<p>Haven't seen a thread on this process, and would love to hear other's opinions! What did you do that you feel was a GOOD choice in your college search/application process???</p>
<p>I will go first, as (for the moment) things are looking pretty good...
1. We started visiting colleges in the summer between soph and jr year. We went to some really "sexy" schools in interesting places. Great strategy - much easier to be motivated for that junior year when you see the goal more clearly.<br>
2. I FORCED (not to mince words) DD to spend 1 - 2 hours a weekend on college planning/selection/thinking. Some weeks were not fun, but the discipline of doing a little each weekend as part of the family "chores" for the weekend got the job done. Everyone knew that Sunday after lunch was our time to be undisturbed. At first, DD thought I was Cruella DaVille, but as friends started to panic on issues that she had looked at six months earlier, my stock went up significantly. We really tried hard to make it fun. We did it as a team, which made it much more interesting.<br>
3. We agreed that her Dad and I would function as her secretary. In other words, you tell us what to do and we will do it. "Mom, can you find out if that school has a major in xyz?" Mom, can you look for visit reports on that school? As long as I chaneled the inner secretary, I had the right attitude. Secreataries never yell at their bosses, and specialize in listening.</p>
<p>1) Started visiting schools early. The very first visit was at the end of 9th grade, which was perhaps a bit too early. It was combined with a long weekend visit to relatives living near the schools, and they were the ones who took her to check out the campuses. That was also D1’s first flight by herself. </p>
<p>2) Visits emphasized safeties and matches, or schools which consider demonstrated interest. Reach schools were only visited if they happened to be in the neighborhood. Putting in the hard work of finding good safeties first made it much easier to come up with the final list. D1’s eventual top choice and ED admit was one of those “might as well stop by” reaches. </p>
<p>3) We talked about money early, as in end-of-9th-grade early. Knowing your family’s budget early on is important; no point in considering schools that won’t work financially. </p>
<p>4) I learned a lot about a lot of different colleges, which helped D1 think outside the usual tippy-tops + state system mindset that’s common at her high school.</p>
<p>5) D1 never checked off any “release my name to colleges” boxes on standardized tests, so despite stellar test scores she’s received a bare trickle of snail mail.</p>
<p>6) Set up a new email account for use only with college applications. Both I and D1 had the password.</p>
<p>This might sound strange. But I didn’t write my essays until the last minute. I was thinking about them for the longest time, but I work best under pressure. I think by waiting until the last minute I wrote the best essays I possibly could. (I did cycle through 4+ drafts)</p>
<ol>
<li>Started the process early - during sophmore year.</li>
<li>We visited urban big, urban small, rural big and rural small just to get an idea on what D would like and dislike.</li>
<li>We talked alot about her interests, what she liked learning and what she didn’t like during high school - “prompted self discovery.”</li>
<li>We discussed quite a bit about the culture of each school we visited - kids, social activites, sports, cultural events, support systems and did not strictly focus on academics. We vetted the academics prior to visiting each school and revisited during the application process and again after acceptances were in hand.</li>
<li>During the entire process we were much more concerned and focused about “fit” rather than prestige.</li>
</ol>
<p>During the summer before my junior year of high school, I visited UCLA and Occidental with my aunt. I live about as far from the two as you can get while still being in the US, but seeing the sizes helped give me perspective when I started seriously looking at schools.</p>
<p>I also started making my list around the middle of junior year, so by the time I saw my aunt again (summer before senior year) my list had evolved a lot. When I saw her again, we looked really closely at all of my listed schools’ websites and stuff, narrowing things down even more. Of course, now only one of those schools is still on my list, but our investigations helped me when I started looking at other schools.</p>
<p>I went through a lot of different college essay ideas (and one completed essay) before I decided on ~the one~. I finished that about twenty minutes before I sent my Common App out. Didn’t draft it out, just reread it a few times before calling it good. An admissions officer from the first school to accept me complimented it, so hopefully that trend will continue and I can say that’s something that I did right…</p>
<p>edit: also, opening up to states that I had previously not considered was great. five out of seven colleges that I applied to are in states that I had not initially considered. likewise, being able to admit that I couldn’t find a college I liked in a place I wanted to be in (New York City and Philadelphia come to mind) helped me move on to other possibilities.</p>
<p>shoot4moon: That’s great! My parents aren’t as helpful so everything is left for me to do (including how to fill out FAFSA and CSS and understanding which tax forms to use…). It’s nice to hear how easy you’ve made the college application process. </p>
<p>Honestly, the only thing I did right was to get my secondary school report and counselor recommendation sent in on time (school will only use snail mail).</p>
<p>Moved money around in order to legally minimize FA liability</p>
<p>Pushed S2 to study hard for standardized tests, so he only took the SAT and ACT once, and took one SATII twice, and needed to take no tests during his senior year.</p>
<p>Got a rolling EA admit in early fall.</p>
<p>But come April he might get blanked, so maybe we didn’t do anything right.</p>
<p>I think that one thing I did right was to be supportive and calm throughout the process on my daughters’ behalf, despite my own worries about things.</p>
<p>A separate email would have been an awesome idea - why didn’t we think of that? Would have saved us our biggest trial, which was dd getting an email she didn’t think was important (understandably) that actually meant we had misunderstood the SAT score send policy. </p>
<p>To add to my list:
Fabulous to have one parent (me) who was enmeshed in teh process, visiting the colleges, nervous with her, talking about it regularly, etc and one parent who would keep us both calm by listening to reports on visits and then saying things like “You know you guys - it will work out” and not stressing out about it. We needed that balance - so glad to be married to someone who isn’t just like me!</p>
<p>The separate email that we both had access to proved to be a really good idea. </p>
<p>Early action in addition to early decision was also a plus, when ED didn’t work out. (And yes, it all worked out in the end!) </p>
<p>In our case, not starting too early but sort of easing into it. Visits without interviews during spring of junior year and summer. Talking over the summer, and then settling into the essay phase. </p>
<p>Also, picking out a school to visit that didn’t seem to be a good fit but not ruled out – to get an idea what a less good fit might feel like. The comparison was necessary because until then, every place we went seemed great and we were not sure if that was accurate.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>S got a good draft of his apps and essays started during the last weeks of summer before senior year. He did a much better job with them than he would have done if he’d been distracted with classes and activities.</p></li>
<li><p>S took summer courses at schools where he was considering applying. Four major benefits: (a) In both cases he figured out that he didn’t want to go there after all, (b) he got a great preview of dorm life and college classes, (c) one summer he earned credit that will be accepted at the school he will attend, and (d) the courses helped his college apps.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Do overnight visits in the spring of junior year when/where possible. Some schools shoot themselves in the foot by allowing only seniors to do so, losing the interest of some top candidates.</p>