I went to a catholic university. Lots of my friends weren’t catholic. One of my favorite professors was Jewish.
Lordy, @eh1234 - not enough info? There’s way way too much info out there.
I’m not putting my kid’s info into it at all. That comes much later.
But putting in school info is really useful, and sorting the columns - I’ll sort for size, or distance, or COA, or gpa – has been fun as I get more and more info on more and more schools.
Try doing just one school to get your feet wet. I can list my columns for you if you want.
I knew absolutely zero about creating a spreadsheet before I did this one, but Google Sheets is dead easy. And nobody has to be the wiser if you want it to just disappear into the night.
@homerdog I attended a Catholic Jesuit school. Not BC but another one on the East Coast. Lots of non-Catholic students. With Jesuit schools, all the Catholic stuff is there if you want it. But it is totally okay if you don’t. The Jesuit focus on service and education is the common thread throughout the entire experience, with faith or without. BC is a great school.
I love Google Sheets, @gatormama. I would love to see your columns. Thanks for your offer to share them.
@HomerDog, there are so many terrific Catholic schools that I certainly would not rule them out. Besides BC, Georgetown is a Jesuit school, and one of their application questions (about five years ago) asked specifically why attending a Jesuit school would be a good fit for the applicant. My friend’s S16 is there and says he does not participate in Georgetown’s Catholic community nor even notice it is there–even though he is Catholic.
@EastGrad - ok, so first I started with one tab and it took a while but eventually got unwieldy.
Now I have one tab with academics, one with financials and one with dates/deadlines, which isn’t important now but I figured I might as well start compiling it.
Academics has basic info like town and driving distance from our town. Then: school population, scholarship info, majors, whether there’s lacrosse, any special/unique features, whether we have a personal contact, avg GPA, 25-75 range of SAT/ACT, what’s most important for admission, admit rate and whether it’s a safety, match or reach, based on stats.
Financial tab has all the costs - application fee, tuition and room/board, avg aid by need and merit, whether it meets full need, whether it’s a CSS profile school, and then numbers we can’t fill out until we’ve done fafsa: EFC, NPC for each school and the all-important gap figure - at the end of each row will be determination of safety, match or reach school based only on financials.
I thought about adding a column for whether the school tracks demonstrated interest but I decided that we’re demonstrating interest to all of the schools we’re researching anyway - requesting info, visits, emails etc. so not really necessary for us.
HTH!
D17’s spreadsheet had 152 columns, and she reviewed all of them and took them all into consideration.
D19’s has 63, but about a dozen of those aren’t filled in (things like NPC results, which I’ll figure out for her once our taxes are done), and about a half dozen are simply copies of each other so that related stuff can be viewed at once without scrolling—and she thinks it’s already overkill.
Have I mentioned before that D19 is way less picky about the whole college choice process than her older sister? It’s a happy difference.
Mine was Franciscan, rather than Jesuit. Pretty sure they are known for their kindness and welcoming.
My kids completely refuse to go to any religiously affiliated college. Summer religion classes completely ruined religion for them. But for kids who don’t mind religious themed artwork and a couple of religion based classes, they are really good universities. Especially for a kid who wants more of a community feel. The required theology courses were not catholic specific at mine. One was world religions and two were Christian based courses (bible and marriage) that were taught with a scholarly intention rather than an evangelical intention. Quite helpful in understanding where some people are coming from with their religious stances.
@InfiniteWaves @EastGrad I get what you’re saying about Jesuit colleges. Our list is just long as it is and I don’t think BC or Villanova are fits for other reasons as well. Of course, it’s very important for him to understand all religions and to be accepting. I think he is. Since he thinks he wants small campus with lots of interaction between students and profs, I think it’s just best we take a pass on BC and Villanova. I have friends with kids at both and the kids love it but it’s not the LAC experience that S19 seems to be drawn to. I guess I shouldn’t have called out religion as a downside for us. It was an obvious one to me since our Catholic high schools send many more kids there and my adult friends who went to BC are Catholics and married Catholics they met there. The region issue is just one of a handful of reasons. Not saying kids can’t thrive at Jesuit colleges if they aren’t Catholic.
S19 is going to a college planning seminar today at the high school. The PTO found admissions reps from Iowa and Marquette to talk about “admissions from the other side of the table” and there are other breakouts as well with current seniors talking about their search and guidance counselors talking about “fit”. There’s also a chance to do a mock interview, so he’ll do one of those as well. I’m volunteering to interview kids as well.
S19 is kind of dragging his feet. Not because he’s worried about how it will go, but because he has a lot of homework to do this afternoon (yesterday was spent mainly at indoor track try outs) and he thinks he will already know everything being said in the breakouts. Plus, he’s good with adults and thinks this interview is a waste of time. There’s a waiting list for students to get these interviews and he thinks he should give up his spot for someone “who needs the practice”. He’s been lucky to be the only student at some AO visits to the high school (spent an hour each with the Davidson and Dickinson reps), but these meetings weren’t “interviews”. They were just chats about the school and a little about him since he was the only student. Anyway, it should be an interesting afternoon. Sounds like he’s not planning to prepare for his mock interview so I hope winging it works for him.
@homerdog Marquette is a Catholic University.
Totally hear you @homerdog. It’s all about comfort level and what your son wants from his college experience. If certain religious affiliations are a definite “no way” there are plenty of other options. There were a lot of Catholic school kids at my Jesuit college. I was not one of them, but I did marry one. Your assessment of Catholic culture is accurate. Although, I have not identified as Catholic for a looooooong time now. My atheist father had more of an influence than my Catholic mother. 
I took S19 to visit two Jesuit schools including the one Mr. InfiniteWaves and I attended. After those visits, he decided Catholic colleges were off the table. He has been in Catholic school for the duration and wants something different. And that is way okay with me. Like your son, my son has gravitated toward small LACs.
Hope the college planning seminar goes well!
We are continuing our college visits . Nothing overly selective , but excellent instate options that have his major of interest . We also have one OOS school, Flagler College, that we plan to visit this Spring. Our next visit is over President’s Day Weekend. We will be doing a formal college tour at CofC for DS19. He has been on campus many times, but this time is focused entirely on him.
He reached out to the Professor in charge of the Historic Preservation and Urban Planning major and will be meeting with him . He loves history and was considering architecture so this may be a good option for him.
He will also be meeting with the professor that coordinates the Computing in the Arts program . It’s a CS degree that also combines an arts concentration of Music, Art, Digital Media or Theatre. He will also sit in on a class, tour the CS department and meet with the Dean of CS. He’s very excited for his visit.
Well, there’s religiously affiliated and then there’s religiously affiliated.
I mean, my D17 goes to a technically religiously affiliated college (Muhlenberg, which is Lutheran), but aside from having a chapel on site (which, to be fair, a number of old public schools do—the University of Maryland College Park, f’rex), and some religious symbology (red doors, mainly, which is apparently a Lutheran thing). Aside from that, though…I mean, just to give perhaps the one that amuses me most, my daughter even has college-sanctioned formal instructor-led class review sections on Sundays.
And Macalester’s somehow simultaneously Presbyterian-affiliated and nonsectarian—where does that even begin to fall on the “religiously affiliated” scale?
Compare those to, say, Brigham Young or Baylor (or, even more extreme, some smaller schools), and it’s clear you can’t really lump all the religious schools together.
@homerdog since you are mostly working on cutting your list down, your reasoning for skipping the catholic schools in favor of better fits makes sense. I was just pointing out that it doesn’t tend to be a problem to be nonCatholic at one, in case your son really falls in love with one and it does fit. As I said though, my own kids refuse to consider them and we actually are catholic, lol.
@dfbdfb my d19 would consider a loose affiliation with no required religion. My 8th grader likely wouldn’t consider even that loose. When she tours colleges, we will probably have to avoid even letting her know that there are chapels on campus.
@carolinamom2boys Isn’t architecture a whole big thing? I thought kids had to apply to undergrad architecture programs and they are super competitive. Thinking super long term, I think S19 would like that as well - math and art intersect - but it’s way too early for him to decide that and I was pretty sure that boat will sail because he can’t commit to an undergrad architecture program.
@homerdog not all architecture programs are “super competitive” There are many different avenues for architecture , but yes , applying as a undergrad is one way, some continue to a masters program. My son was considering Clemson for architecture . I have a niece who is an architecture major at Miami Ohio. My son enjoys architecture , he may choose to major in architecture or something else. The Historic Preservation and Urban Development program that he is investigating also has CAD design as part of the curriculum.
@carolinamom2boys She’s looking at Recreation & Park Management, with the emphasis on nature and not on sports. Lots of the recreation programs are sports oriented. Minor in theater. Also interested in History, Communication, and Environmental Science. I don’t know if Recreation is what she’ll end up doing, but the schools around here that have it happen to be some of the most reasonable on cost so she might as well choose one that has it and keep her options open and costs low.
We’re in Iowa and she’ll probably stay close-ish. I have found University of Nebraska-Kearney, Northwest Missouri State, Winona State MN, Mankato State MN, Southeast Missouri State, and Lindenwood all at $17,000 or less after automatic merit. Cost is definitely a driving factor and if she can get free tuition (very likely at SEMO and UNK), I want her to give it a fair consideration and not eliminate it for frivolous reasons. Right now she thinks University of South Dakota is great but I don’t think it’s truly any more glamorous than the schools listed above So it’s not like she’s shooting for top schools and I’m pushing for local rural ones. We’re both on the same page as far as a smaller state school, so it’s not too much to ask to consider cost and whether the courses match up with her nature/travel preferences.
I do have a spreadsheet on what classes will be involved in that major at the different schools. I’ve thought about having her look just at the course lists without knowing what school it is and see what her thoughts are based on that.
As far as mascots, there are some that do turn me off. One in Arkansas is Boll Weevils and that’s a bit unsettling!
B DS16 didn’t start any essays prior to his senior year. For his 5 applications , he completed at least 15, none of them were used more than once. He had all EA applications , only 2 schools were on the common ap. He did this while taking 5 AP classes, 2 honors classes , completing an Eagle Project, volunteering at the local Science Center and doing college visits . How someone navigates the application process is purely a personal choice . I only offer out experience to let people who have never gone through it that it can all be done once school starts .
So son19 had another decent performance at track this weekend. Afterwards he received notes from multiple schools expressing their interest in him. The state flagship wants all of his academic records, test scores etc and other info asap. They’ve put him on their official recruit list I guess and we’ll just see where it goes. It’s a great fall back option if nothing else. They have a good athletic program there, it’s not far from home, good academic program for him, could be dirt cheap. So for now, it’s in the mix.
The local “most prestigious techie” place around also wants to talk with him this week again. I think I will have son19 talk to them, as it can’t hurt. But with a 6 percent chance of admission at best case I think it’s sort of a waste of time. My son’s scores in math are within target range, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get his English/reading section up to the mid range, which is also crazy high- like 740–780. He might be able to squeak out a 700 if he is lucky. So, if you look at their admission stats, they do admit some kids with less than perfect scores, but it drops your chance to around 3%, ha!! Athletically he is over qualified, so maybe that helps a bit. But being local and a white kid from the burbs does not help so much, in fact it might be his demise.
Well, after his first 2 semesters of junior year his Physics and Pre-Calc grades are 98 and 97, he has an A in AP Stats. I think he might be able to handle the rigor of Most Prestigious Tech school if he wanted to, but he’d have to stay focused and keep working really hard.
Anyways, interesting start to the week.
@rightcoaster much luck to you and ds - my only brush with athletic success (dd - hs '15) fizzled in 8th grade which was tragic at the time (to me mostly) but given the recent gymnastics press, maybe she was wiser than all of us combined to walk away.
Anyway, dd class o’ 19 was focused - but all that has unraveled. She’s now determined palm trees are not required (yes, at the beginning of this search, it was a clear requirement) due to her undying love of the short boot (who can argue with that logic?). She has decided she is now undecided and this whole CS major thing was something forced on her by her IT father and IT is not something she wants. So what do you want dear?? “Stop asking me so many questions, GEEZ!” We are back to square 1.
@amandakayak well it’s better to start over now, than next Fall. Plenty of time to figure it all out!!