How did your kids narrow down choices?

[Anonymous]

Are admitted student days usually all around the same time? I foresee my DC needing to attend several later this year.

[Anonymous]

Accepted students days helped my younger son narrow it down. Definitely worth the time, IMO.

But even then, he still didn’t fall in love with any one school, and he didn’t make his decision until nearly the last day. And that’s okay! He’s a senior now at that school and has had a good experience.

On the other hand our eldest fell in love with a school and that was *the* school for him. Wasn’t really interested in the others where he was accepted. But it turned out it wasn’t the school for him - he left after just one year.

Don’t worry if your son isn’t head over heels about any school. He and your family can narrow it down based on practical factors, as PP listed, and be just as good a decision.

[Anonymous]

Admitted student day. Coincidentally his first choice was the first admitted student day scheduled. He loved it enough to not even consider going to the others.

In the OP's case, if all things are equal, why not pick the one that is more economical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Reputation in their major
2. Net cost
3. Location
4. Prestige
5. Vibe

Agree with this list, though DS order was different:
1. Reputation in their major
2. Prestige
3. Vibe
4. Net cost (thankfully not a huge irole due to 529, but happy to get merit most places)
4. Location (last because he only applied to schools in the southeast)

[Anonymous]

Major reputation depending on major should not go before University reputation. It is not fair, but it is true.

Have 2 kids. One a grad from Kelley (IU) the other a grad from Cornell (Nolan and not interested in hotels).

Kelley has been ranked higher than even Dyson with a great reputation. And YET, Nolan kid had many more doors opened simply because it was Cornell vs Indiana….Not fair, but it is what it is….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are admitted student days usually all around the same time? I foresee my DC needing to attend several later this year.

The ones we went to were mostly in April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS applied most places EA (didn’t ED anywhere) and now has a nice selection of good options, but no obvious front-runner. He applied to a pretty diverse group of schools became he really wasn’t sure what he wanted. (FWIW, he applied mostly to northeast publics, a couple midwestern publics, a couple small LACs, and a handful of international schools.)

We’re going to try to visit every school he’s considering, but so far he has liked almost every school he’s seen and not fallen hard for any. I think he’d be happiest at one of the LACs, but naturally it’s the most expensive school on his list, even with pretty generous merit. And because I know people will ask, the US schools are pretty much all in the 50-120 range as far as USNWR rankings.

So, those of you who’ve BTDT, what did your kid do that helped figure out the best fit? Did admitted students days make a big difference for those who went?

My kid got into all their targets and safeties. They considered their top 2 targets and top safety in their final decisions.
For this: we visited all of them (one was a first visit) over April Spring break. Then for us, since $$$ was not an issue, we let our kid choose which was the best fit for them. All were excellent schools (ranked 30-65, so similar schools). Two had great merit (think $30-40K/year for a 85K+ school). Our kid chose the highest ranked school without any merit (lucky us). However, that was their top school from all our tours anyhow. It was the college where first visit, they really came alive and you could tell they could envision themselves there.
Then for the April tour, we redid a general tour. The engineering school didn't have a tour the day we were there. So I found a student to give a tour (Parent FB pages are great for that). At the end of the tour, as my kid asked questions, it turns out the female engineer giving us the tour was also into dance---and gave my kid all the details about dance on campus, even for non-majors. I think that sealed the deal---It was the perfect fit for my engineering daughter (great eng program) and the opportunity to continue dancing easily told her "this is my place".

[Anonymous]

Parents up the street took their student on a grand tour of colleges before deciding on a list. After acceptances, student asked to do it all over again. Half a dozen or so. Not happening.

[Anonymous]

The school with the harshest weather, but was our choice (not expressed but was our, the parent's favorite) was visited in the dead of winter. Figured if our student liked it at that time of year, we could relax. We'd be happy to arrange 2nd visits to others but we weren't pushing it - it would have to be the student asking for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Reputation in their major
2. Net cost
3. Location
4. Prestige
5. Vibe

Agree with this list, though DS order was different:
1. Reputation in their major
2. Prestige
3. Vibe
4. Net cost (thankfully not a huge irole due to 529, but happy to get merit most places)
4. Location (last because he only applied to schools in the southeast)

For my DD....
1. Reputation in their major
2. Vibe
3. Net cost
4. Location
5. Prestige