<p>Did anyone mention Vanderbilt?</p>
<p>Not wanting to play the “race thing,” but the very fact that the OP and his son are not exclusively focused on the Ivies / top 10 schools will serve them very well. Many of the places that have been mentioned upthread may be in a position where an Asian applicant brings more diversity. That would be especially true, IMO, for many of the schools in the Midwest (with the possible exception of NU and UChicago) and for schools like Vanderbilt who are making a concerted effort to increase diversity.</p>
<p>I might add Davidson College as a place to think about.</p>
<p>OP - my kids (twins) are juniors, as well, though not at your son’s level :-). We are spending basically every 3-day weekend they have throughout the remainder of this year, plus spring break, planning trips to various places. We have only visited a handful so far, and have a lot to go, but we find these invaluable in helping each of them articulate what they like – city, suburban, rural … small campus, large campus … outdoorsy vs bookish feel … and the indefinable “vibe” campuses have (are the students assertive? out for themselves? collegial? warm / welcoming? status-conscious?). </p>
<p>I don’t know where you are in the midwest (and if you tell us, we may be able to give you some itinerary suggestions), but it may be worth taking your S to see a few campuses that are nearby … don’t worry too much about whether they are reaches / safeties / matches at this point, focus more on the feel that he might spark to. For example, if you are in MPLS, you could look at Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf to get a range. If you are in OH, you could look at Oberlin, Case, Kenyon, Miami of Ohio to get a range. Again, don’t focus so much on the schools per se, but what they represent (urban, rural, university vs LAC, etc.).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>He should also explore Rice as a reasonable reach. It’s a great school, with a very collaborative environment and more of a midwest vibe than a southern vibe. (I have a son at Wash U, and it has a similar feel.) Also, like Wash U, Rice easily allows switching between schools, so it’s great for a kid that doesn’t know what they want to major in. Despite the fact that Rice is in Houston, it’s located on a very self-contained lush campus, so it doesn’t feel like it’s in a big city (unless students care to venture out). It’s need-blind, is less expensive than its peer schools and offers merit aid to 1/3 of its admitted students. Check it out.</p>
<p>[Rice</a> University - Virtual Tours](<a href=“http://www.rice.edu/virtualtours/]Rice”>Visit Rice)</p>
<p>When is the best time to visit schools? We are thinking about this summer.
What is the best route if we want to visit Vanderbilt, Rice and Wash U?
We never visited Ivy League Schools. Should we visit them? Is it worth it?
What is the best route if we plan to visit NE schools?
Thanks again.</p>
<p>With his stats, he is competitive pretty much anywhere. The very top schools are a crapshoot for anyone, so it’s a good that he is not fixated on them, although he is definitely in the range. So he and you need to look at factors such as: need-blind vs. merit aid (at your income level, your child would get significant aid at top universities such as HYPS) and other need-blind universities or LACs. With his stats, he could also get good merit aid at a number of colleges, and be admitted into the honors programs at some top public schools such as Michigan (which has a strong Political Science department).
As an Asian-American student, he might increase his chances of admission at schools in the Midwest and at small LACs throughout the country which try to be more diverse by recruiting not only URMs (African-Americans and Hispanics) but also Asian-Americans.
You’ve been given the names of a lot of good colleges. It would be good for your son to whittle down the list by considering his criteria (location, size, weather, social scene).</p>
<p>The best time to visit schools is actually during his school vacation when college students are on campus and he can get a feel for what the college feels like to students. Even when a college has summer school, the atmosphere can be quite different, as the students may not be from that college.</p>
<p>“Do you have suggestions other than religious or southern schools?”</p>
<p>Sorry, but while I can understand that one might prefer not to go to a school with a strong religious affiliation if that impacts the academic areas that can be covered or interferes with social life in some way, I have trouble seeing places like Georgetown and Notre Dame as religious or to be ruled out on that basis. But it’s a legitimate concern in terms of individual family values and one’s own religious background, and it doesn’t faze me to the extent that regional bias does. </p>
<p>Not wanting a child to be more than a given distance from home is one thing. Ruling out a whole region is another. (I am focusing on the south here because of the OP’s stated preference but could be just as passionate about the Midwest.) As far as the southern issue goes, Wash U, which the OP mentions, is in Missouri, a state that is as much southern in location as midwestern. Vanderbilt, mentioned in several posts, is also southern by most definitions, though does seem like a reasonable reach or even match for a really good student. People who rule out the south as a region in which to attend (or encourage their children to attend) college are showing an enormous amount of regional bias that cuts them off from a number of wonderful opportunities, including but not limited to the University of Virginia, Davidson, and UNC-Chapel Hill–if you can get in! Each of those three might be termed reasonable matches for a strong student—not to mention Emory, Wake, Tulane (merit aid anyone) and others I’m sure?</p>
<p>Regarding the issue of reasonable reach, from what I have heard over the last decade , Pomona is a real reach for just about anyone. That is the case for Williams too. They are small and famous and superb. It takes more than being a Merit finalist to get in–this is something that one learns as one goes through the college app process of course; numbers alone don’t do the trick: they can keep you out but they probably won’t get you in. </p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound unduly harsh, but as the parent of two LAC graduates who almost certainly had the credentials to get into some Ivies and chose fit over location or universal name recognition, I have little patience for those who assume that because a school is small and not known by the masses it is either easy to get into or not as good/rigorous/wonderful as some place more famous. So if one is looking for small schools that are possible matches or reasonable reaches, I’d think places like Bates and maybe Colgate–Bowdoin only falls into that category if kid is really a star. Maybe Carleton and Grinnell, but only because their midwestern locations puts them off at least a few applicants’ radar.) Kenyon is a bit easier I suppose, and a wonderful place. For large schools, my mind always goes to Michigan and Wisconsin, both great, world-class universities with sophisticated communities (no matter what undergraduate admission numbers say that suggests anything less than that).</p>
<p>I’d also wonder about someone being interested in both Pomona and Wash U–seems like they don’t offer the same kind of experience, and finding the right school is about more than admissibility, just being able to get in is about more than SAT scores. And the fit does matter.</p>
<p>More thought needed here maybe, and what the previous poster said makes lots of sense.</p>
<p>Super Reaches:
Stanford, Princeton, U Chicago</p>
<p>Reaches:
Northwestern
Cornell
Dartmouth
Wash U
Rice
Pomona
Swarthmore
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Safeties:
Midwest State Schools</p>
<p>What do you think?
BTW, can we afford these schools? Are we just dreaming?</p>
<p>Mattmom: We visited few California schools (just casual visit) when he was a freshman. He really liked Stanford and Pomona. I think he liked them because of their campuses and weather, pretty girls possibly. That is why, Pomona is there.</p>
<p>Southern Schools: I guess we were wrong.
Religious Schools: He is not into any religion at all. He mentioned specifically that he will not apply Notre Dame or Georgetown.</p>
<p>If he got admitted into Stanford, Princeton or Swarthmore, he’d have a very good chance at need-based aid (also at Harvard).
I think that UofC and Swarthmore attract very similar kinds of students. UofC is becoming far more selective (insofar as fewer applicants are admitted, which may have to do with less self-selection among applicants) but I think that it is just as hard to get in as Swarthmore or Pomona, so I would put them all in the same category.</p>
<p>In terms of midwestern state schools, the cost of attendance (COA) would depend hugely whether he was in-state or out-of-state. If he gets admitted into an Honors program, chances are he would also get merit aid.</p>
<p>NoIdeaDad: has he visited any campuses yet? If not, I’d suggest going to some local ones (even if he’s not particularly interested in them) to get a feel for what a “small LAC” feels like vs. a “private university.” Most colleges have visit days for Juniors in the spring; also use any three day weekends and Spring break to visit if you can before summer. Schools feel very different when students are present vs. when they’re on break, so try to time your visits for when school is in session. How about any college fairs? Has he been to one of those yet?</p>
<p>Your son also needs to be a big part of this process; it’s his journey. My oldest is now a senior, but last year at about this time, we had sat down and thought through things together that would be important to us (both my D and us as a family) in choosing a college. Since we knew she’d make NMSF at that point, it did change her/our idea of the schools she would apply to. I told her to make a list of any schools that she was remotely interested in; that list was 33 and ranged from small, rural LACs to huge, state public SEC powerhouses 
I then made a word doc with spaces for all the “important things” we had discussed, then I handed her the huge USNWR Book of Colleges and told her she had to fill out a sheet for each of the 33 schools.</p>
<p>That process cut the list to 18. After starting to visit, it ended up going down to 8 by the end of Junior year. And she applied to 5. All well thought out by her. </p>
<p>BTW, from what I’ve seen, boys are not as proactive about this process than girls; D has a number of male classmates that were still tweaking their list and asking for recs this month…of senior year! And, while it’s commendable that you are not trying to sway his decision on majors, don’t go so far the other way that you don’t give him any guidance. We’ve had lots of discussions in my house about major options and programs at different schools, not so that we can sway our D, but so that we can bring up points that the average 16 year old wouldn’t think about.</p>
<p>*Btw, having a manageable student loan is not a bad thing - it gives some responsibility to your son. People are motivated when they have their skin in the game.
*</p>
<p>While I can understand that a bit, my kids have NO debt and have straight As. </p>
<p>I am not a big fan of undergrad debt, because often debt is needed for med/law/business/dental/pharm school or other professional programs.</p>
<hr>
<p>Summer is the “last resort” for campus visits. Campus visits are best when school is in session. Many wonderful campuses will seem “dead” in the summer. I would only do summer visits if I had no other option. </p>
<p>Look at your child’s school schedule and find days off. Then look to see which campuses are open on those days. Colleges have less “holidays” than high schools. Does the high school have any faculty “in service” days?</p>
<hr>
<p>*Given your finance stated above, your son should be able to afford all need-blind schools. *</p>
<p>That needs some clarification…</p>
<p>Need blind **does not **mean that a school meets need. Many privates cost $55k and you can only pay $30-35k per year (which might be your EFC, do you know???).</p>
<p>Therefore, simply applying to “need blind” schools may mean that they will give you a aid package with $20k in loans!!! </p>
<p>So…what you need to look for are schools that meet 100% of determined need with no loans or small loans. </p>
<p>BTW…you need to find out what your approx EFC is. If it’s higher than $35k, then you’ll have a problem.</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml)</p>
<p>NoIdeaDad: Our family is Jewish. I applied and was admitted to Georgetown umpteen years ago; it was my 3rd choice school and I would have gone there without hesitation if I hadn’t gotten into my other choices. My S will be looking at Georgetown, as it is a great fit with his area of interest, and I wouldn’t think twice about Georgetown being “religious” just because it has a Jesuit Catholic heritage. Please don’t take Georgetown off the list under a fear that it’s “too religious.”</p>
<p>When to visit? Pull out your kid’s school calendar. President’s Day is coming up in 2 weeks; we’re using that to visit a college one state away. There is a 4-day weekend coming up after that; we’re using that to visit DC / Philly schools. Then there is spring break, which for my kids is actually a full week AND the Monday after Easter. So we’re using most of spring break to visit the Boston-area schools as well as some Ohio schools. Then we’re taking one day in May to visit the Minnesota schools. This is the time to do it, IMO. I have twins and we’ll probably see somewhere around 15 - 18 schools in the next few months. They will miss a total of 1.5 days from school. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s really not answerable without knowing what the schools are, how many, and what time frame you have. From the midwest, we’re doing DC and Philly on one trip and Boston / Western Mass on another trip. But that’s with a very specific set of schools that fit my kids’ interests, and there is nothing in between Philly and Boston that is of interest to them. The answer might be very different for a kid who is adding in Princeton or Rutgers or NYC schools or upstate NY schools. Or a kid who is interested in Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, etc. Figure it out – come back here – and parents will be very helpful in laying out doable itineraries. </p>
<p>Can I make a suggestion? Based on what I read on CC and my own knowledge, I gave my kids a list of, oh, I’d say maybe 30 colleges / universities that I thought might be of interest to them, and my rationale why. Then I bought them each Fiske Guides, showed them how to find websites, and told them that they had to come back by X date with a narrowed down list, and be able to articulate what interested them. Then I shut my mouth and dropped the subject. They each came back with their list, articulated as to why, and then we planned our visits accordingly. This makes them feel that THEY have owned the process, vs just being dragged to schools that mom / dad want (though we did have one or two mom-insisted schools on the list).</p>
<p>I think most LACs don’t offer business majors, if that makes a difference. Hopefully someone can contradict me for those that do! :)</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: I just did EFC and it came out about 20K. Is that a good news?
Also, what are schools that meet 100% of determined need with no loans or small loans?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: Thanks so much for your school visit suggestions.</p>
<p>RobD: “… from what I’ve seen, boys are not as proactive about this process than girls …”
So true! He is a good student but he is not proactive about college search. It is his journey and we made it very clear that he has to decide his college and his major but my W and I are getting nervous.</p>
<p>NoIdeaDad:
Look up the thread “Schools known for good merit aid” at the top of the Parents Forum and also check out the scholarships and financial aid forum. Plenty of good information in those threads!</p>
<p>NoIdeaDad: Whether or not your 20k EFC is “good news” depends on whether or not you can afford to pay 20k per year for college. Keep in mind that your EFC may be (probably will be) different at schools which use the CSS PROFILE in addition to the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Reasonable matches for someone with those excellent stats? Off the top of my head:</p>
<p>Rice (do you consider Texas the South?)
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Maybe Cornell</p>
<p>Basically, a selective school with an admit rate in the 20-30% range would be a match for a kid this strong.</p>
<p>The best time to visit colleges is when they are in session. We found our schools winter and spring breaks ideal as they did not coincide with university breaktime. The sooner you can figure out what to cross out the better. My older son crossed out any school not known to be strong in computer science, but was willing to go anywhere in the country and did not care about school size. My younger son said no urban schools without campuses and no rural schools and the university had to be bigger than his high school. It meant that nearly all the LACs got nixed for being too small. By the time he’d visited four or five campuses it was pretty clear what felt comfortable to him.</p>