last minute-choosing college without visiting

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My daughter got a bad case of senioritis at the end of January, pretty much blew off February and got mono in March. She was very sick for several weeks, took incompletes in some subjects, and since she recovered has been working hard (mostly) to both finish her incompletes and keep up with current work. Tomorrow is the last day to turn in her incomplete work. I think she just had one assignment left to do, so I think she’ll make it, but she barked at me just now when I asked how they were going, so I don’t know for sure.</p>

<p>The result of all this is that since January, my daughter has not visited colleges. Four of her colleges accepted her, and the 3 of those she is willing to consider she has not visited. They are: Indiana U, James Madison U, and Ithaca College (she is interested in acting). (There are also 2 schools that waitlisted her, and it’s possible she could get accepted by one of those, but we’ll deal with that if and when we have to.)</p>

<p>This is Tuesday. The May 1 deadline is a week from today. How can she decide? She knows so little about them.</p>

<p>I know we can read visit reports if there are any on these schools. There are students at two of these schools she could email, if she chose to. And we might be able to squeeze in a visit or two. We live about 2-3 hours from James Madison, and we are not anywhere close to Ithaca and indiana.</p>

<p>I am a nervous wreck, but have been trying all year to keep it to myself. My questions are: (1) Has anybody else been in this situation, and do you have any advice? and (2) Do the colleges have to receive a decision and depost by May 1st exactly?</p>

2

<p>Do as much internet research as you can - right away. Have your D contact the people she knows at some of these schools (right away) and ask them particular questions (not just - “how do you like it there”). Make the time to go visit as many of the colleges on her radar as possible so she can have some idea of them. It may be a pain but figure out how to get some visiting done. It may be enough for her to fall for one or absolutely reject another. Make a list of positives and negatives in your family’s eyes of each college on her list to help narrow things down. Do this right away.</p>

<p>The theme - do it all right away. There’s not much time left to decide.</p>

3

<p>You definitely want to let them know as soon as you can so you put in your housing deposit. Otherwise you run the risk of her not receiving on campus housing. Nothing a bigger pain than a new town AND having to find an apartment!</p>

4

<p>I’m not sure schools will grant extensions but I would try: play the mono/deadline for incompletes card at the two largest schools (or all three).</p>

<p>Drive to JMU this weekend and see if she can get a sense of comfort/fit. She may love it and willingly give up the others.
If she hates JMU, maybe one of the others will grant an extension, then you send the deposit to the third and plan to make visits ASAP.</p>

5

<p>Good idea, but I think it’s finals week at JMU so students might be a bit distracted.</p>

<p>If you pm Northeastmom, she can answer any questions about JMU. Her son is a freshman there.</p>

6

<p>Well, one way to figure things out about Ithaca is to find out if she will be able to do any acting, having not auditioned or been accepted into their acting program officially. I know there’s a very competitive audition into their Musical Theater program, so am assuming they also do that for Acting. </p>

<p>One of the problems about going to a school where there’s a strong program in performance arts is that people with a general interest in doing it can’t get into the courses or cast for parts, because others are concentrating on it like crazy!</p>

<p>That might be a way to eliminate Ithaca by phone or web, and then see if she likes the others.</p>

<p>Also, of course, click on “College Discussion” then “Alphabetic List of Colleges” then each college by name. I know a lot’s been written about Ithaca at least, here on CC. Also much is written on Ithaca under the “Musical Theater Major” area of CC; click on “Musical Theater” and then use the search word “Ithaca” </p>

<p>If she didn’t audition for their acting program, I’m not sure if she’d get any opportunities under their system.</p>

<p>Her interest in acting could be more general and she could have fun with it at the other colleges. If the other colleges don’t require an audition, but just let anyone major in Theater (or whatever dept. they put their acting courses under) who is interested, then she could be a major in it, take many courses, be in plays if she wins the roles in auditions. OR, she might find some other aspect of theater she’d enjoy, like stagecraft (costuming, backstage, lighting etc) or directing. Some kids come to enjoy producing plays, which puts together many organizing skills, and frankly there are more opportunities for producers than for actors.</p>

<p>Plus, majors change while in college.</p>

<p>Anyway, if she didn’t audition at Ithaca (I figurre not if she never visited) then she’d have to want some OTHER major at Ithaca. </p>

<p>It’s in a beautiful, rural town in upstate New York. Cornell U is in the same town but the students don’t interact much and the campuses are separate. It has a cute cobblestone pedestrian-only village center with all the student cafes, art shops, and so on. The village center is a brief shuttle-bus away from campus. The campus has the most beautiful view you can imagine of one of the Finger Lakes. It’s cold and windy, but there are connecting bridgeways between the buildings so you don’t have to go outside on the worst days.
On nicer fall and spring days, there are many waterfalls to explore, so its motto is “Ithaca is Gorges.” It’s not near ANY city so if that’s at all important, don’t do it.</p>

7

<p>They are also very different in size, with IU having 30,000 students, JMU about 16000 and Ithaca around 6000.</p>

<p>I would say that IU has the most gorgeous campus ever. </p>

<p>Tuition is probably comparable at IU and JMU and maybe double at Ithaca. Unless you are in-state for JMU in which case it is really cheap for a great education.</p>