can be in late October or early November. Don’t miss these dates! Actually, don’t miss any deadlines…none. For financial aid purposes, make sure you keep good records of your earnings, assets, and any investment income. Keep year to date pay stubs which will help you if you have to file the Profile or FAFSA using estimates. You want these estimates to be as close to reality as possible. And get your taxes done ASAP after January 31 when you should have all of the necessary documentation to do so. I’d you use an accountant, get the earliest possible appointment to get those taxes done. This is NOT the year to wait until April 15 to file your taxes.</p>

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<p>We were “spreadsheeters” as well. However, I think 17 schools is ridiculous. Probably (based on the OP’s name) aiming at every Ivy and hoping for some success, with some matches & safeties thrown in. It smacks of applying to schools because of prestige and reputation instead of fit. The OP may not like it, but I don’t think this a very good formula for anyone to follow. My D2 applied to eight schools, including 3 reaches, 2 matches, and 2 safeties. Got in everywhere she applied (best results in her high school class in spite of not being val or sal). Her list was focused, and she KNEW she would have a good fit at any school on her list. Plus she had a nice range of cost and geographic options. This is because she took the time to plan and evaluate her list, not just apply to a ton of “top” schools.</p>

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<p>This is great advice–particularly for students/parents/families new to this journey.</p>

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<p>I am a little concerned by the “let” in this sentence: “Let your DS / DD fill out the applications and do the essays themselves.”</p>

<p>The organizing of this whole effort should, I think, come from the kid, with the parent involved in a supportive (and often very much needed) way.</p>

<p>Personally, I think that looking into job placement is a bit premature. That may be the focus for some but I would rather make sure of quality academics and advising, and worry about job placement in 4 or 5 years.</p>

<p>The whole thing doesn’t have to be this much of a huge deal. My kids applied to 2-4 carefully chosen colleges and it worked out fine. There wasn’t much to keep track of: no Excel spreadsheet needed.</p>

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<p>I don’t think anti-LAC advice is helpful. My son wanted to “just” attend a LAC, so that is all we focused on. His entire list (much shorter than 20) was made up of LACs + one state flagship as a safety. LACs are not a consolation prize for those who could have gone to bigger, more elite private universities. For some kids, they are the only type of school that makes sense.</p>

<p>I do love video tours as a first glance at a faraway college, and agree that spreadsheets are lifesavers for keeping track of details. Although my younger child does not plan on applying to very many colleges (at this point she is only committed to two or three) she will likely have audition dates to consider on top of regular admission deadlines–making the whole thing a bit more complicated than it was the first go-round.</p>

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<p>I’m bothered by the OP’s implication that a LAC is a mistake or what kids do when they don’t know any better. D’s target was to attend a LAC - she knew the environment she wanted - near a city, but a school with a very defined, self-contained campus, lots of greenery and quads, somewhere around 3-6K undergrad, not looking for a heavy research/grad program, little or no Greek, liberal/tolerant atmosphere, and a chance to explore lots of classes. She prefers small classes with vibrant discussion groups (years of Model UN training!). Her high school senior project was a careers project, and she did lots of research in her intended major of Chemistry, only to decide mid-senior year she didn’t want to pursue the sciences. So targeting majors/jobs wasn’t as important as a campus where she would be exposed to a breadth of possibilities and could explore different majors. </p>

<p>Spreadsheets were key, especially when it came to keeping track of deadlines for financial aid - when was the FAFSA due, the CSS profile, tax returns. D was responsible for keeping track of when her applications were due and handling all the Common app work. (we just paid the application fees - ouch!)</p>

<p>In-person visits were key - several schools that looked perfect on paper and from their web sites turned out to be non-starters once we visited in person.</p>

<p>Merit aid was a huge consideration for us - private schools would be out of our reach otherwise. D applied to 7 schools, one reach, one we felt she’d get in but weren’t sure about merit, and 5 others where we felt she was a strong candidate. We really didn’t know how the aid would be so wanted to have several options. She was offered substantial merit money at all 5, and accepted into Honors programs at 3. At that point I broke out the spreadsheets again to compare total COA (since you can’t just look at the numbers the school provides - there are lots of variables in total COA). She didn’t take the lowest cost offer, but did choose a school that met her needs and was reasonable affordable after the merit money. And she is loving it!</p>

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<p>I am either a slacker or I have a rare kid. S has been in the driver’s seat for almost all of this. He has done all of the on line research, applications, taken care of recommendations, ordering transcripts, sending test results, planning school visits, etc. The only thing we have had to do is accompany him on most of the visits (he did overnights on his own), and pay for all of it. I think it helps that he has an older sibling, but he is very independent.</p>

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<p>FallGirl - both my boys handled almost all as well. I did suggest a couple of schools for both of them that they might look into (which they did) but otherwise they handled their recommendations, transcripts, essays, etc. We did visit schools together (I found those trips fun) and we paid for the trips, the applications, etc. Both have ended up with nice matches for themselves - oh gee, I guess they’re “only” at LACs and are happy as clams to be there.</p>

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<p>17 is overkill especially with an ED application. It would be a rare situation when a kid would need more than ten if the front end research (fit and finances) have been researched. Most kids can handle just about everything and would need help with the financial (they won’t know how much the parents can/will spend and they need help with the finaid forms). They also need help financially with visits and logistics help if they are visiting alone.</p>

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<p>Thanks BTMell. Many of S’s top choices are LAC’s.</p>

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<p>My kids didn’t apply to LACs, but the put down is not appreciated.</p>

<p>Personally I think the best thing I did was make my kids apply somewhere EA. That meant they had filled out the Common Application and written the bulk of their essays by mid October.</p>

<p>My kids applied to highly selective colleges too, but we thought 8 (six reaches, two safeties) were enough. </p>

<p>I had a spread sheet, but I didn’t use it to keep track of deadlines, mostly I used it to sort out the colleges by selectivity. You could resort the list by percent accepted, SAT scores or GPAs and see what seemed to be important. It mostly kept me amused and out of my kids’ hair.</p>

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<p>Some kids can handle being in charge. Others will need to have their hands held every step of the way. </p>

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<p>In my part of the world, kids who apply to one or two schools tend to apply to their state universities, not LACs. I’m a little confused by the emphasis on LACs in this thread.</p>

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<p>The same could be said for the state universities.</p>

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<p>We are 7 years past college applications…but the best thing WE did was suggest to our kids that they complete their college applications before November 1. Since each was applying EA or rolling to at least one school, it was not an issue.</p>

<p>Both remarked that it was SOOOO nice having the applications out of the way before November. While their friends were sputtering with college application “stuff”, they were able to enjoy the holidays, and winter of their senior year without that albatross hanging over their shoulders.</p>

<p>Agree with Mathmom…at least one rolling admissions, and EA school are good choices. Both of our kids got that acceptance in November and said “ate know I’m going to college somewhere.” One actually went to that first acceptance school!</p>

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<p>My son had all of his done by October 1. We all got to enjoy the fall/winter of his senior year.</p>

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<p>I was wondering if perhaps OP didn’t know what LAC meant, because there are LACs that are some of the top schools in the country and the seemingly negative comments about LACs made no sense at all.</p>

<p>My advice is to apply early to a school with early or rolling admissions that you would be happy to attend. Senior year is a LOT easier with a viable acceptance in your pocket. We did do the spreadsheet with deadlines, although everything was easy enough to keep straight without one since D only applied to 5 schools. Since all of her applications were in by the end of October, and all of her acceptances received before Christmas, D avoided most of the stress that many of her classmates went through over almost all of senior year.</p>

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<p>But they’re not IVIES. :D</p>

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<p>I agree with this 100%. Even if it’s the school the child is least likely to attend (if there are eventually other options), having an acceptance in hand–knowing that he/she can go SOMEWHERE–is a huge morale boost at what can be a very stressful time.</p>

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<p>I’m glad I am not the only one who was really put off but the negative comments about LACs. Likely the OP meant that students who aren’t organized / have not done the research might end up somewhere that isn’t perhaps the best fit/choice since they didn’t know what else was out there.</p>

<p>But I do agree with the general advice (although my D did not apply to any schools EA or ED).</p>

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<p>Doesn’t this belong here?
Admissions Hindsight and Lessons Learned
[Admissions</a> Hindsight and Lessons Learned - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/]Admissions”>Admission Stories - College Confidential Forums)</p>

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<p>IIRC, this was once a much longer thread, at the end of which it was revealed that the OP misunderstood LAC as “local area college” - usually a directional school with open (or nearly so) admissions.</p>