Realized I left off a zero in my post above. It was 62,000 applicants for 2800 spots. It feels impossible
My son goes to a private international boarding school. No Naviance (I donāt think) and no college visits to the school that I know about. If theyāre happening theyāre not getting the word out to the parents very well.
My kids go to a medium sized, public high school. They have about 100 colleges visit the high school.
D20 goes to a public high school (1,800 students) and from the end of August through the end of October they will get over 100 colleges visits and they take place during the weekday either at 7:45am, noon (lunch) or 3:00p.
We live in flyover country. My D18 went to a public magnet high school. My S20 attends a small private school with 28 students in his class. Both have had lots of college reps visit, spanning the selectivity spectrum.
Neither school has Naviance, though.
DS20 goes to a large public high school (2k students overall - 500 in each grade level) - school has Naviance and college reps do visit.
A word about Naviance: its managed differently at each school; the accuracy of data can differ widely. In our school - guidance department enters all application submissions but the decisions are voluntarily reported by students. Most students check-out by the time they have acceptances - they may not enter decision info completely. It is still useful but have to use numbers with the knowledge that they are not foolproof.
Rep visits - at our school, the reps generally donāt give out cards or take student names. They just hang around the Guidance office for half-hour or so, inviting questions - no chance they could relate to the apps to who they met at the school. This is especially true for popular elite colleges (lot of students attend those sessions).
our HS is low SES large school; very few go anywhere besides state schools and community colleges. I was surprised to see U Chicago there amidst the job corps, military, state school visits. My kid didnāt go the UC thing though; it doesnāt offer his major.
His GC hadnāt even heard of SAT subject tests; which are recommended for Rice. I donāt think itāll happen. BUT - I was pleased to meet a GC last night who seems to know what is going on and gave some good advice about switching LORs and a few other things. Thankful to have met him!
Our school is a public charter, but very small ā about 200 students total. We rarely have college reps visit the school, but we do have Naviance. Usually, if we want to talk to a college rep, we need to personally seek them out at college fairs or local visits we find out about by signing up online with each college. I do know that other bigger high schools in our area, both public and private, are visited by college reps more often on a regular basis.
Since itās a small private school I think they feel the parents will handle it. I donāt know. I have to say after being on CC Iām a little disappointed in how little the school seems to do on the college front. But, my kid doesnāt talk to me much about it, so it could be theyāre doing more than Iām aware of. I know they touch base with the students and itās because of his GC that he applied to one of the schools he did, and for English they are working on the Common App essay right now.
Thanks for the replies everyone, seems that college reps go to both public and private alike.
@bgbg4us Sās school is similiar in that most go to state schools and community college.
DS20 got his first acceptance today to Sam Houston State. Itās a state school so cheaper tuition than his older brotherās private school. He is leaning toward a computer animation major which SHSU has. Iām trying to get him to expand a little more to digital media, communication design, etc. We are also keeping open the possibility of walking on to a football team; heās rehabbing from ACL surgery last June, so we have that wrinkle as well. But itās nice to have one in the bag!
DS goes to a private HS with about 120 students in his class. No Naviance, has college reps coming, the guidance counselors highly encourage students to attend, but it does not always happen as the visits often are during class time.
Wish DSā IB English is working on CA essays.
Congratulations on your DSā acceptance @cgpm59
D20 goes to large public with about 3,800 kids. She is reluctant to miss any classes for these rep visits, but I think that they get over 200 colleges visit. Itās all done through Naviance, and the new-ish Naviance UI does not let you easily see exactly how many schools are in the system. Reps come at the beginning of a period and are there for less than an hour.
Not only do we have college rep visits on campus but we also have a college fair that the kids are required to attend during the school day. Itās this coming Tuesday which is also an early release day so no actual school work will be going on. DS is not pleased, heās concerned that the teachers will just assign boat loads of homework to make up for the missed class time.
S20 goes to a smallish charter (around 140 in his graduating class I think). They do get college rep visits. I know he has signed up to go to some. It seems like the teachers arenāt loading the kids up with work right now. We were just talking about it at dinner. His school is pretty competitive/academic and I appreciate that they seem to understand how much time and energy the college application process takes.
Thank you @homerdog for your post. Good suggestions and strategy.
Weāve been going to regional visits in our area to meet the reps. That has been successful in that DS has been able to ask questions. Cool thing at one was the student speaker was from his HS (he had a class w her sib so they connected over that). The sessions are at hotel conference rooms and last about an hour with time for questions afterward. DSās HS is a large public and Iām not sure of the visits yet. His HS counselors are notoriously slow to respond if at all. DS asked at the info sessions if theyād be visiting his school and they said they received no replies to their emails. Ugh!
Our college night is next week and weāre supposed to learn about Naviance at that time. Iāll ask about college visits then. Iām familiar with using Naviance from older DS who went to another school. So far I can already see itās a different configuration.
Good luck to all and congrats on the acceptances that have already come in!
The colleges reps at our schools are generally visited by juniors. Some like the state school will have 60 kids. Others may not have any. Many of the schools I had never heard of.
Hello! I wanted to say āhiā and jump in to this group. Iām a little in awe that it was started when our kids were freshman, but alas, better late than never I guess.
Weāve visited 8 colleges, our son is narrowing down his list, and Iām trying to stay as hands-off as I can while still being supportive. LOL. Heās finishing his common app and working on his essay in a class at school, should be done in the next couple of weeks.
His plan is to study computer science. My biggest concern is how we know which school is right (me, and everyone else, right?). The background here is that I went to community college, then transferred to a state college with a completely unsupported program I was passionate about (back in the olden days when you went to a library to look at course catalogs to pick your school without information at your finger tips online), but without the life skills to persist and speak up. I dropped out, joined the workforce during the dot com boom, did just fine, became a SAHM and FINALLY got my BA last year. It was hell going to school with a husband, 2 kids and a job, but I did it and I want something else for my kids.
So my primary biggest concerns are merit aid and a school that feels good enough with a good enough program and life that he graduates.
SO, āhello!ā parents of class of 2020. It was just āyesterdayā he was in kindergarten and I did the math to realize he would be Class of 2020. I thought it was so coolā¦and So Very Far Off.
Did the net price calculator ask for stats? Would love to know merit possibilities, but the NPC only asked for financials when I ran it.