I’m about to save you thousands of dollars. No need to hire one of those expensive
college coaches. My only credential is
that my wife and I have successfully helped both our kids get into the college
of their choice. Since those college
coaches are so darn expensive, I figured I’d share some pearls of wisdom we
learned going through the process twice.
Part 1 is about the college visit.
Colleges are laser-focused on yield these days. This means that they want to know that the
people they admit actually will come to their college. They all admit more students than will
actually attend but they want this percentage to be as high as possible. This means you want to do everything possible
to convince the college that if admitted, you will enroll. How do you do that? They look at several factors. The top one is whether you’ve applied Early
Decision or not. Early Decision means
that you are agreeing to enroll if accepted.
There’s no stronger showing of interest than this. And if you apply Early Decision (and you
should but I’ll talk more about that another time), your odds of being accepted
are significantly higher than if you are in the Regular Decision pool of
candidates.
If you’re not applying Early Decision, then it’s very important to
demonstrate real interest in the college.
One of the best ways to do that is to visit. If you schlep yourself all of the way from
home to the college to go to an info session and a tour, they reason you must
be serious about attending. It’s also
the best way for your kid to get a feel for a college. We toured 18 colleges with my son before he
made his decisions and probably 10 or so with my daughter. In some cases, they knew before we got back
in the car whether the college would make their short list or not. They felt it.
And the only way to feel it is to actually go there and walk the campus
and see the students in action.
During the information session, it is critically important that both
you and your child take notes. The notes
will help you remember this college and distinguish it from others when they
all start to blend together in your mind.
Your kid’s notes will also inform what kinds of things stood out for
them. These notes will be a huge help to
you later down the road when your child has to write the “Why do you want to go
to College X?” essay. These highlights
will provide fodder for the essay and demonstrate to the college admissions
officers that you’re not just using the same essay for all colleges and just
changing the institution’s name.
If your child likes what they see during the info session and tour, try
to eat a meal in one of the dining halls.
Food is an important part of the college experience. Eating in the dining hall will help inform
the college selection process. Do it if
you can.
When you go to visit, you get bonus points if you (a) schedule an
informational meeting with a department your kid might be interested in majoring
in, and (b) schedule an interview for your kid (if they are offered).
Thousands of prospective students visit campus each year to attend the
info session and a tour. That’s
great. But far fewer actually go further
by scheduling time with a professor or department chair in an area of your kid’s
intended major. Doing this serves
multiple purposes. It gives you and your
child a better sense of their program.
Take copious notes during this meeting.
These notes will again prove helpful when you later write the “Why This
College?” essay.
The point about scheduling an interview really depends upon your
kid. If your kid has a winning smile, a
good sense of humor and is comfortable talking to people, then you want them to
interview. Again, a small percentage of
the many of the thousands of students who tour campus each year will actually
interview. This will make your child
stand out and demonstrate your seriousness in attending this school. Of course, if your child is uncomfortable
talking to strangers and answers most questions with one word or a grunt, then
you might want to opt out of the interview process. You make the judgment call here.
Last thing, and this is very important – before you get in the car to
return home, have your child write down impressions of the school. Did they hear about a funky club that interested
them? Talk to some students in the
dining hall? Hear an interesting story
from their tour guide? Did they like the
architecture or the library? It is scary
how quickly schools start to blend together in your mind during this process
and these notes will help remind them about this school later on. They will also prove hugely valuable when
writing the essay. Final thing is you
should ask your child to rank this school among all of the schools they have up
to that point. As you add schools to the
list, by having your child rank and re-rank the schools, it will clarify what
is important to them and make them more confident in the schools they choose.
By the time you’re done visiting schools, you ideally want 3-4 reach
schools, 3-4 comfortable schools, and 3-4 safety schools on the list. If your child gets into every school they
apply to, then either they are a super genius or there weren’t enough stretch
schools on the list. On the other end of
the spectrum, you want to make sure that you’re not aiming so high with every
school choice that your child doesn’t get in anywhere.
That’s it for Part 1. Hope this
is helpful. Stay tuned for Part 2.
- Frosty
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