I confess that I read the lists. But I don’t pay much attention to a particular list on its own. What I mostly note are trends. I think it says something when a school like Oberlin is making most of the lists. To me, it says that the school looks good from all sorts of different perspectives and priorities. For a lot of kids and their families, maybe most, that’s probably a good thing. On the flip side, I’ve noticed that schools like Berklee and Juilliard are either at the top of a list or don’t make it at all. To me, that says it’s probably the absolutely right school for some kids, but maybe not so great for a large group of others.
Which sort of leads right back to the idea that the “fit” is more important than the rank. Having only started the process earlier this spring, I’m realizing that it’s less about researching schools and more about understanding my son. And I agree that visits are key. You start to understand how those school profiles on paper and websites translate in reality, and sometimes the experience is surprising.
We’ve been making it a point to try to have a private meeting with someone in the administration (department chair, dean, etc.) and/or a lesson with faculty on our visits and our experience has been that when this wasn’t possible, we come away with a “meh” feeling about the school. We recently made an out-of-town trip to visit schools and one of the schools on the list couldn’t be bothered to follow up an email and a phone call as they’d promised. I’m not inclined to entrust my 17 year-old and what will amount to a life’s savings to a school that can’t spend 5 minutes to schedule an appointment and send an email.
I’ll also confess that I’m nervous about the whole upcoming application/pre-screen/audition process and what it will do to my son’s senior year, which I was hoping would be a fun time for him. I’m trying my best to adopt a “we’re the customer and we’re doing the shopping” attitude, keeping in mind that sometimes the thing we want to buy doesn’t fit, or out of stock in our size, or too expensive. Still, we’re the ones in control.