I’m a parent of a HS Class of 2024 kid & a HS Class of 2026 kid.
Something I learned, for example, just this past weekend was that I am now feeling “anticipatory sad” the day BEFORE D24 heads back to college. I wasn’t expecting that. It got me right in the feels!
A year ago, our family was in the same boat all of you are right now…decisions are all in (or almost all are in) and your kid is having to make a decision in a little over a month.
One parent might be in a mood of “Just hurry up and decide!” while the kid is dragging their feet about deciding. Or vice versa.
In our case, D24 had a hard time making up her mind, while my DH wanted her to decide based on a gut feel in a nanosecond, and D24 was feeling a lot of pressure about how this was her first really big adult decision in life.
So I used something that I learned in business school about decision analysis. If your kid is paralyzed by The Decision…OR if you, the parent, keep thinking of the “opportunity cost” (i.e., the value of the next best alternative that you’re giving up when you make the choice) of all of the choices NOT selected, then you could use a decision analysis method in order to guide your kid in how to decide.
For example:
For D26, she’s come up with several ‘decision factors’ (aka criteria) for what she thinks she wants in a college. Something that is a “must have” has a priority of “high.” We weighted the “high’s” as a 5, medium = 3, and low = 1.
Meanwhile, I had her score the college for each decision factor/criterion.
We visited Univ of Arizona last month and I had her ‘grade’ the school based on what her decision factors currently are. Keep in mind, that one’s kid could change their mind about what is most important vs not as important. And that certainly could be the case between the start of 12th grade and now.
So here’s what the score ended up looking like:
| Priority (high, medium, or low) | Score (1-5, where 5 = highest) | Weight (High = 5, Med = 3, Low = 1) |
U of A final score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | high | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Not too far away from home | high | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Not too cold in winter | medium | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| Strength in major | high | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| major doesn’t require physics or chem | high | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| major doesn’t require 1.5 yr of Calculus + Linear Algebra | high | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Ease of getting internships | med-high | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| good job placement #s at or after graduation | med-high | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| Campus safety | medium | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| On campus community of nerdy students | low | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Final total score | 192 |
As we go through this process, I’m going to have her do the same for the other colleges under consideration. A year ago when D24 was waffling back and forth in her indecision, I made her do this and the college that ended up scoring the highest was the one my gut said she’d probably end up happiest at. And that’s where she ended up enrolling.
Anyway, this is just a tool to consider using. If you use it, and IF after your kid scores a couple of their colleges, the decision analysis score doesn’t end up where their gut/instinct said it would land, then have the student reevaluate the decision factors/criteria (adjust/change as necessary) and then rescore it.
Hope that helps! 
** edited to add:**
the final score for each decision factor/criterion = score * weight.