For visits, look for Open Houses in the Spring or Fall. My DD especially found those a lot more informative than the standard info session/tour, which all started to sound the same. She had a very specific academic interest and EC interest and the open houses generally gave her the chance to learn about those and had a lot of influence on her final selections.

Early on, the general tours of different types of schools were helpful in narrowing down her preference for small schools and for my son in focusing his preference for big schools.

We’re visiting any in-session colleges so we can get a feel for the students and activity level of different schools. Mostly nearby colleges. Kid has vague ideas of type of college or major, so I hope it helps him.

Anonymous wrote:I assumed OP was asking about college juniors since this was in the college forum. What a weird post.

Most of the posts on this forum are from high school families with kids applying to college. Definitely an appropriate topic for a high school junior. Weird that you are so bothered by this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that mine are done - one in college, another heading to her ED college in the Fall - wanted to check in to see how y'all are doing.
Lots and lots of great information on this site.
Is your DC planning visits, getting a feel for the basics like urban/rural/large/small, researching majors, deciding where/how to demonstrate interest, scheduling AO interviews if offered or finding out when those open, prepping for SAT/ACT, asking teachers for LOR's, thinking about main essay and supplemental essay ideas, creating a resume, researching costs, getting a sense of where/what their admissions chances are etc etc
I wish you all the best and I know there are many on this site that feel the same!

Are they supposed to be asking for LOR's now (spring of junior year?)

My son knows of 4 schools he wants to apply to, only two require LORs--and both require two LORs. Purdue (engineering) and Colorado School of Mines.

He has 3 teachers he is considering asking. Does he just ask for a "generic" LOR that can be copied for multiple applications?

Hmmm. Our DCs were told that they needed one STEM, one humanities LOR, regardless of what they planned to study in college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

Why does "good college" have to mean a big state school in the DMV? Look at SLACS, regional universities, go outside of Virginia for crying out loud. Your son sounds like a great, smart kid - there are good colleges that would love to have him.

Maybe cost is a factor and they need to stay in state. Imagine that.

In state isn't always the cheapest option. Plenty of big state schools in other states and private schools offer great merit scholarships. My college freshman is currently in a private school out of state for thousands less than he would have paid at Longwood, Mary Washington, George Mason, Christopher Newport, etc. and it has far more name recognition too.

How do you search information for those? I've lived in VA all my life and attended GMU myself so I don't know much about anything outside VA. Is Merit offered to 3.4 GPA students as well?

I found it helpful early on to run a bunch of net price calculators across different colleges of similar tiers, comparing those that ask for GPA/test scores (not all do and if they don't they likely aren't factoring in merit aid, or don't offer it). IME, similar tiered colleges tended to end up in the same range in pricing.

In the end, DS who wanted the big state U experience was accepted at a couple OOS schools that came in around $40k, a couple in the mid-20s and a couple in-state Us also mid 20s. He's going in-state.

DD wanted to attend a LAC and applied to several. A couple higher ranked ones ended up in the $40-$50k range, a few a tier down all came in around $30k and she's going to one of those. Her best in-state option (UMW) would have been $17k. She did not get into W&M but if she had, that would have been about $39k.

Anonymous wrote:We tried to get the college search process going in the Fall, and visited a few places. But my kid is so busy with other stuff now — SAT prep (taking the test this weekend), out-of-school activities, heavy course load, an internship, etc. — that we decided to just lay off for a while. This is a useful thread so we can think about things he should do this school year at a minimum, but at this point I think we’ll let him focus on other things until the summer.

Good for you, that sounds perfect
You might consider, in a few months, scheduling for the summer some on campus interviews at a few schools. They can help but not crucial, nice to demonstrate interest too. Those plus campus tours tend to book up. Although summer tours are much easier to get vs during the school year weekends and holidays. There were a few times this past Fall that I was able to schedule one off tours at colleges not too far away, on days when my DC was able to miss a class or two at the end of the day.

We tried to get the college search process going in the Fall, and visited a few places. But my kid is so busy with other stuff now — SAT prep (taking the test this weekend), out-of-school activities, heavy course load, an internship, etc. — that we decided to just lay off for a while. This is a useful thread so we can think about things he should do this school year at a minimum, but at this point I think we’ll let him focus on other things until the summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

Why does "good college" have to mean a big state school in the DMV? Look at SLACS, regional universities, go outside of Virginia for crying out loud. Your son sounds like a great, smart kid - there are good colleges that would love to have him.

Maybe cost is a factor and they need to stay in state. Imagine that.

In state isn't always the cheapest option. Plenty of big state schools in other states and private schools offer great merit scholarships. My college freshman is currently in a private school out of state for thousands less than he would have paid at Longwood, Mary Washington, George Mason, Christopher Newport, etc. and it has far more name recognition too.

How do you search information for those? I've lived in VA all my life and attended GMU myself so I don't know much about anything outside VA. Is Merit offered to 3.4 GPA students as well?

Following

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

Why does "good college" have to mean a big state school in the DMV? Look at SLACS, regional universities, go outside of Virginia for crying out loud. Your son sounds like a great, smart kid - there are good colleges that would love to have him.

Maybe cost is a factor and they need to stay in state. Imagine that.

In state isn't always the cheapest option. Plenty of big state schools in other states and private schools offer great merit scholarships. My college freshman is currently in a private school out of state for thousands less than he would have paid at Longwood, Mary Washington, George Mason, Christopher Newport, etc. and it has far more name recognition too.

How do you search information for those? I've lived in VA all my life and attended GMU myself so I don't know much about anything outside VA. Is Merit offered to 3.4 GPA students as well?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

Why does "good college" have to mean a big state school in the DMV? Look at SLACS, regional universities, go outside of Virginia for crying out loud. Your son sounds like a great, smart kid - there are good colleges that would love to have him.

Maybe cost is a factor and they need to stay in state. Imagine that.

In state isn't always the cheapest option. Plenty of big state schools in other states and private schools offer great merit scholarships. My college freshman is currently in a private school out of state for thousands less than he would have paid at Longwood, Mary Washington, George Mason, Christopher Newport, etc. and it has far more name recognition too.

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

My child with similar stats was accepted at CNU and VCU this year. Deferred at JMU and didn’t apply to GMU.
Don’t worry you’ll get into one for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Junior is freaking out because his GPA is 3.4 right now. He's an excellent kid, well liked by his peers and just made the Varsity Soccer team (again) this year.

We'll be visiting JMU, GMU, VCU and CNU soon, however, from what I read he might not have a chance at any of those colleges. Except CNU.

He takes a mix of regular/Honor/AP classes.

I welcome all the great information I see in this forum, but to be honest, it gives me anxiety. Who would have thought a well-rounded B student can't aim for a good college...

Why does "good college" have to mean a big state school in the DMV? Look at SLACS, regional universities, go outside of Virginia for crying out loud. Your son sounds like a great, smart kid - there are good colleges that would love to have him.

Maybe cost is a factor and they need to stay in state. Imagine that.

Mine's a recruited athlete so we are in the midst of talking to coaches, scheduling official recruiting trips that may happen both this Spring and Next fall (unless he commits this Spring). Pretty stressful but should make for a less stressful Senior year if all goes as planned.