OK, this is an extremely open ended question, but where is the best place for my daughter to start the process of narrowing down (or perhaps adding to) her lengthy list of schools. She’s a rising junior and has a lot of schools sitting at the top of her funnel right now, more than we can possibly visit with busy lives. Are there online tools, sites, etc, that can help match her qualifications (and interests) with schools? It’s all a bit overwhelming. Of course I know CC is the BEST place to start, lol. But then what?
Here are some things to consider:
–Talk to your daughter about any limitations you may have on her college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else).
–In the fall talk to her guidance counselor to start to develop a list. If your HS has Naviance that is a valuable tool.
–Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) which can often be found in the guidance dept. or a library and start reading about schools she is considering.
–Try to visit a some different types of schools. Try to get a sense of what she likes in terms of size (large, medium, small), location (not just geographic but also urban, suburban, rural). Getting an idea of the “type” of school she likes can help you to narrow things down.
–If she knows what she wants to study then focus on schools that have her expected major.
–Have your D consider what other things she want in a college. Anything she cares about is fair game. A few ideas of questions to ask are: What size school? Greek Life or no? Big time sports or no?
–Next fall she should start to study for the standardized tests.
Start by deciding your budget.
How much can you afford a year?
Soon CC will have a college finder tool and those are useful. Naviance has one as well.
I would first have your child think about:
Big or Small School?
What major?
Urban/rural/suburban
How far from home?
I would make a spreadsheet and include info like:
Net Cost
Number of Undergraduates
Faculty Student Ratio
%of students that live on campus
How big is the department for your major? If you are majoring in something that only has a couple of professors, that does not bode well.
Housing- do they offer all 4 years? freshman only?
Urban/rural/suburban
Is this a commuter school? (do students go home on weekends)
Surrounding area - what is the nearby town/amenities like?
Transportation - how would you get home and how long
AP Credits - can you get credit for AP tests you have taken
Male/Female ration
Greek life - what % of students are in greek life
Parking
Diversity
Safety
Sports
Jobs - what happens to seniors after they graduate
Internships - depending on your major, is it easy to get internships?
…and whatever makes sense for you
You might not care about, say, greek life. but if 50% of the kids are in greek life and you don’t want to be, that is something to know. Or you may want a big time sports scene or you might not want one. Grade them from 1-5 as they make sense to you.
I agree with bopper’s list. I’d add that what I did with my second kid and it seemed to work pretty well was to take him to a few colleges that I thought were interesting in one way or another and then discussed what he did or did not like about them. We saw two that were within a day’s drive during February break of junior year - both LACs, one with an interesting senior thesis program, but very rural, the other in a small city. Then during spring break we saw two medium sized research universities. We knew we didn’t want gigantic schools. By the time senior year rolled around he began to think he might like to major in International Relations, so we looked at schools that had strong programs when we did a last college visit trip to the DC area over Labor Day weekend.
Thank you for the helpful responses. On the one hand, I like that she her list is wide and deep right now, it’s early. But these suggestions will help us focus as we move through the process. Thanks to those that have responded, any other ideas are welcome.
You don’t have to discuss finances here, if you don’t want to. But keep that in mind when first introducing your daughter to the different options. You don’t want her to fall in love with a school you can’t afford. Think of the initial college search like buying a house – you’re not going to LOOK at million dollar houses if all you can afford $300K.
collegeboard.com has a good search engine to start the process.
@katliamom Haha, yes. Excellent analogy.
It is early, yes. We don’t know anything about her. Is she going for selective schools? Has she looked at the Colleges that Change Lives website? Any guide books?
Our family (3 kids) always started by going to an area that had three types of colleges, a large state university, an alternative vibe school, and a traditional liberal arts college. This just helped them get started thinking about size and “vibe.”
How many are on her list? She can chill for awhile and let things settle, as one way to go. If she is really focused on college now, a little prematurely, she can just research websites like crazy.
Location is a really good initial filter. Part of country, snow or sun, rural/urban/suburban etc.
In the end, I do think “vibe” and “gut” feelings are the most important, and those are only possible with visits. When she does visit, don’t rely only on the info sessions and tours. Hang out on the green, the dining hall, the bookstore, the library if you can.