College visits with your kid

[Inky_Wretch]

It is important to understand the process in terms of what schools look for demonstrated interest, like personal or virtual visits, and which don’t care. My older kid visited the school of their choice twice and did a couple of virtual chats with faculty when it was offered. If you are looking for selective schools, it’s important to know which AP/honors classes should be taken because schools evaluate on how rigorous the curriculum the student took compared to other kids at the same school.

Her clubhouse leader - a small, private liberal arts college - apparently does track that. One of my wife's coworkers had a kid who just graduated from there. During one campus visit, the admissions person quoted one tuition. They went back a couple of months later and suddenly tuition dropped by $5,000.

I've told my daughter and wife that we will visit every week of the summer if they do that every time. LOL.

The best you can do is try to figure out the vibe of what your kid wants in terms of size/location of school, even virtually. Once you have an idea, you can put similar schools on the list.

One of my friends has three super smart kids. He told me to get the big Princeton Review book and let the kid thumb through that. So far, she's bookmarked several schools and I don't think any of them have more than 5,000 students.

 

[Webster]

Her clubhouse leader - a small, private liberal arts college - apparently does track that. One of my wife's coworkers had a kid who just graduated from there. During one campus visit, the admissions person quoted one tuition. They went back a couple of months later and suddenly tuition dropped by $5,000.

I've told my daughter and wife that we will visit every week of the summer if they do that every time. LOL.

One of my friends has three super smart kids. He told me to get the big Princeton Review book and let the kid thumb through that. So far, she's bookmarked several schools and I don't think any of them have more than 5,000 students.

There is nothing wrong with being shameless when it comes to demonstrated interest. My older son really, really wanted to go to Carleton. So in addition to what I mentioned previously, he e-mailed the admissions person responsible for our region a couple of questions and got into a dialogue. When we arrived for freshman orientation, that person said to me and Mrs. W that our kid knew more about the school than most of the professors.

 

[dixiehack]

Carleton was the first place that ever started sending me unsolicited literature. My ACT score was way more impressive than my GPA so my mailbox filled up pretty fast.

I only sent scores to Bama, Tulane (I don’t think I was getting in), Memphis State (safety school in the sense of if I absolutely had to go in state this wa the furthest outpost) and Baylor (I was a good Baptist kid). Maybe one or two more but I can’t remember. I know Oklahoma started flooding my mailbox unbidden and I actually considered it for a hot minute.

 

[Flip Wilson]

Carleton was the first place that ever started sending me unsolicited literature. My ACT score was way more impressive than my GPA so my mailbox filled up pretty fast.

I only sent scores to Bama, Tulane (I don’t think I was getting in), Memphis State (safety school in the sense of if I absolutely had to go in state this wa the furthest outpost) and Baylor (I was a good Baptist kid). Maybe one or two more but I can’t remember. I know Oklahoma started flooding my mailbox unbidden and I actually considered it for a hot minute.

Sic 'em!

 

[Gym Beam]

I didn't visit any schools because we were overseas. I got a lot of interest early because of my National Merit semifinalist crap and then super-high ACT scores, but when they caught wind of my class rank (bottom half), I think they would have been shredding any letters they had ready to send

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Just got back from doing two visits in one day. Walked a ton. Didn’t meet with anybody except student ambassadors - which was disappointing. “If you have any questions about financial aid, you go to that building over there,” does not help.

But the kiddo seemed to enjoy it. So that is a win.

 

[Songbird]

I took one of the goddies on tours of Tufts and Sarah Lawrence and mostly let her curiosities lead the way while giving her a sounding board. Both campuses are beautiful. She chose Brandeis because it felt right and she couldn’t be happier. She loves Boston too.

 

[Webster]

I took one of the goddies on tours of Tufts and Sarah Lawrence and mostly let her curiosities lead the way while giving her a sounding board. Both campuses are beautiful. She chose Brandeis because it felt right and she couldn’t be happier. She loves Boston too.

My wife is a graduate and she was really upset that my kids didn’t want to go there.