<p>How much did your kid's list of colleges change between junior year and when it actually came time to send in applications?</p>
<p>Did it remain pretty much the same list with a few tweaks?</p>
<p>Did it change considerably? If so, why? because of visits, whim, increasing maturity or...?</p>
<p>Neither of my kids had college lists during junior year. My son didn't even start looking at colleges until late August or early September of his senior year; my d. started slightly earlier because her high school g.c. set up a meeting in May of her Junior year, and she was supposed to arrive with some possibilities in mind - I think with the GC she had a list of about 40 possibilities and I have no clue if that first list even included her top choice colleges.</p>
<p>D's shifted around a little because of financial safeties and I few I insisted on as safeties.</p>
<p>S's stayed exactly the same, except for ED school. Had a sudden dark horse; defferred, and he went back to original favorite where he was accepted.</p>
<p>List changed after NMsemifinalist status; a few schools were added to the top. Later test results were consistently a bit higher than expected so we kept those top schools (not HYPS), and S was accepted into three of them.
So that was the surprise! (He is attending one.)</p>
<p>One year ago he didn't have a list and wasn't even thinking about it! Now he has two acceptances and three other applications in the pipeline. What a difference a year makes. :)</p>
<p>Junior-year list had 11-12 schools on it; only seven applications were actually submitted. Mainly that was because an early rolling admissions acceptance cut off the bottom of the list (although there would have been some pruning there anyway). No colleges were applied to that were not "on the list" the previous spring, although a few were considered.</p>
<p>I caution, however, that my son had (a) a pretty stellar record, (b) very specific, not terribly quirky tastes, and (c) a lot of information hangover from watching his sister, her friends, and some other very close friends of his go through the process over the previous two years. He wasn't looking for some undiscovered jewel of a LAC.</p>
<p>My daughter has some pretty specific criteria that rapidly lead to a short-ish list.</p>
<p>I suppose her criteria could change, but, since I think her criteria are good ones (for her), I'm sort of hoping they don't.</p>
<p>D1 created a list of 10 schools to visit at the start of her junior year (after whittling it down from 30 schools of interest in a directory). We visited all ten and she chose 8 to apply to by late spring of her junior year and never changed it after that. </p>
<p>D2 decided in mid tenth grade to graduate a year early. She created a list of 8 schools. We only could visit one that spring (was still involved in other D's visits to her accepted schools that year), and then visited three more in early junior year (her application year). Her list of the original 8 never changed. We visited all 8 that winter for college auditions. </p>
<p>However, some of my clients tweak their lists many times, as late as September of senior year. I have had some seniors who have completely changed their original list from last year or else from the summer. I think this is common......visits sometimes play a part....but also having someone go over their list in terms of appropriateness and also balance, has involved many changes....plus getting additional suggestions. So, most I work with do change their lists....some more than others. My own kids never did though.</p>
<p>DD completely changed her major between the 2. So one list tossed and a completely new one started. Went from sciences to vocal performance. I don't think you can get much different :) The visits helped her get an idea of the type of school and campus she liked, however, so I did not consider them a waste. Kids this age can change a lot even all the way to the final decision in April. It was a process of figuring out for herself what was finally going to be the right fit. Her final choice was not the top of the list to start Senior year and wasn't even on the radar Junior year..</p>
<p>I am in 10th grade and im still not decided on what to study, and I have no idea, I know i WILL NOT study somethign related to being a doctor. what should i do?</p>
<p>Maria: Relax! Tenth-graders are not supposed to know what they want to do when they grow up. You have plenty of time to figure that out. </p>
<p>At to the OP: My daughter didn't have a formal list junior year. But her general idea of what she wanted never changed. She tested it, by visiting schools that were different than her original criteria -- sometimes she was tempted, but within days of considering something different she would cross it off the list and go back to what her instinct was telling her. </p>
<p>I know it's common to say here that hs seniors can change a lot. But not all of them do.</p>
<p>My son hasn't changed since he was in second grade. The top schools on his list would be on anyone's list with similar interests. (computer science/physics). We picked the two safeties, more for geographical issues, though one was designated a "New Ivy" later. (And has become considerably more selective since.) He looked at three schools spring break junior year, he didn't have a formal list, but there were a few schools that we decided not to apply to, and one that got added. (Harvey Mudd).</p>
<p>Yes, sly_vt, I can't see a major turnaround in my daughter's tastes in these matters.</p>
<p>It's interesting, because whereas I doubt my older daughter will change much, I see my younger daughter being much more amorphous when it comes to college and fit.</p>
<p>mariacamilaperez, colleges don't expect incoming students to have decided on a major. One college, Ithaca, even has a special two year exploratory program for those who are undecided.</p>
<p>Ahh, we did not think DD was going to change either. She had been on the same course since 8th grade, planned her HS classes very carefully accordingly. She had to go out of sequence to get in what she wanted to take to prepare for the colleges she wanted. She had some of those in her sights as early as that 8th grade year. . Lightening struck part way through junior year. </p>
<p>Be ready for anything.</p>
<p>It changed a lot. She went from looking at LACs to looking at Big Ten schools to pinpointing schools that have the program she wants. She was going to apply to seven or eight but recently decided four is enough. None of these are real reaches for her although the program she wants at her top choice is VERY competitive.</p>
<p>Mathmom, my second child is attending a college she has talked about wanting to go to since she was in elementary school too. Shes surely wasn't looking into colleges back then, LOL, but knew older friends going there and dreamt of doing so someday herself. When it came time to apply, however, she fully looked into other schools openly since she needed to discover colleges the usual way and also not count on getting in given the one digit admit rate at her schools. She did not even apply ED. She found more schools she liked. However, when she was accepted to this favored school since childhood, she screamed for joy and never discussed "which of my accepted schools should I pick?" It was all over at that moment.</p>
<p>S1 had eight schools on the list by junior year, said he would pick any one of them over all the others, all for various reasons. Considered adding 1-2 more this summer, realized they wouldn't win out over his top two choices (which have remained constant for quite a while now), so he said, "never mind." Some of the schools have been on the "list" since middle school.</p>
<p>His list has some clear favorites these days. Five schools have 11/1 EA/priority/rolling cutoffs, so we will have an idea how things are progressing by late in the year. His #2, 3, & 4 choices are RD, though, so he feels that he will want to send those out no matter how well he does in the EA round, so he has options in April that will accommodate whatever other considerations he decides are important between now and then.</p>
<p>There are a couple I wish he would/could add, but he has done his homework. He's driving this wagon, not me.</p>
<p>My S's list was down to about eight schools during the summer before Senior year. He was interested in a specific field of study - comp sci - which had considerably narrowed the options. Visits and other research had eliminated about five other contendors by that point. He had not been considering the (excellent) state school but decided to add it after a visit. Once that rolling admission acceptance came through, a couple of other schools dropped off - i.e., would you rather go there than U of State? If no don't apply.</p>
<p>In the end he applied to six schools including a couple of ultra-reaches and the rest reaches/matches. With his numbers the state school was actually a safety. That state school acceptance really relieved the pressure since it was one of the top CS schools in the country. He could look at the rest of the schools with the idea of them being a great fit. In the end he was accepted to all but the ultra-reaches.</p>
<p>S1,Junior year about 5 schools. Senior year applied to three of them,accepted to all, is a happy college junior now.</p>
<p>S2, Junior year 0 schools, just couldn't get him to think about it. Senior year (now) 3 schools if you count Comm. College, if not, then 2 schools.</p>
<p>My D’s list changed direction 10 days ago when – exactly the reverse of singersmom – she has decided that she is NOT going to pursue music performance. Luckily she had already decided that she wanted music within a larger, university setting rather than conservatory, so she hasn’t had to do a completely new list. Three schools remain from the earlier list, three have been dropped. We are visiting three others next week that have been on the list all along and are still strong possibilities, even with this shift in focus. Four schools that she was not considering before are getting a closer look. I think she will wind up with a final list of 7-8, and I think we will have visited all but two before applications go out. There is a nice range of safety (academic and financial), match and reach. Thank goodness she is not applying early anywhere!</p>
<p>All through high school my S was determined that the only college that he was interested in was our state college. During Junior year we convinced him that we should at least visit a few others. After all that he was still determined to apply to state only. Well at the beginning of his sr year of high school he decided that there was one selective school that looked interesting to him. We arranged a visit and within a short time of being on campus during that visit he said "this is where I belong". So out goes the state school and in state tuition and in comes the thought of a private school tution. From that time on he was determined yet again that this was the only school he wanted. So he applied ED and just like he said he was accepted. We were estactic and over whelmed all at the same time.
He is very happy there and is having a blast. I guess he knew all along what was the best choice from him.</p>