As a parent whose two older daughters attended a combined five colleges for undergrad and graduate degrees and a husband who taught at a college, I would suggest that parents may want to do some careful research on just how much the words "Professor and Teaching" actually go together. Now "Professor and Research" certainly do for the college's bottom line. It is important not to just take the campus tour, but to go when classes are in session. See if you can talk to students in your child's interest area in terms of what is the size of their classes - do they always remain large or do they get smaller as one focuses on a major? Who is teaching the classes - mostly graduate students, mostly adjuncts, professors who do not have a good command of English so it may as well be a foreign language? Walk around department mid-week when classes should be in session and try and get a feel for how many faculty are on campus, in labs etc.

With the increase in tuition even at second and third tier colleges, it is very important to know what your teen will be getting for the big bucks AND possibly the loans one is taking on. If you have a lot of money and need not worry, then this suggestion need not apply. However, if college is going to be a stretch for you the parent(s) to pay for and even more importantly going to be a financial reality in student loans for your son or daughter, put a little more time into what one is going to get than what the college "is selling."

In STEM fields, the question to ask "Have the undergraduate classes grown in size" so that in-state students as well as out-of-state students' tuition and debt are covering the costs of graduate school students AND are the preponderance of graduate students foreign born. In many case your student will be paying for a foreign student who will then be better prepared to compete for your son or daughter's future STEM job. The last word you often hear on a campus is "undergraduate."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Happy to have sent my two out of state, out of Virginia.

Can I ask why?

Too much suicide epidemics, mass murders, abduction murders, lacrosse murders, cops shot in face, mass murdering alumni and dining hall beheadings .

Yes, and those things never happen in any other states.

Actually, they don't . Why there is so much nightmare activity in the Va schools I have no idea. I just want to avoid it.

You really can't be serious. Just do a Google search of "campus murders." VA has certainly had its share, but so have many other states. Good luck avoiding it.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/students-murdered-university-north-carolina-campus-150211093231033.html
http://www.hlntv.com/slideshow/2014/06/05/nancy-grace-mysteries-annie-le-campus-murders
http://concealedcampus.org/campus-crime/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/09/13/most-dangerous-colleges-2010.html