<p>I am a current Stanford EA admit. I found CC earlier this year when a friend told me about it. Though sometimes people have helped, and other times their advice has been complete rubbish, overall participatin in CC has taught me so much that I’d have never known otherwise.</p>
<p>I’m getting to the point.</p>
<p>I go to a school where most kids go in state (NC). Smart kids go to UNC and really smart kids go to Duke. Several years ago, a girl went to Yale, which people actually got upset about because she rejected a better offer at Duke. Recently, she came back and told a group of us, “Just apply somewhere different. Everyone here falls into the trap of applying to the same three schools.” And for the first time, my class is breaking the mold. We’ve got applicants seeking places from Pomona to Princeton.</p>
<p>But the problem is, that’s not all of the applicants. I have one friend, 1540 SAT, but is applying to MIT (where he won’t get in due to other stats) and NC State (where he’s a top student). My other CC friend and I begged him to apply to Cornell and Case Western - just somewhere in the middle. Somewhere different. </p>
<p>And that’s what I want for future generations at my school. My guidance counselor knows almost nothing. (One girl applied to Emory, which is in a neighboring state, and she didn’t know where it was). And teachers have been less than enthusiastic about the kids already accepted to out of state schools, and even almost rude to my friend who applied early to Gettysburg College. ("Stanford? Cool … why do you want to go there? What about the Morehead?) </p>
<p>And I know I can’t single-handedly change all of this. But I’d like to try. I really want kids in the future at my school to start thinking outside the box when it comes to college. CC has really helped me, but I feel I need to do something directly. So I want to know what you think: What kinds of things could I do to help spread my knowledge. Not to brag, but my friends call me “college mommy.” My friend’s dad once said, “It’s sad when my 17-year-old is getting advice from another 17-year-old who probably knows more than the counselors.” And I want to be able to help next year’s students be like this year’s students. How?</p>
<p>If you just bought the school 5 recent copies of the Fiske Guide, and found a way to get students (and their parents) to read it, you’d have done plenty.</p>
<p>Are there no alumni of any of these other institutions anywhere in your area? Would it be possible to to try to encourage them to come out of the woodwork and organize a college fair for your HS?</p>
<p>Barring that, what about getting some of these kids who are finally venturing out a bit to pledge to come back and participate in a college panel for juniors at your high school at an assembly or over a holiday break?</p>
<p>I like Dizzymom’s 2nd point especially. My school has a thing every year where the IB students from the year before come back and talk to the Jrs and Srs how IB has helped them in college and such. It’s not exactly the same as talking about colleges in general, but it’s getting there. There’s also a thing where the non IB people come back, and talk more about their schools and share college experiences as well. I think both are very helpful for their intended targets.</p>
<p>My school also compiles data from every graduating class for the kids who follow. The data has GPAs, SATs, ethnicity, # of IB classes taken, and the decision from a college about the student. For example, you see “Virginia Tech”, and then have 50 people’s stats below it with the result. Obviously this doesn’t tell everything, but it gets college names that people might not have thought about into your school. This would have to be done by the school staff, as they are the ones who have access to this information (no names are included in the published stats), but it might be worth suggesting.</p>
<p>Encourage your classmates to become involved in their colleges’ admissions offices as first-years. Many higher ed institutions love to have current students represent them at their HSs over a vacation break. That way they will serve as official representatives and be able to distribute brochures, etc., to the HS seniors and can speak knowledgeably about the experiences they’re having. Perhaps their enthusiasm will infect future applicants!</p>
<p>We have much of the same problem at our school. We do have adcom visits, but only from local LACs and the state university. But last year, the val was accepted EA (or whatever that is) to Harvard. And I visited Yale and gave them the address of my high school. This year, both Harvard and Yale visited our school, for the first time. Your high school might be an admissions gem, waiting to discovered. Admissions people pay attention when qualified applicants come from a school not on their radar screen. You and your wind-blown friends might be the boost your school needs. It is sad to see perfectly capable students settle or just remain close to home because they don’t realize what else is out there.</p>
<p>Little Mother, that is great advice! Our HS has information sessions where college freshmen who are alumni are invited to speak. I encouraged my son to accept and he did so. My son also hosted someone from his school when that kid was visiting campus.</p>
<p>For many students, convenient location and proximity to home are important factors in choosing a college. For a large percentage of students that may never change, despite the fact that the parents think that a move far away could be beneficial. I remember reading somewhere that the majority of students do opt to attend colleges within a certain distance to their homes. For many students that is a very important decision factor. I think that the OP is fortunate to live in a state that offers the students very good public and private options. The students at his/her school may attend the schools mentioned because they are good schools that are close to home. Attendence at these schools may also offer some financial benefit to the students when compared to other choices.</p>
<p>Many of the students at my son’s high school also decided on what colleges to apply to and matriculate at based on location. It wasn’t that they were being close minded about other options. Some placed a greater emphasis on a school’s proximity to home. Even though it wasn’t an issue for my son, he understood how it was for some.</p>
<p>But isn’t the point that many children value being close to home because of lack of exposure, insecurity and other factors that some broader thinking could help change? I very much regret not pushing my oldest to go to a college in a place that would expand his horizons. As a junior, he is starting to regret the insecurities that kept him close to home.</p>
<p>What can a former student do?
–Organize panels of returning students to talk about their colleges. Often, college breaks do not coincide with high school vacations, so something can be organized.<br>
–keep in touch with teachers. Often, they will mention colleges to current students as possible options if they know someone there. Just the other day, a student now at Pomona visited my S’s English class to say hello to his former teacher. He said he was an easy admit because so few applicants came from the East Coast.
–Send back college brochures to the guidance office.
–Ask and help the GC to track students’ acceptance to out of state colleges with stats, GPAs, etc…
–Volunteer to host visiting students from your high school on college tours.</p>
<p>“But isn’t the point that many children value being close to home because of lack of exposure, insecurity and other factors that some broader thinking could help change?”</p>
<p>Not always. I would bet that decisions are often based on financial and travel considerations.</p>
<p>To piggy back on sokkermom’s answer, it would depend on what part of the country you are to begin with. </p>
<p>We live in NYC, my daughter attends school apparox 4 hours away from home, and did have geographic considerations when looking at colleges as she wanted to attend school in the north east and the furthest south she wanted to go was PA.</p>
<p>For example there are plenty of kids that live in NYC who attend NYu and Columbia, some are commuter students while others live on campus. One mf my daughter;s friends lives in the village (walking distance from school) but lives on campus. Her sister is a junior at Barnard, they both did not fell the need to leave the city because it had schools that they love and wanted to attend. </p>
<p>Marite’s son (who I have kidded about earlier in the process) is a stones throw away and currently attends classes at Harvard where he plans to matriculate this fall. </p>
<p>The other side of the coin is one of my daughter’s friends who was born and raised in NYC but says that he’s been on the “wrong coast” all of his life and went to Stanford to commune with the californian in his soul.</p>
<p>Yep about my S. When he moves into one of the houses in sophomore year, he may end up being further away from some of his classes than when he lived at home. But his dad and I, on the other hand, both went to college thousand of miles away from home because we wanted to see the world.</p>
<p>Sybbie, you’re absolutely right. I’ve also observed kids at my D’s HS who apply to only schools in Massachusetts or New England. Since there are so many good schools in the area, the students’ “universe” consists of just those ones. By considering schools beyond those geographical constraints, many of them would face less admissions competition from classmates as well as from applicants from other areas of the country. In fact, when I mention Pomona to other parents, more than I would have expected haven’t heard of it.</p>
<p>I agree with all the above, my son too took part in an “alum night” last week at his former high school where interested students and parents could talk to him and others about their first year experiences.</p>
<p>It takes one maverick to break the mold. Some high schools send graduates off to the same colleges every year. S’s Jesuit school classmates apply to Boston College, not Boston University. According to his school’s scattergram, two or three kids have applied to BU over the last five years; many more to BC. I think it’s vital to raise the consciousness of the GC department at high schools. Stanford, UCB, UCLA, Georgetown-- these are the schools to which the top kids apply. One '04 graduate, another trailblazer, is a freshman at Duke.</p>
<p>Well, one reason that kids are encouraged to go to particular in-state schools is that many graduates enjoy the whole collegiate experience enough to want to relive it and the environs by finding jobs close by. That serves the interest of economic development and the brain drain for a state. Why do you think many businesses want to set up close to fine universities or where they can access the grads or use facilities? While I can applaud your mission of breaking the mold, there is a bigger picture. I would so like to see entrepreneurial graduates setting up businesses in their own states.
In my area in particular, people keep arriving and no one is leaving–population is getting out of control and suburban sprawl is a real issue. Costs are rising and competition is endemic. There is a giant sucking sound drawing humanity here and denuding other regions of this country who could really use some business creation.</p>
<p>mini- Fiske is a good idea. Though I’m not quite sure how I would market it.
dizzymom - A college fair sounds excellent. We have one, but again, it’s mostly with the same local universities whose SAT ranges are about 900-1100 that don’t really appeal to top students. We do have representatives come and visit at times, but only for schools like Harvard. Meaning Harvard visits and the local tech school visits, but nowhere in between. I think coming back sounds wonderful - I actually will probably set that up.
soccerguy - I also like the stats idea. I think maybe starting a website with information about colleges and where recent students have gone would be interesting as well.
others - While true that many students want to remain close to home, many here choose to because they have never thought outside of the box. The perfect example is my friend with near perfect SAT’s who is only applying to MIT and mid-ranked state schools because he does not understand that there are other options.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all of the advice. Assuming I actually go to Stanford (ironically enough I could end up choosing Duke for more $ and staying in state), I’d like to encourage others to apply to West Coast schools, probably by organizing a panel or getting a website started.</p>