colleges visiting the high schools

Parent Cafe
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<p>While my older D- didn’t even go to any of the presentations that colleges had at her private prep school ( which were quite a few) ,because she didn’t want to miss class, my younger daughter is quite interested to my relief, (as I think that this sort of exposure is a first step to considering schools)</p>

<p>However, her school has quite a few universities coming everyday at least through November- the 4th for example, WUSTL is coming as is Brown,Lewis&Clark and the Navy.</p>

<p>While I want her to attend the presentations that she is interested in, if it doesn’t cause too much trouble missing class- I noticed that the ones she wants to attend this week are for Stanford-Brown and Reed, none of which I think are a good match for her. ( Well Brown could be- if you took away the luck of the dice part)</p>

<p>I know other families have the same problems- students having a hard time finding good fits, because the more competitive schools do such a great job presenting themselves as attractive places to attend school.</p>

<p>Anybody have any guidelines that they set up with their student- or should I just assume that if the teacher signs the release to attend the presentation, it is safe for her to miss class even if it doesn’t seem like a school that would be a good fit.
( which is what I think I am going to do- I am assuming that the rep, will make clear what how competitive admission is - easier for her to take than me telling her, that I don’t think she could get into Stanford)</p>

2

<p>Where is your daughter’s school college advisor?</p>

<p>By this time, they should have sat down, gone over her interests, likes/dislikes (school size / location etc) and come up with a list of a few dozen schools that fit a profile. From that using a tool like Naviance to measure up which are her fit/safety/reach schools should get that down to a manageble number of schools whom she could/should meet their reps when they come to campus.</p>

<p>Almost sounds like she is getting do-it-yourself college guidance or nobody is paying attention to these extra sessions she is going to.</p>

3

<p>EK, is your daughter a senior this year? I think that it probably doesn’t hurt for her to attend the info sessions of colleges that you feel aren’t a good fit, unless it takes too much class time. My son’s school typically limits attendance at such meetings to seniors, but my older son only went to a couple of sessions. By fall of senior year, he had a pretty good idea of the schools he was interested in, which may be the case for a lot of seniors. More info usually can’t hurt, and you can always talk to her about her impressions regarding the schools. These conversations may provide further insight into what would be a good fit for her.</p>

4

<p>well her school doesn’t really have a “college” advisor
They do have counselors, of which each have about 400 kids. She is a junior, and has had a different counselor each year, the latest hasn’t had a chance to sit down with her yet.( The head counselor wasn’t even able to start until after school started & the office is still lacking a permanent secretary)</p>

<p>They do have a college/career center, staffed by one part time person, who sent out questionaires at the beginning of the year, and is meeting with kids slowly to indentify where they would like information/support. She sets up the college meetings. D however, didn’t really mark anything on her questionaire other than she was interested in internships.</p>

<p>I am not expecting the school to help selecting a college- heck- the counselor at her sisters school didnt’ really help and she had less than 20 seniors to work with.
The school does have Naviance though, so perhaps I will encourage her to use that ( although it might just be for seniors at her school)</p>

<p>I think that one reason why they have juniors attend the sessions is because many of the kids probably apply to schools ED, so it helps to have knowledge about the schools that you might want to visit during the summer.
I did mention to her, that she might be interested in Occidental from what I knew about it- and she attended that session and that seemed to start the ball rolling.
However- even though she is taking an AP class, and has been doing fairly well in school, she isn’t at the level of taking 4 AP classes, that some of her friends are at, and I have the impression, that the counselor is taking that information, and adding it to the knowledge that she has an 504, because he has already suggested to me ,that even if she doesn’t get accomodations on teh SAT, she can always go to a community college.</p>

<p>( I plan on * educating* him, re: her and our goals for her- but I am moving slowly because I still need him on “our side” )</p>

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<p>Is going to all or most of theses info sessions just an excuse to cut class, or is there genuine interest in the colleges?</p>

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<p>My S mostly chose not to attend info sessions–he said they are all PR jobs & he believed it would be shallow to be interested (or disinterested) in a school based on the strength of their PR dept or the rep they sent. I left it to him to decide whether to attend any sessions on campus. </p>

<p>I would ask your D to identify which sessions she really wants to attend, what courses she’d be missing & have her be sure to meet with the instructor beforehand to know what work would be missed & have to be made up. If the # of classes to be missed is reasonable & she can easily make up the work by the deadline set by the instructors, I see no problem with her attending. If she will have difficulty making up the work, that’s another story & the issue would require more discussion with all parties.</p>

<p>It is wise to work with the counselors & have them as allies, tho it does sound like some “educating” might indeed be in order.</p>

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<p>EK4, Please don’t make the mistake of thinking for one minute that the reps are going to make it clear to the kids who show up that the school may be too competitive or selective for them! Keep in mind that the reps have no idea of what kind of application the student is going to submit - maybe they have a hook to end all hooks, for example. It is the job of these reps to be recruiting for the school and the more apps they get, the more selective they can appear to be!</p>

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<p>Thanks roshke, since we didn’t really attend any scouting meetings previous to older sis applying to colleges- I was discounting the whole purpose of these things and it probably is just as much to get applicants as it is to get information to these applicants</p>

<p>Since the teachers have to give permission- I am going to talk to them as well as to the counselor, because these kids should be attending visits about schools that they are interested in- not just schools they might want to hear about.</p>

<p>Younger D, is opposite from older in some ways.
The older one didn’t attend any visits, because she was afraid of missing class, but admittedly, in the public school, missing class, isn’t always missing a lot of work & she has arranged to make up what she missed.
She is also opposite, because while older D, wasn’t even interested in teh more competitve schools, younger D feels like when I say, “schools like Princeton and Brown are very competitive for everyone who applies”- that , that is the same as saying that she isn’t going to get into universities anywhere. ( which is to say- she seems to be discounting everything that comes out of my mouth)
::::::::headthunk:::::::::
She has always felt that I am very critical- and believe me- I try hard not to come across that way.</p>

<p>I think that - she is probably puzzled by my attitude. Last year, she had no desire to hear about, or visit colleges- now, I am am questioning when she wants to attend presentations by Brown or Stanford!</p>

<p>* parents- they just don’t make sense*</p>

<p>I feel like I have a catch 22- Of course I want to encourage her & I think she is bright and could do very well at a challenging school. She has already shown that, by growing in leaps and bounds now that she is attending the most diverse and rigourous public school in the district.( but I am not going to let her do- like her cousin and apply to 5 Ivies and one match and one safety-)</p>

<p>It is hard to gauge her level of interest- I am going to take your suggestions and have her check out the schools that she is interested in sitting in on first, to make the best use of her time.</p>

<p>I am also going to get info about the classes she has already missed, so that she isn’t missing any one class more than once.
I am also going to try, to get more feedback from her- since she didn’t like Bard, what didn’t she like? Since she did like Oxy, why?
What was it she liked about Princeton?
So hopefully, we will get some good info about what could make a good fit</p>

<p>She is also taking the PSAT soon- they are having all the 10th & 11th graders take it in their English class- so getting ready for college is a big deal at her school & one reason why she wanted to go there I think.</p>

<p>I am going to have her look at the college board match sites and others to get a better idea of what might be a good fit, in addition to the info she gets from the visits. Since she isn’t limiting herself to regional schools like her sister did, that gives her many more choices.
She may even do very well on the SAT. Although she has difficulty in some test situations, her WASL ( state test) scores were amazingly good, except for the math, and that was without accomodations.</p>

<p>At least she has begun to be interested now, rather than in the fall of her gap year :D</p>

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<p>Of course I can put missing class to find out about colleges in perspective after talking to a friend who recently found out that her daughter in teh IB program, has been skipping class, to go to her boyfriends house and…</p>

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<p>emeraldkity,
My kids school allows seniors to attend these presentations if they have a free period at the time the rep is at school, or if the teacher gives permission to miss the class. Juniors are only allowed to go to the session if they have a free period and are not permitted to skip class. Very few juniors attend. Most of these sessions are scheduled very early in the academic year so that it is still feasible for seniors to attend to gather information.</p>

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<p>Who has a free period? I wouldn’t dare miss one of my 6 AP classes for a PR session, not when I’ll already miss enough classes with my required Band, Debate, Swimming and other activities.</p>

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<p>no body has a free period at her school either- I think quite a few juniors attend because she said that she decided not to miss APUSH because half the class was already gone.
Students are also required to get a signed form from teachers prior to attending the college visit.
It is still early, I agree- they don’t have any visits after the first week of Nov.
I checked the list and see part of the problem, while I wouldn’t have a problem with her finding out more info about schools that might be a good match like Allegheny or Warren Wilson, the schools are all either instate or they are Caltech/Swarthmore/Yale sorts of schools.</p>

<p>greenone, she doesnt miss class otherwise, she does have to get out of her 6th per class early for swim meets occasionally, but other than that she doesn’t have any thing that interferes much with school.</p>

<p>Since she is getting at least some kind of an idea, about what she is looking for , and since she is getting practice speaking up, I am just going to ask that she have me approve the visits beforehand as well as the teachers</p>

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<p>Schools downplay selectivity at presentations I’ve attended and encourage as many applicants as possible (so the Us can collect app fees & increase their selectivity index). After attending a few such events, I agreed with my S’s assessment that the presentations are PR/Marketing jobs & have very little to do with helping a student know much about “fit” or other things of importance.</p>

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<p>I think you’re right HImom. After attending each presentation this year my S comes home “sold” on the school and is convinced that they want him to attend LOL.</p>

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<p>Well I just emailed the high school counselor- he is hosting a meeting for parents next week that sounds like it will touch on finding schools besides the reach schools.
It also sounds like it is really needed, students are approaching him for letters of recommendation for those schools at a higher rate than he would like to see.</p>

<p>I donated all our old college guides to the high school as soon as D1 was done with them, but it looks like time for me to get some new ones and leave laying around ( if I don’t suggest it- she will read it)</p>

<p>like Colleges that change lives and Schools for Slackers ( oh I mean * late blooming* )</p>

<p>It sounds like it was just as well that D1 didn’t go to any of the visits, and at the College fair- we just kind of walked through in a daze-
But I did order D2 her own address lables- so she can take those along to the Fair.</p>

<p>I feel like I am kind of doing this from scratch- everything seems have gotten so much more competive- although it could just be that I am a lot more aware of everything.</p>

<p>I do feel disappointed though- that everything is so competitive, because I also believe in Serendipity.
One of D1s best friends at Reed, was there by default. She either didn’t get in, or couldn’t afford her 1st choice school. I think Reed might have even been 3rd choice- but she quickly grew to love it & is pursing a path that she hopes will lead her back to teach there.</p>

<p>However- I know there are a ton of schools- ( of course I do- I am working on 5,000 posts!) and I know that we will find something that we probably don’t even know about yet.</p>

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<p>Personally, I think it’s too early for a junior to be attending these sessions, especially if she is missing class, for the following reasons: 1) The sessions vary in quality quite a bit and could be a turnoff. 2) Things change from year to year, and information could be outdated by the time your D applies.</p>

<p>My senior D has attended four so far this week and last, and the quality is very variable. Two have been excellent, and two have been worse than lackluster. The two that were bad were for schools that I think would be a good fit. So she was turned off by a random presenter who happened to be sent by the school. I subsequently had a hard time convincing D to visit the two schools in question. JMHO!</p>

<p>Next year it’s very important to attend because these reps are usually the people assigned to read applications from your geographic region, and it is nice to put a face to a name.</p>