I would discourage looking at prestige. Or at least prestige for prestige’s sake. So many of my daughter’s friends ignored fit, strength in major, affordability, etc. in the quest for prestige. It was clear they were looking for prestige because they’d apply to a bunch of schools that had little in common but a high USNWR ranking.
FWIW, my daughter chose a large state flagship with 30K+ students. Most of her classes weren’t large at all, but even in those that were, her professors knew who she was. They may not have known much about her, but they all knew who she was and could recognize her (if not immediately recall her name) on campus outside of class. But she had more classes with fewer than 30 students than classes with more than 100 students.
Oh…you want to know restrictions? We had only one.
College either needed to be within a 3 hour drive of our house OR within an hour of a relative or close family friend.
One kid went 2 hour drive away.
The other went 3000 miles away, but a very good friend lived very nearby, and relatives were not far a field either.
Really, we have a large family, and a lot of friends. So this was not particularly restrictive…and there were plenty of colleges from which to choose given our ONE restriction.
The two that I remember are no religious affiliation, and no foreign language requirement for a CS major (she does not love taking foreign languages at all). There may have also been an anti-PE requirement as well.
I was on board for all but the anti-PE. My kids could stand to get a little more exercise-that metabolism is only going to get them so far…
@violane – I am all for for experiencing other places and cultures-- but there may be a different right time, place and way for each maturing person. My son has said he wants to stay within a six and a half hour drive of home, and that seems right for him. He spends a lot of time with us. It will be a huge deal just to live in a dorm away from home. It was the same for me when I went to college, and I did miss my parents, although I was enjoying my new friends and being more independent. Independence is a gradual process, not a giant leap.
I see that some colleges offer an initial semester abroad before joining the college in February. Maybe that works for kids who are already used to doing a lot of things on their own, but for many teenagers, I would think that would be backwards. The first time away from home is less overwhelming if your parents can come to parents’ weekend and take you home for holidays. It is also less overwhelming if you have a college that provides freshman orientation activities and a close community. The freshman ‘entry’ system at Williams certainly aided my own adjustment when I first left home.
By junior year, many students will have become more independent and may be more ready to be across the country or even on a different continent from their families. Some may still find a semester that far away to be daunting and may prefer shorter trips.
It all depends on the individual. But not being ready to be far away from your family should not be confused with being provincial or close-minded.
Some factors are non-negotiable in my book: price, location (we have a ballpark 4 hour radius, roughly Baltimore to Boston), and they really should have your major.
Beyond that, I think it’s an individual thing.
My niece refused to look at any school that didn’t allow a microwave in the dorm rooms. (I can’t imagine there are all that many, but it did eliminate at least one school from her list.)
My daughter REALLY wants a school with suite style dorms, as opposed to traditional hallway bathrooms. (A bad bout of the flu in February is probably the reason.)
It wouldn’t be a major thing for me, but I won’t be living there for 4 years. If I trust her enough to choose a major, and live hours away from home, I think I’ve got to respect her choices on what “small” things are really important to her.