<p>What are, or should be, the first criteria for college/university selection?</p>
<p>Seems obvious to me that they would include having a good degree program in the intended major (or good degree programs in all of the possible majors for an undecided student, or suitability for the student’s specific desired curriculum), and being affordable.</p>
<p>But it does seem that in the search and selection forum, many of the high school students are looking for other factors first, and may not even mention these criteria. In other cases, where the student has mentioned these factors, some of the responses suggesting schools name inappropriate schools (not enough breadth and depth in the intended major and/or too expensive with too little financial aid).</p>
<p>Some kids have broad interests and don’t know yet what they’ll major in. They need a school that’s pretty good at everything - there are lots of those. My older son chose his school 100% by his major. My younger son figured out a probable major while looking at colleges (International Relations), but he couldn’t be 100% sure he’d stick with it. One of the reasons he didn’t go to his safety was his perception was that while it was very strong in IR, it didn’t have sufficient other options if he should decide to go in a different direction. So he looked first for strong overall academics with his major, and then size and location and campus vibe narrowed down the list.</p>
<p>The first criterion is a determination by the student and parents that the student could be happy there (so, overall environment, affordability, classes, size, weather, reputation). We are positive that my DS (senior) would not be happy at a small isolated LAC in cold weather no matter what the Fin Aid package was, so he will not be applying to those schools even if the school has a great reputation and might offer him a full ride.</p>
<p>Agree with annasdad. Doesn’t matter if the program is tailor-made to my child’s desires, is located in a utterly perfect climate, and has the cutest boys in the history of mankind – if we can’t afford it, it’s a non-starter.</p>
<p>I totally agree with annasdad that affordability should be first and foremost however for my son it was INITIALLY the rankings in his intended major-- Mechanical Engineering. After getting accepted to several top-10 schools in his intended major, a light finally went off and he asked himself which ones made the most financial good sense-- looking at in-state tuition at publics, OOS publics, and private school costs, taking FA packages into consideration and not all of the schools that offered him admission were overly generous.</p>
<p>You don’t know whether you can afford a school until you see the financial aid package.</p>
<p>Every student should have a “financial safety” – a school that the family can afford without financial aid. Ideally, this school should also be an academic safety – one that is certain (or almost certain) to admit the student.</p>
<p>But I see no reason why the student’s entire list must be limited to financial safeties. As long as the student understands that he/she cannot attend college X even if admitted unless the financial aid package is adequate, what’s the harm in applying to college X?</p>
<p>I agree with WordWorld. A child should be happy at the school. I knew too many kids who transfer schools due to a poor social fit.</p>
<p>D1 had a good sense of her intended major, and her geographic preference. We visited a number of schools that met her requirements. She ranked each criteria on a spreadsheet after the visit “Location, surrounding campus, sports, major, cost, etc.”</p>
<p>The school with the highest score was also the one that as soon as she stepped foot on campus she said “I want to go here.”</p>
<p>However, some schools have stated need-aid and/or merit-scholarship policies that are easy to predict in advance (e.g. HYPSM need-aid, UC BGO, Alabama and UAB merit scholarships).</p>
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<p>One can classify schools financially as “safety” (definitely affordable), “match” (likely but not certainly affordable), “reach” (unlikely affordable, possibly due to a reach-level merit scholarship), or “out of reach” (no realistic chance of being affordable).</p>
<p>Obviously, the “out of reach” schools are not worth applying to; the others should be considered in the context of the financial safety/match/reach estimate as well as admissions safety/match/reach estimate.</p>
<p>The student does need at least one school that is safety for both admissions and finances. This can be community college, though it is best to consider this beforehand instead of disappointingly backing into it after being “shut out”.</p>
<p>One should start the college selection process with, “what can I afford?” and go from there. Once one has a list of affordable alternatives then there’s clearly no harm in playing the FA lottery.</p>
<p>This sounds like a good idea. I would only add that there should be an academic safety on the “affordable” list. Otherwise, the student might end up being accepted only at unaffordable schools.</p>
<p>Like annasdad, we looked at affordability, or at least likely affordability. If we thought d1 might get enough grant aid, we left it on the list. </p>
<p>Next was did the school have the program kid was currently interested in. D1 wanted a rather specialized and uncommon major. She changed first semester, but as a hs senior, any school without it was off the list.</p>
<p>Finally, d1 had criteria of her own. She wanted to be close enough to come home on the weekends sometimes. She wanted to be a part of the choir, so good vocal music was important. She didn’t want anything too big. </p>
<p>That narrowed us to 3. </p>
<p>D2’s area of interest is far more common. I’m sure she’ll be casting a much wider net.</p>
<p>A financial safety, as well as a place when one can see him or herself, should be the first consideration that a student has. Our oldest son took a National Merit scholarship to his “financial safety” and never has regretted that decision.</p>
<p>Of course, then there is my high school sophomore who listed the importance of at least one Chick-Fil-A on campus among his priorities when selecting a college.</p>
<p>One more first criterion: If the kid can’t stand the school, it’s probably best to take it off the list unless it is the only possible financial safety. The reason for the kid’s objections really don’t matter. </p>
<p>One of my kids had an extremely negative reaction to a visit to a particular school that, on paper, met all of her criteria. That school was never discussed again. There was no point.</p>
<p>First thing we were concerned with was “could she grow there?” That’s not just “fit,” it’s the “thrive” part. That started with the right level of academic challenge, right mix of motivated and prepared fellow students- and the social scene. Yes, I mean the right tier of schools and schools within that tier.</p>
<p>D1 knew her major, which is rather specific- but as a back-up was willing to go with a general program that at least offered some classes in her area. </p>
<p>Finaid was a huge consideration, but we already knew, eg, that easily affordable choices (cc and state) wouldn’t offer that growth, as we defined it. Hey, we were left with a bunch of 50k schools. So, after we had found the places where she could thrive and be challenged, then we cut down the list based on our research of how generous the various schools were with aid. We cut the ones that had crappy aid- small amounts, reliance on “work study” that wouldn’t come through or big loans.</p>
<p>That left us with a shorter list of fit, thrive, probable affordabilty- then we dug deep into the department- courses offered, profs’ backgrounds and interests, internship connections, study abroad in her specific area.</p>
<p>She’s at a school that matches all those needs, incl depth and breadth in her major.</p>
<p>Here’s my short list of criteria (as derived from when my two kids were looking at schools) in no particular order:</p>
<p>Location, location, location (was very important to D whereas S couldn’t have cared less)
School size and type, e.g., LAC vs. university
Opportunities offered to students - majors, courses, cross-registration with other schools, interaction/working with faculty, extracurricular activities
Fit</p>
<p>Point taken about finances not being the ONLY thing to think about when making the application list. My D got a very nice FA package and scholarship from her college, and she wouldn’t be attending without it. And of course, when she applied, she had no idea she’d get that.</p>
<p>The things that were important to her:
Small LAC. She visited my alma mater, Ginormous Flagship U, and absolutely hated it; it felt overwhelming and anonymous to her.<br>
This goes along with small LACs, but a very low student/teacher ratio was essential; she learns best when she’s participating in the discussion.
She wanted to spread her wings, so being far away was also important; the closest school she applied to was 1000 miles away.
It had to be lefty.
There had to be some kind of meaningful dance opportunity for non-majors.</p>
<p>True, but it can be a relatively simple first screening, along with availability of intended or possible majors. For example, there is no sense in spending time and money to visit a school (or check on other, more difficult to determine fit characteristics) that is financially out of reach or does not have the student’s intended or possible majors.</p>
<p>There are 2 categories of “financially out of reach” thought. The first category for us is OOS public that D would likely get in, but that offer no merit aid. No way to afford UCs, etc. so we didn’t even consider them in the initial discernment process. The second category are the schools that are not financial safeties and are out of reach based on sticker price, but could offer a package of scholarships, grants, work study etc to make it work. We decided to spend time and money to visit several of these schools because at many interest and fit is tracked and important. D has “demonstrated” a lot of very genuine interest at her top 2 schools in this category. Hopefully one of them will work out, but there are more backup options also in the works as well.</p>