DS is a rising 11th grader. The only one we are looking at this summer is Delaware. Spring break we are planning to visit schools he is seriously considering. He is working on getting his service learning requirement out of the way, and we have 1 family vacation planned. Also doing a little bit of studying for SAT & working through the summer work assigned by school. He didn't follow through with getting a job, so I'm making him do stuff around the house like weed our yard

Our school will assign him to one of the college counselors, and in Dec/Jan. we will begin conversations with them about what he & we are looking for. They will create a list of maybe 20 schools to explore that they think fits our criteria/would fit our DS best. There is a whole lot more that happens with the college counselor until he graduates, but we are new to the process, so I don't know exactly all they will do.

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day kids at that age got a job. My kid will be doing the same when he gets there.

One of the PPs here. Our rising 11th grader has a PT job during the school year. Pfft to you.

We are continuing with tours and some virtual events. DC is working on the recruiting process. Lots of AP summer work too, but the slower pace has been good for really starting to sort college options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day kids at that age got a job. My kid will be doing the same when he gets there.

Hope they can find one! We have found it extraordinarily difficult to find one with openings.

Lifeguarding.

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day kids at that age got a job. My kid will be doing the same when he gets there.

Hope they can find one! We have found it extraordinarily difficult to find one with openings.

Back in my day kids at that age got a job. My kid will be doing the same when he gets there.

Two college roadtrips, a month of camp, a week of service, developing the two-year application plan.

Recruited athlete. Spent all summer at showcases and prospect camps. Toured schools in the process. Plus SAT prep.

Rising junior DC is preparing for August SAT and in a one-week summer college camp in her interest area (free!) If given the opportunity - I'd talk about colleges all day long but I hold my tongue for the most part. DC has no clue what they want but I have outlined the major differences b/w large research institution vs. LAC. I bring up stuff when the occasion presents itself, but I know getting their attention to it all is more likely in the fall once school starts and the other kids start talking about it. Then, I will strike lol.

DC just finished a two-week summer course at a university, will knock out 25 hours of volunteer work over the next two weeks, and will study for the SAT. We're going to tour a few colleges on the East Coast. She applied for summer jobs, but couldn't find one which is apparently a problem lots of teens had this year.

The rest is down time, because junior year is stressful, and it's important not to start already burned out.

DC is a rising junior. We started doing college tours - mostly to look at types, because you can’t get as good a feel for a school when the students aren’t around. VA offers a wide variety of sizes, locations, urban/suburban/rural, public vs private, all within a couple hours of driving. It’s helped a lot as DC starts thinking about preferences.

DC is also self-studying for the SAT in August (some friends are doing classes; DC is very self-disciplined so we are trying books and online resources first).

And knocking out at least 30 service hours with volunteering - not so much college-related, but it will all be with one organization so it’s a line item for the common app, and it’s a graduation requirement, of course.

Then non-college stuff like driving lessons that DC didn’t want to deal with during the school year, and some advanced art classes (personal interest).

How much college related stuff are your kids doing? Are your schools facilitating?