Urm?

College Confidential Community
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<p>I’m new here my son is a senior in Southern Califorina I’m trying to get him into college. Where do I start??</p>

<p>Cyndee</p>

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<p>Post this in the Parent’s Forum.</p>

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<p>Sean’s Mom –</p>

<p>First, you might want to take a look at the chances forum. Compare your son’s “stats” (as we call them on CC) with other applicants to the UCs and other schools he is interested in. Also, take a look at different colleges’ Common Data Sets – links are in the College Search forum.</p>

<p>Once you gauge what tier schools he is suitable for, figure out what he is looking for in a college. You can always post a “What schools fit this criteria?” thread in the College Search forum and you’ll probably get some good responses. Tokenadult, Northstarmom, et al are credible posters that frequent College Search.</p>

<p>Also, sign up for the SAT or the ACT ASAP if he hasn’t taken them already. It might actually be too late for some ED schools – not sure.</p>

<p>Some info on early decision, ed2, regular decision, etc:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=223213&highlight=early+decision[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=223213&highlight=early+decision&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Start by figuring out how much you’re willing to pay out of pocket a year for his college, and how much in loans you’re willing to take out a year for his college. Also figure out if you have any restrictions in terms of where he’ll go to college: distance from home, etc. Also use a financial aid estimator like the one on CC’s home page to figure out how much financial aid your S is likely to get. Often, the best financial deals are by going to in-state colleges, particularly when one is lucky enough to live in Calif., which has excellent publics at extraordinarily low in-state rates.</p>

<p>Then, buy a book like the U.S. News College Guide, which is available on many magazine racks, or pay $15 to fully access the US News Premium College site until next Aug. When you fully access that site, you get detailed info about thousands of colleges including admission standards, financial aid, diversity, etc.</p>

<p>After you do these things, then post on Parents Forum. People here will be glad to help you, but you need to do some background work first to get the most help possible.</p>

<p>The college guides like U.S. News that you get on the mag racks also will provide you an outline of steps for your S to take each month to get into college.</p>