College Searching/Advice Seeking

HPuck35
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 12:13:28 +0000

Thumper1’s advice is very good, especially #5 (cost) and #8 ( being realistic with your safety school). I’ll add a few points.

My daughter got that gut feeling about the school she ended up attending but my son never did when visiting. Both believe that they attended the right school for them. Visiting a school is quite a different experience than being there full time and going to classes. I’d be sure to visit a couple of schools but don’t worry if you don’t visit all the school’s you are interested in (this would have been my advice even before Covid19).

Read a school’s student newspaper to get some feel to what the students think. Most are online and you can Google them. Not perfect but it’s free info.

You can find out a lot about a school’s “numbers” and their admissions focus by looking at their “common data set”. Google it to find it. You should also look at the school’s 4 year graduation rate. Some, even good school’s, are horrible. A 5th year with a 4 year scholarship can be quite a financial burden.

Don’t be just a “joiner” as far as ECs go. It will be obvious to admissions that you were just trying to pad your application. Do what you like and value quality over quantity.

Choosing a college is a process. It will be fun at times, frustrating at others, bewildering at even others. You’ll end up choosing a path and never knowing if another path would have been better or worse, so just enjoy the path you take.