This is my first time around on college admissions. My 16 year old son knows that he wants to go away, and what he hopes to major in. That’s pretty much as far as he’s gotten.
He’s really pulled his grades up this year, from high 70’s to low 90’s. He’s taking college prep classes, and took the PSATs in the fall.
I’m just a little (???) Type A. So here’s how we’re approaching the search.
-I went onto Naviance and did a search of schools within about 250 miles that offered his major
- I narrowed down that list by finances; we're both teachers with 2 younger kids. I don't want him to cripple his future with debt. Budget will absolutely play a part in this decision.
- collegedata has a bit more information about admissions-- like the middle 50% SAT scores, and similar info.
- collegenavigator has great info on the percent of freshmen who receive institutional grant money. Some of the schools on my list are initially expensive, but have 97 or 99% of their students receiving an institutional grant. Some also participate in "good neighbor" programs, where they offer a substantial tuition discount to residents of neighboring states. (though I'm sorry to say that few have such an arrangement with NY.)
- Some SAT prep sites offer a free test to help you decide on SAT or ACT. (All the schools on my list take both.) He's taking such a test at Princeton Review in 2 weeks. I believe Kaplan offers a similar test. Santa got him the book "Up your score-- the Underground Guide to the SAT" and "... ACT" books. Personally I think they're among the best books out there for test taking tips. When we know which exam best showcases his talents, we'll sign him up for that exam this spring.
I now have a list of about 16 schools. It includes a column for distance, one for price, one for the odds of getting in, one for the particulars of how they phase his degree, and a big one for pros and cons. He’ll happily be choosing from the schools on that list. Surprisingly, few of them are SUNY-- the schools that offer his major tend to be well over 300 miles away. But neighboring states have state universities that are relatively budget friendly.
So far, we’ve been to 2 of the schools on the list. He LOVED one (it’s a bit of a reach; we saw it before getting his PSAT scores) and another he could absolutely see himself and has far better odds of being admitted to. After the second visit (just last week), I realized that he prefers a small school, so that one, with a student body of about 8500, is the largest we’ll see. We’ll see some over February break, some over Easter. I have some days off coming up soon, so I may consider having him miss one or two days of school to get some more in.
I know we’re a LOT less high powered than a lot of the families on this site seem to be. But I’m confident that what I’m doing will help him find the right school.