<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>My daughter is/or will be a Sophomore in High School this upcoming fall. When should we start looking/applying/visiting schools she's interested in Attending?</p>
<p>I started my junior year. Do your preliminary research in the opening months of her junior year and start narrowing down a list that includes a few reaches and several safe choices. Then, with the ACT looming in January and April, you can start visiting schools during spring break and throughout the summer.</p>
<p>My son just finished sophomore year and has been on many college campuses due to his dads work. We used the past spring break to visit Pittsburgh which has 10 colleges. We toured Pitt and did an information session at Carnegie mellon. But mostly we just did touristy stuff and didn’t talk “college” that much. </p>
<p>Ds hates to miss school so this summer we are visiting 2 in state schools- most like matches. We are saving any reaches for spring and summer after junior year so we can get an idea of his test scores first. </p>
<p>If you travel or compete around college areas you can do a drive-by and discuss what she likes. We also pick up on conversations in tv shows and talk about college choices.</p>
<p>DD14 & I started looking in her freshman year… (she will be a jr in Sept)…We have done college fairs/admissions receptions in our area, a 6 college tour in April during spring break and everything in between. </p>
<p>She is at the end of her soph year and has a good sense of what she does/doesn’t want in a school. Its also a good way to see what each schools requirements are for admission. </p>
<p>You are fairly new to CC… believe you me, you will learn so much here… that its scarey!</p>
<p>My philosophy is that the summer after sophomore year is ideal for ‘opportunistic’ college visits. By that I mean if you live in Dubuque and are heading to Chicago for cousin Tiffany’s wedding, why not go a little out of your way to see UWisconsin or at least drive around Northwestern? Full blown college tours and info sessions might be overwhelming for some students; only you can judge how your child will react. But I’ m all in favor of at least ‘drive-bys’.</p>
<p>Budgetary planning should be done early, before doing time consuming or expensive visits. Consider the budget, make it clear to the student what you can afford to contribute, and run the net price calculators at the schools’ web sites to check cost and need based financial aid. If need based financial aid is insufficient, the student needs to aim for large enough merit scholarships at the school, rather than just admission to the school.</p>
<p>If the student has particular areas of interest, that can also be used as a pre-screen – no point in visiting schools which do not have worthwhile major programs in the areas of interest.</p>
<p>I started looking at colleges (doing research) the summer before my junior year and made my first college visits spring break of my junior year and the summer before my senior year.</p>
<p>OP,
You may also want to post this query, and any other questions you have about planning for college for your kids, on the Parents Forum. There are lots of experienced parents there who have already been through the process and are happy to give advise to “newbies” .</p>
<p>D15 has always talked about UConn because we have family in CT. So last Thanksgiving we were in CT for 4 days and had some extra time and took the drive to Storrs. She was totally uninterested and unimpressed. But who knows if that’s what her reaction will still be by the time she’s a junior?</p>
<p>The 6-12 school my younger D goes to begins talking college planning as part of the curriculum in 6th grade. They bring in visitors from colleges to speak to the kids and they have the kids do cost research and investigate what their interests are. Every Friday they have to wear something college-themed and that gets the kids asking about the colleges their friends are “wearing”. </p>
<p>We’ve been to college fairs here in town and have usually been well treated by the admissions people. This is how D decided on an HBCU. Whether down the line she’ll still want to attend one or major in her current interest, I think as soon as a kid expresses interest is a good time to start looking.</p>
<p>@sseamom-- I agree… its never too early! Kudos to your childs school for getting them immersed in the college culture early… helps them set their sights on bigger/better things! A future filled with oppurtunity.</p>
<p>Thats why I started DD14 so early… I wanted to keep to idea of college in the front of her brain… b/c so much can be a distraction… especially in this city/at her school.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your response. I’m new to this (as some others has mentioned) and thought it would be a good idea to ask this forum. My daughter is interested in NYU or UCLA. We live in Florida and will make plans in the future to visit both. We also want her to be aware that she may not be “accepted” into those well known universities and also advised her to keep an open mind.</p>
<p>“My daughter is interested in NYU or UCLA.”</p>
<p>I hope you know that UCLA is very expensive for OOS students and NYU is known for offering little FA. So If you dont have $240,000 set aside for college expenses, your D will have to expand her search considerably if she is interested going to college outside of FLA .</p>
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<p>You should also be aware that she may also be accepted with insufficient financial aid and scholarships to make them affordable (financial rejection, which can be even harder to take than admissions rejection). Both NYU and UCLA are expensive at list price (OOS for UCLA). NYU has a reputation for poor financial aid and students with high student loan debt due to students disregarding the debt implications of going to their dream school, although it does give a small number of large merit scholarships to very top applicants. UCLA financial aid won’t cover the OOS additional tuition.</p>