My DD is torn between her two favorite options (i.e. best scholarship offers) and we have visited both universities. One is in a small town and the other is in a big city. Scholarships are dependent on major, so the college major at each place would be different – and she’d probably minor in the other subject, so she would get both topics at either university. Her dad and I have our opinions as do members of extended family. But how does anyone make the final choice, and if your child only slightly prefers one over the other how much should that weigh if it seems the other college might be better for her? She is afraid of being bored in the small town since she grew up in a big city. But it would be simpler and easier for spontaneous socializing and getting places if everything were within a fifteen minute walk, rather than the possibility of having classmates, destinations and activities 30 minutes or more away? Anyone want to share how they helped their teen choose the best place and major for them?
Once the costs were known, we backed off completely. Answered any questions they asked, and made sure they went to accepted student visits and stayed overnight. You don’t want them blaming you if you push for one and they are unhappy. We put our 2 cents in when helping them decide where to apply and when the FA was understood. Then left the final call to them. Worked very well In both cases.
Do the scholarships have high GPA thresholds to renew?
For each school, if she lost the scholarship due to changing major or not meeting a GPA threshold, would the college still be affordable, or would she have to transfer to a lower cost college?
That’s a great point.
Once we determined the schools were affordable and that we would be happy if they attended, we left the choice to the kids. We did go back and visit the top choices before making a final decision. For both children seeing the schools still on their list one more time in a close timeframe really helped them to solidify their decision.
We, too, did essentially what @happy1 and @intparent have done, which worked out well.
Thanks everyone!! This information was really helpful. I talked to my daughter tonight, and she’s still favoring the big city university. That’s also the one with the slightly better scholarship, lower GPA renewal requirements, and more flexibility with the major without losing too much of the scholarship, so it’s a good choice financially as well. I feel so much stress relief now having that decision behind us!