<p>What’s the best book to buy for someone who’s just beginning the process (daughter a HS soph.) We want to start looking at books that list colleges. She’s an honors student, has NO idea what she wants to study (strongest subject is math.)</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Don’t buy anything yet. Go to your library and check out as many different books as you can and look over them, leave them sitting around and let her look over them. Then decide what to buy</p>
<p>most people will want one general reference type book like Princeton Review 3XX Top colleges, but others might be fine with online searching through Princeton Review or USNews. The USNews rankings and the Kaplan Hot Colleges magazines come out around August - those are good investments, and you can still get last Aug at a bookstore.</p>
<p>I bought every book known to man, because I love buying books and have no sense about it, but it really is more sensible to test drive from the library.</p>
<p>I agree with Cangel that one can do quite well with the USN&WR and Kaplan publications as a starting point.</p>
<p>But it is also useful for your family to discuss finances as they will greatly affect what types of colleges your D should be looking at. If finances are a consideration, then applying ED is not a great idea. If you are middle-class and may not qualify for financial aid but cannot afford to pay $45k per year, will your D qualify for merit aid based on her performance? Then this leads to a different range of colleges than those which award only need-based aid.</p>
<p>Other issues to explore are size and location, bearing in mind that your D will be maturing over the next couple of years and may well change her mind. But this will give you some ideas of the types of colleges to be visiting over next summer and during junior year.</p>
<p>Finally, make sure to keep up with the different stages of the process for applying: preparing for standardized tests, taking them at the most appropriate time, discussing plans of study with teachers and GC, etc…</p>
<p>Take a tour of a campus – listen to questions that are asked, etc. Hopefully, this will enlighten her and encourage her to ask questions of her own. She can then do her research on the Net. One thing to get is a timeline to college application (i.e. when to take the SAT I, SAT II, what to do during Summers, etc.) and a better understanding of evaluation process at each university (i.e. GPA calculation for UC schools is based on Sophomore and Junior grades). It does not do you any good to know a lot about many universities and their majors if you don’t help yourself by doing well in your classes and taking challenging courses (i.e. AP or IB).</p>
<p>We have worn out the Princeton Review’s Best 361 Colleges ( or whatever it is). It was well worth it to browse through - it has a lot of good info stats wise as well as student comments about the personality of the schools. My daughter even took it to the beach last year to try to choose where we would plan visits. Highly recommend as ONE tool.</p>
<p>As far as books, this is how we started at the early stages for our first child with the college process. We bought some books for her 16th birthday which coincided with the first day of junior year in HS. </p>
<p>I think it is good to get college directory type books as a starting point. I think it is better to have at least two as they differ. Two that I like to use are Princeton Reviews Best 345 Colleges and The Fiske Guide To Colleges. I also bought a third book that was a bit different as it is written by students and is more like evaluative comments. That one is The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges compiled and edited by the staff of The Yale Daily News. For certain kinds of students, Pope’s book, Colleges that Change Lives is another resource about some lesser known schools or ones for average students and is a very useful book that way. The first three I mentioned include way more schools so those are a good basis from where to begin. Once a student finds a bunch of schools that appeal to his/her personal college criteria, then he/she should visit the websites for those schools to delve much deeper than a general directory can provide.</p>
<p>In addition to directories, I bought a few books about the college admissions process itself. These just gave us a handle on the entire process. These included: The Truth about Getting In by Cohen, America’s Elite Colleges by Berry, Getting In by Paul., A is for Admisson by Hernandez, Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions by Rubenstone, On Writing the College Application Essay by Bauld, The Gatekeepers by Steinberg, and so on. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I want to reiterate knowing the time-line. Our guidance office had it posted, but it would be good for the parent to also have a copy of this. We also started this whole process when our son was a soph and during the summer between soph and junior year we took a loooong road trip and visit a gazillion schools - most without official tours, but just to get a feel for different types of schools and campuses.</p>
<p>And my anxiety all started when I read the book “The Gatekeepers.” I should have relaxed a lot more.</p>
<p>SoozieVT’s book list strongly aligns with mine.</p>
<p>I also am a firm believer in doing some visits as early as possible–even <em>freshman</em> year is not too early–but to do so when the college is in session if at all possible. In my D’s case, the visits wound up completely re-arranging her priorities: Columbia went from #1 to “No Application” and Smith rocketed up to a nose behind Yale. Since this year’s Spring break is already over, I advise setting aside at least a week of next year’s Spring break for visiting. Note: yes, visiting can be expensive. But compared to four years of college, it’s trivial.</p>
<p>X-posted.</p>
<p>Digi, the thing is, THE GATEKEEPERS gets you properly paranoid if you’re looking at certain clusters of schools. You could have afforded to be relaxed…your S found a terrific fit and great experience that’s not in the bullseye of 23 million other graduating seniors.</p>
<p>TheDad gave good advice. I was only remarking about the books in my post as the very first step of this process. But we did establish a time line that spanned all of junior and senior years so to pace out the many tasks and inquiry involved in the college selection and application process. Ideally by the time senior year began, the college selection process was over and the admissions process underway. But to pick up on TheDad, once our child narrowed down the initial “looks interesting” list of 30 schools from browsing the college directories down to ten schools, we mapped out visits for the entire junior year ahead of time, so that these were done by the end of junior year. The visits are very important, as he posted.</p>
<p>And for comic relief for the parent, I suggest “Accept My Kid, Please!”</p>
<p>Besides books, also attend college fairs - those that are sponsored by the school, sponsored by NACAC (<a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org)%5B/url%5D”>www.nacacnet.org)</a>, those sponsored by Colleges That Change Lives (<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org%5B/url%5D”>www.ctcl.org</a>)</p>
<p>Does the edition of the directory-type books matter? I have a soph. son and a freshman daughter. Do the books change enough from year to year that I should wait until his junior year to get them? Or do they stay pretty much the same from year to year, so that the one I buy now will still be fairly useful for my daughter?</p>
<p>I can tell you that with the rate of tuition increases every year , my 2005 edition of the Best 357 Colleges is pretty far off from current amounts. They must have been using old data to begin with, but I was shocked when I went onto the schools own websites to check current tuition. LOL
As far as the other information ( especially student comments and the overall “feel” of the school ) - I don’t see that changing much from year to year in the short run.</p>
<p>Does the edition of the directory-type books matter?<<</p>
<p>I vote no, not really. If you need to know some statistic very specifically, like tuition, for instance, you need to check the website anyway, no book will be up-to-date enough.
I actually noticed during my DD’s search, that PR changed and updated their rankings system a bit, which closed up the categories. It is hard to explain without a concrete example, but anyway, we used the book for her initial search, by saying she should only look at colleges with a score of 90+ for academics. Later in the search we were browsing through college books at a bookstore, and I noticed that in a newer edition many more schools fell into the 95+ category, so that it would have been a useless number for an initial separation. This may actually have changed back - they want to sell books, so they have to change things.
In all honesty, most of the books say about the same things about the same schools - it is no surprise that Harvard is a good school, that MIT is about science and Grinnell is a wonderful rural LAC. Some of the formats appeal to some people more than others. I think it is important to have one book that talks about the process (I like the Fiske, particularly, in addition to the “Guide”, there is a book about How to get into College, which is a great process book, as well as pared down guide) as well as one that quotes students (no matter how out of date the quotes may be). Kids really respond to hearing what other teens say. It is also instructive for the parents to hear the kids say over and over “We work a ton”, “We work hard, and party hard”, even when the schools are as varied as Harvard and Univ of Alabama :).</p>
<p>One book to add to your list: Admission Matters, by Springer and Franck. Not a big book college guide, but its hands down the best general admissions book Ive read (and like so many addicted folks here, Ive read a bunch). Well-written and well-organized, its filled with solid advice about how the admissions process works at selective schools, what applicants can and cannot control, how to create a college list, and how to prepare applications that will capture the attention of admissions committees. Published in 2005, so it includes up-to-date info (on understanding the new SAT, for example) and insights into the ways college admissions has changed and is changing.</p>
<p>Another vote for Admission Matters. I found it at our local library, so check before you go out and buy it. It also has Xiggi’s stamp of approval!</p>
<p>One part of junior year that I think is important to plan now is testing. This worked well for my D: Take SAT subject tests June of sophomore year if applicable (for instance, Math 2 if she’s finishing pre-calculus). Study for standardized tests in the late summer to prep for the PSAT in October. Take the SAT in the fall or winter and leave room for a retake in the spring if necessary. Take more SAT subject tests in May, particularly for subjects that she is taking AP tests for. Getting the SAT reasoning out of the way before spring really helps reduce stress at the end of the school year.</p>
<p>This is all so helpful. Thanks.</p>
<p>A couple more questions. If we want to look at some schools this summer, just to get a feel, will there be anyone to show us around? I realize that it’s best to go when school’s in session, and we will,but we’d like to do some preliminary research.</p>
<p>Also, what’s the deal with the SAT II? She will definitely take math this year. She’s got and A in honors precalc this year. But how and why does the SAT II matter? </p>
<p>And why is it important for her to do really well on the PSAT? </p>
<p>Sorry to sound stupid…</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>Good heavens, you don’t sound stupid at all! Rather, you are being quite smart to do your research.</p>
<p>Most admissions offices are in operation during the summer. Check websites or call for schedules.</p>
<p>Some colleges require SAT2s, some don’t. Some want one, some want three. Check college requirements for more information. She’ll also need to decide between Math 1c (easier material, but harsher curve), or Math2c (harder material, but easier curve). Since she is doing well in precal, she should be able to handle Math2c.</p>
<p>Doing well on the PSAT gives more opportunities for scholarships. That’s it. It has no bearing on admissions.</p>
<p>The PSAT is what is used to determine National Merit Scholars, which, as fireflyscout said, may be good for scholarships both through the NM program and from some colleges. There are state schools which will give almost full-rides for NM finalists. Some info here: <a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/</a></p>
<p>I don’t know any colleges that don’t have admissions sessions and tours during the summer months. In addition, many schools have summer classes so it may still be possible to sit in on a class and visit with current students. It won’t be the same as seeing the campus with a full component of students, but we’ve found it useful. I think any visit is better than no visit. </p>
<p>If she thinks she’ll want to study engineering, math or science, she should take a math and a science SAT II (now called SAT Subject Tests, not II’s). If not, humanities tests will probably be fine although some schools may want a math. Check with the admissions sites of the colleges she might be interested in. Also, here’s more infor about SAT II’s. <a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p>Some schools will accept the ACT in place of the SAT and/or SAT II’s. Some will take the ACT but still require SAT II’s. Again, check with some colleges.</p>
<p>The long-time parents here have been through this at least once so feel free to pick our brains. There’s a lot of information to be had.</p>
<p>Okay.Thanks again. Another question. If she takes the math SAT 2 in June and gets a bad score, do the colleges she applies to have to see the score or can she opt not to send it?</p>