Anonymous wrote:She’ll figure it out. Help her pick a school that’s a good fit.

And listen to how far from home she feels comfortable with. She's probably a good candidate to stay within 3-4 hours max from home. If she's reluctant, that way you can visit if needed and she can easily make it home for all breaks.

I'd say she's a good candidate for a smaller, Liberal arts school or at least a university that is on the smaller size with a focus on students and smaller class sizes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the schools will have an Undecided option for applicants to select. In fact, one school we looked at had that option but phrased it as "Deciding," which I thought was a nice touch.

Love that! Mind sharing which school?

They are still young and deciding so much about their lives, it’s too soon to lock in their futures with no opportunity to change their minds.

I believe it was Stevenson University in MD

*gen ed

Has she looked specifically at Open Curriculum schools? Brown being the most prestigious, I think, but there are a host of schools that encourage kids to take anything they want without get ed or major requirements. Allows students to take circuitous paths to a major (or "concentration") and/or career.

Anonymous wrote:All of the schools will have an Undecided option for applicants to select. In fact, one school we looked at had that option but phrased it as "Deciding," which I thought was a nice touch.

Love that! Mind sharing which school?

They are still young and deciding so much about their lives, it’s too soon to lock in their futures with no opportunity to change their minds.

She doesn’t need to know what she wants to study. She can apply to a liberal arts college or to the equivalent school within a larger university. She can dabble and find what interests her. Maybe a smaller school would help. Something like Mary Washington.

All of the schools will have an Undecided option for applicants to select. In fact, one school we looked at had that option but phrased it as "Deciding," which I thought was a nice touch.

It's totally fine (and, some would argue, fantastic) that she doesn't know what she wants to study, and that won't be a problem at lots of schools. What you can help her with now is figuring out the type of school she likes, and the best ways to do that, in my experience, are:

- casually visit a variety of colleges in your area. If you're in the DC area, drive and walk around University of Maryland, Georgetown, Catholic, Towson, Goucher, UMBC-- explore urban and suburban, large and small, public and private. Trickier to do during the summer because there aren't many kids on campus, but I wouldn't wait till the fall to start narrowing down the kids of schools that seem to strike a chord with her.
- be realistic about what you can afford. Yes, there is merit aid at some schools that will drop the "sticker price" lower than what's published, but you can't count on that (or predict it with any reliability at most schools). If private full-pay is out of the question, make that clear early on before she falls in love with a school that you can't afford to send her to.
- Get her a copy of the Fiske Guide (they have it at the library if you don't want to buy it) and have her read through it; stick a post-it note on pages of schools that sound appealing. Look for patterns. Again: urban/rural/suburban, large/small, artsy or STEM-ish or liberal or conservative, athlete-filled or Greek-saturated-- what sounds exciting, and what's a turnoff?

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the kind of kid for whom community colleges are great. My son had no idea what he wanted to do either and cc was great for him to take his general education classes at a reasonable price while doing more exploration.

WTF? This does not mean community college. OP the issue is that many schools are asking for a major as a part of applications. Some will not consider a totally undecided candidate (like VT)

Unless your kid is applying to a restricted major (one that admits into that program), it doesn’t matter what you put on the Common App.

I take that back. It does matter, but only in the sense that choosing a less popular intended major can up your chances of admission. Colleges gotta fill their philosophy and history classes.

NP. Where can I find which colleges and majors have such admission requirement? Thank you.

Normally, this will be more common at large schools typically in fields like business, engineering, nursing, etc.

Anonymous wrote:It’s only the rare kid who knows their major. Most kids don’t declare a major until later and most kids change major.

Sounds like your daughter might want a liberal arts curriculum (either at a SLAC or a bigger university). It’s wonderful not to know. Who knows, maybe your reluctant student will finally be able to have some space to figure out what she likes once she’s released from a lot of regiment!

University of Vermont. Marist College. Santa Clara University in California. These are highly regarded colleges with enough space to grow.

So much this, OP! Help her find the school where she feels most like herself. She will find her path!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the kind of kid for whom community colleges are great. My son had no idea what he wanted to do either and cc was great for him to take his general education classes at a reasonable price while doing more exploration.

WTF? This does not mean community college. OP the issue is that many schools are asking for a major as a part of applications. Some will not consider a totally undecided candidate (like VT)

Unless your kid is applying to a restricted major (one that admits into that program), it doesn’t matter what you put on the Common App.

I take that back. It does matter, but only in the sense that choosing a less popular intended major can up your chances of admission. Colleges gotta fill their philosophy and history classes.

NP. Where can I find which colleges and majors have such admission requirement? Thank you.

She needs a degree. Honestly it doesn’t matter what she majors in. My brother got into Harvard Medical school as an art history major. I majored in history and became a writer. My oldest sister majored in biology and went into sales.

My son has always known he wants science but my DD hasn’t a clue which liberal art she wants to major in. My goddaughter graduated with a degree in psychology and went on to nursing school.

I reluctantly went to college on my mother’s advice and picked a major of creative writing. I ended up with a phd in physics and work for the government now. She doesn’t have to know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the kind of kid for whom community colleges are great. My son had no idea what he wanted to do either and cc was great for him to take his general education classes at a reasonable price while doing more exploration.

WTF? This does not mean community college. OP the issue is that many schools are asking for a major as a part of applications. Some will not consider a totally undecided candidate (like VT)

Unless your kid is applying to a restricted major (one that admits into that program), it doesn’t matter what you put on the Common App.

I take that back. It does matter, but only in the sense that choosing a less popular intended major can up your chances of admission. Colleges gotta fill their philosophy and history classes.

Maybe you could reimagine this as a broad spectrum!

Mine likes math, theatre, music, history/poli sci. She applied with that spectrum and got into some great schools. She focused more on smaller universities and LACs where she could do things as a non major or dabble in a variety of majors. She also targeted schools with open curriculum or gen eds that are flexible.

Good luck!