About 15 years ago so a bit dated but a few things may still be true.
1) One quote that stuck me from the process was, "Helping your kid pick a college is not about picking the best college, it is about picking the college that is the best fit for your kid." A solid but lower rated college where you kid thrives is likely a better choice than a higher rated college where your kid is unhappy and struggling.
2) When trying to judge how good a school is look at the department they will be in not the overall college ranking. Some top college have a few weak departments and some otherwise mediocre college will have a very good department.
3) Be careful about assuming that some place like your state flagship university is a "safety school" which your kid is sure to get into. It will vary but many state universities can be surprisingly hard to get into and many solid high school students will not be accepted at some state universities just because the admission process can be fickle. Not getting admitted what was assumed to be a safety school can be a big blow to a teenager. Talk this over with your kid and have them apply to several "safety schools".
4) Some colleges, especially lower tier state universities, have surprisingly low graduation rates. Be sure to Google "(college name) graduation rate" and "(college name) retention rate". My son choose to non-flagship regional state university(long story) which had a low graduation rate. I talked this over with my son before he went to college and how he could not base how much he studies on what the other students were doing since a lot of them would not graduate. After the first semester of his freshman year a lot of students on his dorm floor did not return after Christmas break and that shook him some. He mentioned that he was glad that I gave him up on a that.
1) One quote that stuck me from the process was, "Helping your kid pick a college is not about picking the best college, it is about picking the college that is the best fit for your kid." A solid but lower rated college where you kid thrives is likely a better choice than a higher rated college where your kid is unhappy and struggling.
2) When trying to judge how good a school is look at the department they will be in not the overall college ranking. Some top college have a few weak departments and some otherwise mediocre college will have a very good department.
3) Be careful about assuming that some place like your state flagship university is a "safety school" which your kid is sure to get into. It will vary but many state universities can be surprisingly hard to get into and many solid high school students will not be accepted at some state universities just because the admission process can be fickle. Not getting admitted what was assumed to be a safety school can be a big blow to a teenager. Talk this over with your kid and have them apply to several "safety schools".
4) Some colleges, especially lower tier state universities, have surprisingly low graduation rates. Be sure to Google "(college name) graduation rate" and "(college name) retention rate". My son choose to non-flagship regional state university(long story) which had a low graduation rate. I talked this over with my son before he went to college and how he could not base how much he studies on what the other students were doing since a lot of them would not graduate. After the first semester of his freshman year a lot of students on his dorm floor did not return after Christmas break and that shook him some. He mentioned that he was glad that I gave him up on a that.
Statistics: Posted by Watty — Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:07 pm — Replies 23 — Views 1627