OT: College Aged Kids

[verticaldoug]

If you are a junior in High School, your SAT/ SAT Subject exam schedule is out the door. Some colleges will have to wave Subject test requirements for next year. If this repeats in the fall, holy fubar.

Seniors already discussed.

College Freshmen- Last year my daughter and friends studied abroad over the summer to gain credits, and get the 'fun' out of the way before getting serious. Those programs are probably cancelled.

Sophomores-Juniors Internships are probably toast

College Seniors- Job search stress just went through the roof.

(It's interesting to see my daughter's well planned path go out the door, now she has to adlib. It may end up being really good for students who are not college seniors looking for a job.)

As my daughter likes to tell me, I'm not a snowflake, you're the snowflake.

[akelman]

Originally Posted by echelon_john

We’re in the situation where my daughter has been accepted to a few schools that she hasn’t visited because we figured we’d visit if/when she was admitted...trying to figure out if it’s worth traveling to the ones within driving distance to walk around an empty campus...

We're in exactly the same boat. Fortunately, I know quite a lot about the schools in question. Unfortunately, my knowing quite a lot about them doesn't mean much to my kid (and I don't blame him for that). In the end, he'll be fine wherever he lands, so I'm not sweating it too much, though I do feel bad that he's missing out on a bunch of the rites associated with being a second-semester senior in good standing.

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by djg

Some of the ones recently put together for admitted students seem to have links just for those students, but many colleges have links to virtual tours on their admissions office web pages. If your son has a list of schools of interest, it would probably be easy to find a bunch of things. The live ones might provide ways to ask questions in real time, but there are all sorts of ways to ask questions.

it is a challenge to get him to list schools, let alone rank them. I view the SIP as an opportunity to get started on researchig schools, drafting an essay/personal question answers, etc --he has no competing demands from daily school and EC's--they are doing WEEKLY school assignments.

[echelon_john]

This was for Ithaca College.

Originally Posted by jimcav

I need to motivate my son to view such things (I know we missed this one, but there will be others, just curious what site it was one)

[djg]

Originally Posted by jimcav

it is a challenge to get him to list schools, let alone rank them. I view the SIP as an opportunity to get started on researchig schools, drafting an essay/personal question answers, etc --he has no competing demands from daily school and EC's--they are doing WEEKLY school assignments.

Been there. My eldest kid surprised us with a request to visit several schools during spring break of her sophomore year. With the twins . . . my son was pretty motivated to do a fair bit on his own, and to request certain visits, whereas his sister . . . you know, needed a bit of time, and a nudge here and there, and suggestions of possible visit days, etc. And she came around, sufficiently and in time.

You could pick a few for the boy -- maybe watch together if that would help rather than hinder.

[GregL]

Originally Posted by djg

Been there. My eldest kid surprised us with a request to visit several schools during spring break of her sophomore year. With the twins . . . my son was pretty motivated to do a fair bit on his own, and to request certain visits, whereas his sister . . . you know, needed a bit of time, and a nudge here and there, and suggestions of possible visit days, etc. And she came around, sufficiently and in time.

You could pick a few for the boy -- maybe watch together if that would help rather than hinder.

It was a challenge to get our daughter to start looking at colleges. She was buried in junior year coursework and didn’t want to be bothered with distractions. I think college seemed like a lifetime away at age 16. My wife and I tactfully dictated that we would start visiting colleges the fall of her junior year. Our first visit was on Halloween. That one visit seemed to light the fire. We did another visit on Veteran’s Day and five more in the spring. A few more visits over the summer before her senior year and she was ready to start the decision process. We only saw two more schools her senior year. After that there were interviews for scholarships and special programs. In the end, she got a terrific scholarship to her first choice school and was glad that her parents pushed her to start visits early.

TLDR: it’s very worthwhile to start the college selection process early.

Greg

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by djg

Been there. My eldest kid surprised us with a request to visit several schools during spring break of her sophomore year. With the twins . . . my son was pretty motivated to do a fair bit on his own, and to request certain visits, whereas his sister . . . you know, needed a bit of time, and a nudge here and there, and suggestions of possible visit days, etc. And she came around, sufficiently and in time.

You could pick a few for the boy -- maybe watch together if that would help rather than hinder.

he is a procrastinator (quite succesful A student), but it is too much stress for us as parents to not have even an inkling of a school choice. So I'm giving him a list of 10 schools: assigment, pick 6, visit each website and at least one campus reel video and rank top 3. Depending on how that goes, next week will be another 10. I'm hoping to get 2 reach schools, 3 reasonable, and 2 safety. We are lucky the UC-system is very good, and he has the grades to get into the lower tier without question. Above that is harder to say, as he hasn't taken the SAT, which UC weights heavily (along with grades and course rigor).

[Polyglot]

I have gone through the choice of colleges with my two daughters as well as with a number of foreign exchange students that we have hosted. In all honesty, I believe that all of this worrying about your children's choice of college is totally overblown and an utter waste of good brain cells.

For good students, I have yet to ever hear of a college student to ever say their selected college is not good. Students adapt to wherever they go and since they don't have anything else to compare it to, they automatically determine the way their chosen college handles thing is the RIGHT way to handle things. It has been my experience that only students who are having difficulties at college (or previously in high school) will ever say that their college is not handling things well. So don't worry about things all too much.

[BobC]

Just one thing to note per merit scholarships & engineering students -- check on minimum GPAs to keep the scholarship. For most students, keeping a good GPA is a breeze, engineering can be a whole different beast.

Originally Posted by happycampyer

I meant to add that we are in a similar place with my younger daughter, who is a senior in high school. Fortunately, she has visited all of the schools where she has been accepted so far (still waiting to hear from a couple more next week), but several of those visits were last spring (2019). We were hoping to revisit schools for more in-depth “admitted student” days, which are much more informative that regular college visits. Of course, now those options are gone.

One of the schools that she visited last spring that she was lukewarm on has offered her $25k/yr in merit scholarships. Unfortunately, we didn’t take the tour of the engineering school, and now can’t. It will be interesting to see what if anything they put together virtually. We were lucky to attend an admitted student day at a school where she was accepted EA (and has offered even more merit money—$39k/yr). This school was a “safety” school, but she (and we) liked it far more than we expected. Decisions are going to be much more difficult for seniors this year for sure.

[daker13]

That might've been me that the OP mentions, I toured Philly area schools with my daughter and her friend in October. My daughter is sewing up her choices for the fall and all seems cool. But one thing that occurred to me is that the admissions process really didn't seem to reflect the coronavirus situation... admissions decisions seemed to go along as if nothing was the matter, whereas the academic semester was completely upended right around spring break.

I'm curious what's going to happen in the fall. How many students are going to suddenly put off going to college because they're sick, or a family member is sick, or because of a change in finances? What would I do if my daughter's school said that the first tuition payment is due, and btw, all classes are online and the campus is closed?

Strange times.

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by echelon_john

We’re in the situation where my daughter has been accepted to a few schools that she hasn’t visited because we figured we’d visit if/when she was admitted...trying to figure out if it’s worth traveling to the ones within driving distance to walk around an empty campus...

Both my kids reacted strongly, (both positively and negatively) to the other kids on campus when they visited. It's the student body that creates the school culture, versus the physical plant.

In one case, my son said "look around dad, I don't see me here." In another case, my daughter said much the same.

Given the impossibility of having the on campus experience, I'd suggest that your high schooler interact with a couple of current freshmen (freshpeople?) by phone or video chat, for each of the likely candidate schools... The school or your guidance counselor may be able to set that up...

[Irishgirl]

Good feedback from all..

I have a senior and a junior...two totally different kids in their approach and interests.

The senior attended a STEM residency program and she has a good feel what campus life may feel like. Her spring break was early and while home from break all schools in IL were getting shutdown and her school made the difficult decision to close the campus permanently for the remainder of the academic year. She is now e- learning and some of her lab science classes, which is her passion, will be difficult in a e learning environment. It is sad that seniors are missing out on those last few months with their classmates along with many of the traditional fun activities.

It a new normal for them.

The college selection process with her has been interesting. As she is selecting schools with strong music conservatory programs AND pre-med...both are demanding. She has a “I’m smarter than my parents on ALL subjects” which makes providing guidance a dicey discussion. She got through all her in person music auditions which were conducted on campus...4 schools scattered all over...kept wondering why these couldn’t be conducted via an online platform considering school days missed...time and cost of travel....I bet virtual will be considered now. She is waiting to here back on in person interviews with the med programs which I suspect now will be virtual. On positive from COVID is it has helped her identify she does NOT want to be an epidemiologist.

My Junior attends a parochial school and the communication on Thursday was hopeful on classes resuming as well as other activities mainly for seniors. She’s a positive kid so she remains hopeful too.

The junior keeps studying for her SAT and she has a short list of schools she’s considering. This week she is on break and we planned on doing some college campus visits. The suggestion to take a road trip to do a campus drive around that is within a days driving may be helpful...at the very least getting out of the house for the day may be a good way to break up the week of “stay at home”.

One thing in talking to both of them is grasping the reality of COVID. It’s difficult when some of the parents aren’t enforcing a stay at home policy....I’m the bad one for wanting to keep my girls and their friends safe.

The struggle is real.

It will be interesting to watch the high school class of 2020 and even 2021 to see how this impacts them when they make it through college and into the workforce. Fast forwarding 5 years and working with some of these young people makes me think they will be adaptable and innovative with a slew of new normals.


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[veloduffer]

For many colleges, test scores (ACT, SAT) are optional for the admissions process.

Essays may be the most pivotal part of the application. It's really the only chance for admissions officer to get a fuller picture of the candidate beyond the scores and grades. One admissions officer told prospective students that he didn't want to read another essay about participating in sports or dance. Since none of the applicants will be playing or dancing professionally, they need to tell the admissions officer about who they are - not the activities that they are involved in.

Also, for many kids, their choice of college is about the vibe/feel when they visit the campus. The course programs, unless highly specialized like architecture, are a secondary factor.

[djg]

Originally Posted by daker13

That might've been me that the OP mentions, I toured Philly area schools with my daughter and her friend in October. My daughter is sewing up her choices for the fall and all seems cool. But one thing that occurred to me is that the admissions process really didn't seem to reflect the coronavirus situation... admissions decisions seemed to go along as if nothing was the matter, whereas the academic semester was completely upended right around spring break.

I'm curious what's going to happen in the fall. How many students are going to suddenly put off going to college because they're sick, or a family member is sick, or because of a change in finances? What would I do if my daughter's school said that the first tuition payment is due, and btw, all classes are online and the campus is closed?

Strange times.

Not sure, but we are considering gap years.

[Spaghetti Legs]

My son is a sophomore in college. We toured 3 or 4 of his top choice schools, none of which he got accepted to. He went to his current school sight unseen and has been very happy. That being said, I think it’s worth visiting a school, even if there aren’t students there to get a feel for the location, where the dorms are, etc.

He decided to stay at school, in LA, when they went to online classes rather than fly back cross country through LAX. I think it was a good choice. He’s doing well and we talk frequently - more than we normally do.