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It's an area I think that GC's and esp. parents need to make part of the information angle on college admissions.
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<p>Amen to that. The problem is that high school students are making choices with absolutely no frame of reference. They don't have any real concept of college life. For example, they can't really understand that college is so much more fun when you are actively engaged with your courses, professors, etc.</p>
<p>We can see it from College Confidential, where the student's talk is centered around so many irrelevant questions. Is there a "good" party scene -- as if college students anywhere don't have fun. How is the Economics department? As a result, there is very little focus on the many issues that will ultimately have much more impact: the implications of freshman housing, the interaction with professors, the prevailing campus culture. Instead, students are often making choices based almost on cartoon images of colleges.</p>
<p>I think an important role parents can play is to paint a picture of actual college life. To pick some relevant issues (diversity, freshman policies, TAs, whatever) and compare the schools under consideration. These are smart kids. Although they may say, "Oh...mom!", they will take in information as it becomes available and process it. Parents need to help cut through some of the BS: the tour guides at an 80% Greek school who actually keeps a straight face when she says that there is "plenty to do for [GD]independents", or "oh no, we don't have TAs teaching classes" when the shool's website says there are 725 TAs.</p>