College Selection / Touring Timeline?

shoot4moon
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 05:02:19 +0000

Both our girls ended up at their first choice schools, so I’m feeling cocky about my method! Second semester of sophomore year, we told them that we were going to give them the gift of a fun college tour trip. They could pick their schools, but they would have to research and “sell it”to me. We reduced their chores and replaced them with a dedicated 2hour slot of research time per week on Sunday afternoons. They were the boss … I was the secretary, but they had to do it. We did the epic trip (6 for one, 9for the other) between sophomore and junior year, with the full expectation that by the end, they would be more discriminating consumers. It’s fun to watch them get more decisive and savvy! We also kept a notebook where they would tell me the strengths and weaknesses immediately before I gave my opinion. By doing it early, by Junior year they were more motivated to achieve, and it was easier to schedule additional school tours based on what they had learned. By The summer before Junior year, they had d3cided where they were going to apply, and could begin working on common app essays, relaxing a bit, etc. both girls made a plan to do primarily early action, in the hopes that it would work. One got deferred, which meant she turned in a few more after the holidays before getting accepted to her dream school. The other is DONE and relaxing her last semester except for a little work applying for community scholarships.