Go see a couple schools in the immediate area just to see how they react to big vs small campuses, urban vs suburban, etc. Check out GW, GMU, UMD, American, etc. Not saying those will be schools they apply to, it's just a way to see a certain style of school without spending a ton of time on the road.

Then you can start narrowing down the options. The thing is that there are LOTS of good choices no matter what criteria your kid has.

OP

1. List of 6 to 10 schools
a. Safety schools I would find three easy to get into. He's CS so depending on where you live. If it's MD for example apply to UMBC as a safety. With great academics apply to UMD College Park.
b. Middle range schools apply to three 70 -80% sure he will get into.
c. Reach schools
2. Have him start filling out applications and doing essays in August and September.
3. Have all applications turned in by no later than October. Make sure to pay attention to all due dates.

OP this is just an outline for how to proceed.

Thank you for all the constructive advice given. I really appreciate all of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is so much info on the internet. Why don’t you educate yourself?

Because every school on the website sounds good. I am also not understanding the implications of many things that are listed on the websites.

We were not educated in this country so what we know about what is a good school comes from US News ranking. Not having lived in other places in the US, I cannot say that my kid likes big or small, hot or cold, urban or suburban, greek life or college football.

He wants to do CS. So I used Naviance and US world News to come up with a list. But, it is not a list based on what we know about the schools but rather a copy and paste of what other students have applied to from his school. The Naviance list is also following pretty much the US world news so I suspect that is how people are starting their search?

So I did make a list but this is not a list with any deep thought about what I know about my kid or through some great research (colleges that change life etc) but rather I have followed the list of others. He matches all schools according to Naviance. But obviously that is not true. Also, what do I know about my kid? I have no idea if he will be bored in a safety or crushed in a reach? Should he dream big? Should he be in his small pond? In-state? OOS?

I am second guessing everything. All schools sound good on the websites so my fear is that I will select the school based on some weird criteria and then one day my kid will wake up and say that he could have gone to a better school with his stats but I was a lousy guide!! Or I will not have him apply to some great program or opportunity in a college even though he is eligible.

Let your kid drive the list as much as possible with support from you and guidance but ask him for a list of say 5 schools to start with and see what he comes up with.

Anonymous wrote:There is so much info on the internet. Why don’t you educate yourself?

Because every school on the website sounds good. I am also not understanding the implications of many things that are listed on the websites.

We were not educated in this country so what we know about what is a good school comes from US News ranking. Not having lived in other places in the US, I cannot say that my kid likes big or small, hot or cold, urban or suburban, greek life or college football.

He wants to do CS. So I used Naviance and US world News to come up with a list. But, it is not a list based on what we know about the schools but rather a copy and paste of what other students have applied to from his school. The Naviance list is also following pretty much the US world news so I suspect that is how people are starting their search?

So I did make a list but this is not a list with any deep thought about what I know about my kid or through some great research (colleges that change life etc) but rather I have followed the list of others. He matches all schools according to Naviance. But obviously that is not true. Also, what do I know about my kid? I have no idea if he will be bored in a safety or crushed in a reach? Should he dream big? Should he be in his small pond? In-state? OOS?

I am second guessing everything. All schools sound good on the websites so my fear is that I will select the school based on some weird criteria and then one day my kid will wake up and say that he could have gone to a better school with his stats but I was a lousy guide!! Or I will not have him apply to some great program or opportunity in a college even though he is eligible.

Using a knowledgeable college counselor helps a lot (especially if DC is an oldest or only child and it is your first time going through the process). Having a coach takes some of the worry out of making a "wrong" decision.

Anonymous wrote:There is so much info on the internet. Why don’t you educate yourself?

Because the OP is very anxious and asking for help.

1. Letters of recommendation - confirm he has asked teachers and if not email now
2. the "college list" is created differently by everyone so you do what you can handle. We were not a spreadsheet family, we talked about the school my dd wanted most to go to (superreach) and then went from there figuring out schools that were also more solidly realistic. My dd was also super busy with school and with getting ready to leave home and spend senior year abroad so we really didn't have much time, it meant I was a little more involved than I might have been in making sure we did some school visits but since I was the one driving the car that was fine with me. In the end we had a list of 7 schools I think and that was plenty. Honestly my dd was only REALLY interested in one school, the others were ones I suggested based on what I knew she was looking for and then she visited them to get a sense of how much she liked it.
3. Once the Common App opens your ds should just start inputting all the info, much of it is busy work but it does take some time and a bit of strategic thinking when you get to the part where you list and describe activities/honors.
4 Get all the essay prompts pulled together. There is one main Common App essay and then many schools have their own supplemental essays, sometimes a bunch of them. Get them pulled in to one document so he can work on them when he has time.

You can do it! If it eases your mind my dd left in July before her senior year to go abroad and was in a highly unstable situation for the next 4 months, she still managed to get her application pulled together nicely. The common app makes it pretty easy. And regular decision applications don't go in until Jan 1 I think so you have plenty of time to figure out where he wants to apply if he just has no idea at this point. Good luck!

There is so much info on the internet. Why don’t you educate yourself?

Sit down with the child and talk about what factors are important. Together form the beginning of a list. Make a spreadsheet as suggested above. Eventually, you will categorize the colleges as reaches, matches, or safeties.

Figure out what your budget is, whether you will need financial aid. Use the Net Price Calculator - each college has one. Add the estimates to your spreadsheet.

Think about whether visits to any of the schools would be possible, especially if they are nearby. There is no need to tour every single college on the list, but visiting a few could provide some helpful perspective on likes/dislikes. (Many of the seniors who just graduated did not have this option; there are virtual tours, etc., certainly worth exploring as well, though we much preferred in person.)

If I were to do it all over I would have hired my children coaches. Period. Their school counselors were too busy to really pay attention to what our children needed or were saying.

This is PP and we started doing tours over Spring Break and will do a few more this summer now that other schools have opened up tours. It has helped our DS to narrow down what he wants vs. what he doesn't want. He's definitely had strong opinions after seeing schools in person.

Start with a list and build out a spreadsheet, ours looks something like this:

School, location, Avg SAT/ACT, Avg GPA, Avg annual cost, miles from home, Scattergram likely (Y/N), admission deadlines (ED, EA, RD), Acceptance Rate, Undergrad size

Making a list is a good start, find out what he wants to do with his life and look for schools that match his goals.

Please be kind. No snark. If you cannot help, please ignore this thread.

My anxiety level is so high that I have no idea what to do next. How do you keep your sanity as a parent?

My kid has done exceedingly well and has done his part. Top notch GPA, course rigor, SAT scores, APs, ECs, accolades. Now what? I don't want to be the weakest link on his team but I think that's exactly what I am. What are we supposed to do next? Are we supposed to do something as parents? Make a list? Reach out to colleges? Schedule college visits for 15+ colleges? He is currently doing a full time internship and has hardly any time, while we are dealing with a lot of health issues with relatives and I think we will drop the ball. The whole month of June has gone without us doing anything for college admission.

Please talk me off the ledge and give me a breakdown of what we should do (in small doable weekly chunks). Oh, I have also started my medication (Zoloft) because I need to calm down. How important is it to do a tour of colleges?