<p>(MaryMac15535’s mom speaking:) There’s not much choice in our small town - either the local public high school (which didn’t bother offering the writing portion of the ACT when offered as part of the state-mandated Prairie State Achievement Exam, and where “none of our students take the SAT, because none of them want to attend the Ivies”), or the even-smaller private K-12 school run by the local Baptist church (not really an option if you’re not a Baptist family yourself). The public high school guidance office does post any flyers it receives from colleges, as well as notices of college fairs (the one at the local junior college is doable, but the out-of-state schools all seem to stick to events in downtown Chicago - not an option unless you’re used to crazy big-city traffic). I think we do get reps from a few colleges to visit our high school, but just from schools in our state - and not too many of them.
Basically, in our small town, it’s up to the student (& his/her parents) to pick all the dual-credit & AP classes they can, take both the ACT & SAT if needed, and connect with colleges via the Internet. (Because the HS guidance office is certainly not going to “push” anyone!)</p>