<p>After many months of passively enjoying the journeys of the current seniors on CC, the time for us to actively start searching has come. My junior D recently had her first meeting with her college counselor and the process appears to be starting in earnest. Due to her obsessive mother (many thanks to CC), D had a nice list of schools already loaded into Naviance. The counselor was impressed with her array of reach, match, and safety schools once again, thanks CC! Next step is to start cutting down the long list (~30) of schools. As part of that process, I would like to help D develop a spreadsheet listing some of the information that she will need to help her make decisions and compare schools. Any thoughts on the type of information that should be incorporated into the spreadsheet? We started one which includes information on her interested area of study and the Naviance scattergrams will help her identify appropriate schools based on test scores and GPA. What other information should she be collecting? She is involved in a varsity sport but I dont think she is strong enough to be recruited. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I am so impressed with the acceptances and merit aid offers the current seniors have earned. My congratulations to everyone. I am looking forward to this next year with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. I hope that my Ds search for a college that fits her well will be as successful as so many of yours have been already this year.</p>
<p>Pretty much anything that she considers important should be included. Percent of Sorority Participation, for example, is an easily obtainable stat -- but if she doesn't care one way or another it would just clutter up your spreadsheet. Ditto things like whether the school offers a large Study Abroad program, is there a First Year Experience component, ROTC (and whether it's on-campus or an affiliate program), honors program, club/intramural sports in her area of interest, etc. By way of example, I just pulled out my S' "Big List" and here are the column headings: Average ACT/SAT, 25-75 ACT/SAT Range (broken down into CR and Math), Acceptance Rate, Average GPA, 4-year Grad Rate, 5-year Grad Rate, Freshman Retention Rate, total enrollment, annual cost of attendance, ED/EA/Rolling, Greek Life %, ROTC, Club Baseball, Nearby Volunteer Fire/Rescue Squad.</p>
<p>That last one is a perfect example of something that wouldn't be on 99% of other students' lists, but since it is important to my son, it's something he wants to have quick access to. </p>
<p>Two numbers that should always make it onto a spreadsheet like this: 4-year graduation rates and freshman retention rates.</p>
<p>Good luck! Buried somewhere on the Parents Forum is a thread for us parents of Juniors to introduce ourselves. I'll bump it up now that things are starting to heat up.</p>
<p>As long as you are putting in stats that will help you decide, you might as well put in due dates for things like applications, recommendations, test scores, transcripts, interviews, financial aid applications and (if applicable) audition requests, screening tapes, auditions, and teacher selection forms. We found it very handy to have all of those dates in one spot when applying to ten different schools.</p>
<p>how about financial info - do they offer merit aid; cost of tuition; percentage of students who get need based aid.</p>
<p>if these factors might possibly come in to play in the future in terms of what will be options for your daughter, best to get that right up front NOW so neither you nor she are in for any rude surprises later. all too often this type of information is considered as an afterthought -- after a student may have their heart set on a school that may not be financially realistic.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the advice. I'm trying to collect as much information up front so that we don't have to search the same sites multiple times trying to get information - also trying not to have a spreadsheet that contains so much information that it is difficult to use. However, I guess it is better to collect the info and then delete or hide the columns we don't need later. Thanks again - your thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated.
lderochi - I'm going to start with your column headings - well, without the baseball and Fire/Rescue since I don't think her interests are headed that way, but I will add her sport.
BassDad - I was thinking about putting in all the deadlines (ok, I was dreading putting in all the deadlines, so I was trying not to think about it at all) but I wasn't sure it was necessary since her school uses the Naviance program. However, you have a point that it might be easier to have everything in one place. Once she whittles down her choices, I imagine we'll have 10 to 12 schools total.
unbelievablem - good idea about the financial information. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll qualify for much aid - one child, two working parents. I believe her PSAT scores will qualify her for NMSF, which might help her with merit aid at some schools. </p>
<p>Thanks again to all of you for taking the time to help. I'll need lots more guidance as we work through this. Luckily, my D has some definite ideas about the types of schools she wants - although she came home from her visit to the counselor all excited about a school that doesn't meet any of the criteria she set forth initially... It's going to be a long year.</p>
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Unfortunately, I do't think we'll qualify for much aid - one child, two working parents.
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<p>at collegeboard.com's parents page there is a financial aid calculator so you can plug in some numbers and get an idea of what you can expect.</p>
<p>NMSF - depends on the school as to how much if any merit money this ends up meaning - at some schools it can mean full tuition - but at some it can mean only a couple of hundred dollars. if you haven't actually looked in to this yet, you may be surprised as to what this will actually translate into in terms of dollars. i don't know all the details, but don't assume nmsf automatically equals significant merit money.</p>
<p>Other merit money may be available from the schools that may be much more significant - and not based on nmsf status -- some schools will be very clear on what their standards are for merit aid, others very vague (gives them more discretion in targeting the money to the kids they want). often merit money is based on sat's, gpa's, community service, etc. one more thing for you to check the school websites about :)</p>
<p>you will end up trashing your first spread sheet and making another one that is her final list.<br>
On our final college list spread sheet, we add a column for Overnight visitation options..which are amazingly complex and unique to each college as well as rules for classroom only day visitation. Don't make the mistake of assuming your senior can visit when it is convenient for him or her. The window between when they begin allowing overnights for prospectives, the number of kids allowed per week, the rules on No Weekend nights or just Tues and Thurs, the people you must contact..some are student run organizations with limited hours...and the reality that the week you want to go they are mysteriously in exams and no lectures are taking place or they have some odd reason they don't want you visiting can be a challenging. It is however, hugely worth the effort if possible to visit fall of senior year even for a morning..fodder for Why College X essays and food for thought as the senior works through to realistic views of each college and Self and fit. Students who are applying all over the US may not have this luxury and I don't mean to imply it affects admission odds much but it does the student a lot of eye opening good to get past the hype and simply sit in a lecture and take a meal in a Dining Hall and soak it up. Many families can leave off visits till April just fine. All but two of my S's colleges were in our region so he made it to classes for five colleges and this was hugely helpful to understand the culture of the college. Also, even if they don't want you there on Friday for liability reasons, it was cool to see the students let their hair down and see what they do on Fridays if possible. Although we left a fine LAC on Friday at dusk, we saw the student body pour out of the dorms and hit the intramural fields, cheer on teams and getting out to just play which was very helpful. Saturday mornings are dead on college campuses and one often wonders where the students are!</p>
<p>in addition to the headings noted previously, S had two other columns: Why on the List? Why Should'nt be on the List? Of course, both were qualitative items, but it's a column that can start to answer the why college essay, and discern similarities/differences between the lists. Since your S is likely NMF, you might want to search and note those schools that offer good merit aid for the psat test.</p>
<p>Also, concur with listing all deadlines, EA/ED/RD, recommendations, auditions, and FinAid, particularly merit scholarship deadlines which can be earlier than RD and require additional essays.</p>
<p><<saturday mornings="" are="" dead="" on="" college="" campuses="" and="" one="" often="" wonders="" where="" the="" students="">></saturday></p>
<p>Got that right. We visited Muhlenberg on a cold saturday morning in the middle of a monsoon, no less. After touring empty dining halls, empty student center, empty classroom buildings, and seeing an empty quad, I was convinced that we had unknowingly scheduled a visit when they weren't in session! No, they just had enough sense to sleep in.</p>
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I was convinced that we had unknowingly scheduled a visit when they weren't in session! No, they just had enough sense to sleep in.
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<p>we had similar experiences sometimes when we got to campus before 10 am on a weekday! :)
since the hs day starts at 7:30 am, it was hard for my daughter to understand why no one was around that early. that in and of itself helped teach her something about college life!</p>
<p>and along the lines of the overnight visit info - also list info re when info session and tours are. we found that very helpful when we quickly wanted to figure out whether it was possible to do two school visits in a day (not something i recommend in general) - often the scheduled times made it impossible even for two schools that were realtively near each other. And also whether you need to book the info session and tour ahead of time.</p>
<p>Still, Iderochi, it is hard to overcome those inevitable drive throughs or rainy day tours if they leave you nonplussed. And these trips are not all sweetness and light..can be hard to arrive fresh and open minded many times. Just like you may remember a city unfairly by one rude taxi driver, we parents can take too much stock out of the blah student tour guide we might meet. At one of the nation's finest small LACs, our guide smacked gum the entire time, related that she was asleep ten minutes before meeting us, and was sopping wet from a quick shower, wearing a belly ring that was sort of captivating and flip flops in winter and only had the vaguest lackluster things to say about her college. Time with her was wasted time. So many more interesting people on campus. My shy son learned to email ahead of time and arrange five minute hellos with profs and sit in on classes. Most Admissions webpages have a link to classes on the approved list for visitors but you still have to arrive five minutes before class to introduce yourself to the Prof and take a seat. Then you should IMHO send a very short courtesy thank you email. Not to make too much of it but some professors will drop everything and give you the scoop on their department quite frankly.<br>
So it is really the responsibility of the student to get past the external and my son didn't really get proactive till he was a senior. The junior year tours in our family were marked by passivity and just following herds of sheep around on tours. Weekends are so dead and it is hard in some high schools to sign out your child for weekday visits..much less miss a day of employment yourself. Our district has a limited amount of days allowed for such absences but a blind eye was turned on some of our outings.
I am sorry my S saw my undergrad college as night fell..he never had an accurate picture of it in his mind. And BTW..it is dark in New England, yes, DARK at five pm in the fall so be realistic if you venture north that daylight hours are limited.</p>
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Don't go too overboard with the first list. You need two: The first contains information that will help you decide which schools to apply to. Thus, you don't want to deal yet with deadlines, etc. Once you have used spreadsheet #1 to rank the schools to apply to, THEN develop another with deadlines, recs, essays, etc.</p>
<p>We used a spreadsheet over a long period of time and had the costs, likely merit money, distance away, SAT ranges, selectivity, etc. Most important was information on likely majors. When my kid changed the intended major, some schools were eliminated and others joined the list.</p>
<p>Don't think of it as a one-time exercise, but as a living document that can be added to, shortened, sorted in various ways, etc.</p>
<p>Mum - I had lots of objective data for DD to mull over. But it was campus visits that REALLY culled the list! Lacking those, I'd suggest following BlueBayou's suggestion of some qualitative indicators. How many students is "too big" or "too small?" What would be "too isolated" or "not enough of a campus feel?" Or possibly "would this school still be good for me if I changed majors?" JMHO.</p>
<p>jeez, how many of us did spread sheets?? I was keeping that a kind of an anal obsessive parent secret. We had ours set up so that any school with a sticker price of over $30,000 would be in red. Ours had mostly stat stuff and no deadlines. I did a seperate one for the deadlines, just to make it easier. We also put on the number of students.</p>
<p>How many did spread sheets? What I want to know is how many used MS Project.</p>
<p>MS Project - I never thought of that! Well, now I'm kind of glad I didn't, :)</p>
<p>Our criteria included the really basic ones - size, location (i.e. city or suburbs or rural), proximity to NYC ( big plus), dance programs, study in Latin America options, and, key for D, the ratio of boys:girls. :) </p>
<p>The subjective rating of where the boys were cuter and the kids more "regular" (her code for fit I think) we did not need to put on the list as those are things she would not forget.</p>
<p>I've got a large poster board with an admissions matrix (forms, due dates, etc) on it. Too big to get lost.</p>
<p>My bid in the ring for the "Formerly Anal" Blue Ribbon award - I actually designed a Microsoft Access database including EVERYTHING I had ever heard my son mention that would be a factor, plus my factors (e.g. merit scholarships). However, it died under its own weight - too many fields to fill in for too many schools, and a student who took the "clammed up and intuitive" route to college selection. </p>
<p>I showed my design to a college counselor, and he said "You've got to be kidding!" Clearly he thought I was over the top - and I was! The hyperanalytical residue accumulated from writing statements of work and proposal evaluation plans. Should have stuck with soothing contemplation of the Neoplatonists.</p>
<p>I second the motion to visit lots of places for the student to get impressions of various types of colleges - large public, small private LAC, private mid-sized university, etc. (But in truth, even the visits didn't help my offspring much - despite my attempts to emulate a mother Penguin stuffing digested fish down her fledgling's throat).</p>
<p>I do have a handy-dandy little one-page spreadsheet template that I have passed on to others for the post-selection-going-to-apply stage. PM me if you would like a copy.</p>