<p>I love hearing about everyone’s visits!</p>
<p>Bernese: They do AP Gov 1st semester for the AP Gov test, then AP Econ (I forget if it is micro or macro, but it is not both) 2nd semester and take 2 AP tests (one for each). </p>
<p>S2 only had one or two interviews and they were with an alumni in our hometown.</p>
<p>reeinaz - The kid sitting on your couch today is very different than the kid sitting on your couch next year at this time. For some reason, around November, they wake up, panic, and then “get it.” For some kids that don’t have parents like us guiding them, it is too late. </p>
<p>You will be surprised what matters to them next Spring as they make their decisions…I felt I was a tuned in parent and was shocked at how thoughtful D1s assessment had become.</p>
<p>By Oct of freshman year, almost every kid I know found there was some disconnect between their expectations and reality. Many thought it would be more fun…some had too much fun…but few really understood the volume and difficulty of work they had to do to stay in the top 10-20% like they were in HS. By second semester, I would say 25% of my D’s HS friend group (all honors and AP kids) were contemplating transfers for sophomore year. One didn’t go back and is working full time and another transferred to a school closer to home…for second semester.,</p>
<p>^^^BTW - these kids graduated from one of the best school systems in our state.</p>
<p>Along the lines with what momofboston is saying, the kid now, the kid filling out applications in November, the kid getting acceptances in April and the kid leaving the house in August/September are all very different kids. What they want now could be different than what they want come next April. That is why it is nice to have a few options come Springtime.</p>
<p>I guess I wish I knew already how much kicking and screaming is going to be involved. I’m only just seeing how stubborn that kid can be. Pick my battles? Oh yeah. I’m already strategizing ;)</p>
<p>One more visit tip - take a few pictures. If you see many similar schools in quick succession, it becomes hard to remember which was which. Having a picture to refer to can make you remember - oh right, school X was the one with the library overlooking the lake…</p>
<p>And as already said upthread, take a few notes - helpful to refer back to when writing the Why College X? essays.</p>
<p>I’m enjoying all the discussion of college visits, I only wish we were able to do some traveling, too! Unfortunately, between sports and musical theater, DD is spending approx. 30 hours a week at practices/rehearsals and this will only increase until the second week of May. I’m not sure if we will survive. I will have to enjoy the college trips vicariously as I read the posts on CC.</p>
<p>We’ve already had our spring break btw!</p>
<p>I too have lots of battles so I put together a very defined timeline for her to follow. I just take away the car until she meets the milestones on the timeline. The process is laid out for her and she knows what is expected and when - we have meetings set up to discuss very specific topics and she needs to be prepared for our meeting. But in between, we don’t talk college. It just becomes too stressful and everyone gets into overload. For example, because global opps is a very impt subject to her, our next meeting at the kitchen table is in three weeks to discuss the opportunities at each school on her list. That means she needs to come to the table having already researched them to see what interests her. I helped her and gave her the links to the appropriate sections via email but she has to do the work. I will mention it one time one week prior to our meeting but until then, mum is the word.</p>
<p>We have had the same experience. Several schools once thought viable have taken the plummet RobD describes (too small, too urban, don’t like the town/surrounding area, etc.). At the same time, two schools barely considered prior to a vist have moved well up the list.</p>
<p>Some of the ‘12 families did it this way, as well, very successfully. But it made me break out in a cold sweat…just not my DS’ way of functioning (some of this is just “boys mature more slowly” stuff…). He would have ended up at the local CC and still not have learned any valuable skills or lessons. </p>
<p>However you choose to do it, it needs to work for you and NO ONE ELSE. For us, DS and I agreed in the spring of his junior year that he was the CEO, I was the admin. assistant…including the part of the role where the admin. asst. tells the CEO what needs to get done and nags (nicely). The CEO’s job is to meet, greet, call, write, make the hard decisions. Almost everything else is the AA’s job: deal with paperwork, make sure everything is on schedule, make travel arrangements, schedule tests, order test prep books, set up all the different accounts (and a spreadsheet to keep them all straight), run the budget #'s, set up spreadsheets, etc. DH pretty much stayed out of it entirely. For us, it worked.</p>
<p>Did DS learn how to run the process independently? No, and some people would say I was much too “helicopter-y.” We decided that wasn’t as valuable <em>to us</em> as making sure he identified, applied to, got into the right school(s) for him with sufficient aid to give him options. I felt bad about how much I was doing until I realized that, honestly, I’m making pretty good money for my efforts (particularly on handling the FA stuff). A lot of people hire an outside consultant and pay good money for all of this. What’s the difference? With clear expectations of roles, DS and I pretty much avoided the battles.</p>
<p>Me: “I really wish you would have looked at a school or two this week. Grandpop would have driven you if you asked.”
Son: “I know. I want to look at Haverford.”
Me: “Well, that is a difficult school to get into. Their time slots are probably filled up.”
Son: “Nah, it says no reservations are needed.”
Me: "Ok. What are the tour times Friday?’
Son: “What do you mean? You just show up if no reservations are needed.”
Me: “I’m sure they only have tours at set times.”
Son 2 (age 12): “Guys, here, I wrote down the times. You both know all this stuff is posted on the website.”
Son 1: “How’d you get the times?”
Son 2: “I just told you, the website. You gotta call to set up an interview.”</p>
<p>Fingers crossed 12 year old is this on for his search in 5 years.</p>
<p>So, Friday a.m. Haverford; Friday p.m. Arcadia. Should be interesting. Haverford is a very high reach with his GPA, but hey if he wants to look, I’m willing to drive. Not really sure why Arcadia, but it is on the route between home and Haverford. And at least Arcadia is realistic acceptance odds.</p>
<p>PghMomof2–I like how you phrased that. I too am the admin assistant, mainly because I have more time in my day to deal with the paperwork side of this. Our kids are out the door for school at 6:45 am and with school, sports, activities don’t get home until about 6:00 PM, then they have to eat and do homework. Add in prep for ACT/SAT, state testing, AP testing, etc… We are fortunate that our school has a class that the kids can take that helps them discover potential careers, does quite a bit of college researching, etc. so the kids have a very good idea of what they want. I can do a search based on their preferences and have been able to narrow down their list. They then have gone on to websites and looked up the schools and said yes or no. It seems to be working for us.</p>
<p>Mornin’ all! </p>
<p>I too am the Administrative Assistant. At this point, however, I am also somewhat of the CEO. I have a lot of knowledge about different schools and Step-D (understandably) has almost zero. Husband is somewhere in-between us. </p>
<p>The way it works with us, is that I generate the list of schools based on prior knowledge and current research. I go over things with her from time to time to make sure that we’re not wasting our time looking someplace that she’s not interested in living. (This week she nixed a trip to Maine because she just feels her transition from FL to Maine would be too difficult - she’s probably right.) </p>
<p>Step-D has a little more responsibility with the testing because she needs to sign up and take the tests around her house in FL. We call her well before the deadlines and have her sign up for what we recommend, but actually scheduling herself for all of the various tests is on her. </p>
<p>So far this is working well. We’ll see how applications go when H and I are 1000 miles away. EEEK!</p>
<p>Lauren-I didn’t realize she lived that far away from you, yikes. I did just send off a recruiting form for DD this morning. It’s a school I’ve wanted her to consider that she hasn’t taken much interest in but I still think she would like the school. Maybe a few phone calls from the coach could change her mind–and maybe not. This school falls into her academic and financial safety category. She really only has one school like that on her list right now although the schools she is considering she has probably a 99% chance of getting in–but they are all private schools so who knows about the $$$ side of things yet. This school, assuming a 1/2 athletic scholarship, would be easily affordable without any other aid and mostly affordable without the athletic scholarship. Still trying to get her to understand that her goal should be on getting out of UG with little or no loans if she wants to go to medical school.</p>
<p>Hello everyone and Happy Spring! When reading your posts I was reminded of last year with S11 and the craziness of applications. I also functioned as administrative assistant & it was a great deal of work. We only went on a couple of visits before applying and went to the schools after his acceptance.He complained and complained about the number of scholarship applications he had to fill out & the number of accepted student weekends and the interviews for Honors program scholarships. In the end, he got into the Honors program at his first choice college with a full ride(from a combination of scholarships) and he is very happy. It was worth the gnashing of teeth and the many late nights. We are ready to start again with D13!</p>
<p>Long haul: I just giggled a little reading about your exchange with s1 & s2. S2 sounds like he is on the ball! Good luck with your Friday visits :)</p>
<p>I just gave D her first college assignment. It was to read from a list of top schools for here intended major and to tell me based on the overview what two schools were most appealing. After she did that, I assigned her the task to learn about the two schools (from the school website, cc, and other places). She did that and is keeping the two on her list although one she likes more. </p>
<p>I think once you have a specific major in mind and you know what you like/don’t like, the list of schools gets pretty small. Researching colleges is a matter of her learning as much as possible about her current list AND adding a financial safety SUNY school. </p>
<p>We are on break next week and have a family trip to NYC planned. We were planning to visit colleges, but D has ruled out all the colleges we had planned to visit so we are just going to have fun and spend $$. Stonybrook, Fordham, CUNY, Hoffstra, NYU.</p>
<p>nellieh, my oldest 2 both had specific majors in mind when they were looking, but this one really has no idea, so we’re going with good liberal arts, including decent science programs. It doesn’t narrow the list nearly enough! Have fun in NY.</p>
<p>Just got a wrench thrown in S3’s Sat plans. He was going to take some SAT II’s to coincide with his AP’s May 5th, but we just realized that is opening day at the yacht club. He is the “Jr Commodore” so has to make a speech and ride in the parade. So now we have to decide whether to take the SAT II’s in June or the SAT.</p>