Parents: Got a minute?
Whether you're just beginning college visits with your teen or
have put the college admissions process behind you, listen up and get great parent survival tips from our College Mom Minute audio podcasts with Dr. Nancy Berk, author of COLLEGE BOUND AND GAGGED: How to Help Your Kid Get into a Great College without Losing Your Savings, Your Relationship, or Your Mind.
Valentine's Surprise
--Last minute gift ideas
Rejection
--Preparation helps
To listen to more of College Mom Minute, please explore our archive of Dr. Nancy Berk's podcasts for parents - it only takes a minute!
- College Mom Minute January 2012 (senioritis, FAFSA, care packages, resolutions)
- College Mom Minute Play List #1 (college road trips, essays, move-in, food, dorms)
- College Mom Minute Play List #2 (grades, SATs, careers, and the holidays)
Parents and students: your submission is appreciated and, in the spirit of providing family-friendly, useful, engaging information, will be reviewed by our editors prior to posting. To read examples of the types of stories we publish, click on the Parent-to-Parent section from the menu bar above or select "College Visits" from the Category cloud from the right side-bar column.
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Choosing which Colleges to Visit: The 5-Hour Drive Limit
Academics. Extracurriculars. Costs. Any of these are important factors to consider when deciding which college makes the list of schools to visit, but often even that is not enough.
We talked with Celeste, mom of a high school junior, about the other factors that influenced the college selection process for her son.
Check out what made this family's list, then tell us, what's on your list of criteria?
SCV: You mentioned visiting three schools with two more on the list for fall. How did you/your son decide which schools to visit?
Celeste: My son is VERY interested in doing Air Force ROTC in college. (In fact, his first choice is actually the Air Force Academy.) He wants to go to a college where the ROTC program is actually on campus, which severely limits his options. My husband and I created a list for him of those schools that were within about a five-hour drive of family members on the East Coast--we can't afford to fly him back and forth across the country and we want family members to be able to reach him if there is an emergency.
SCV: Aside from ROTC and location, what were the other factors related to deciding where to visit?
Celeste: My son looked at the web sites and found that most of them had programs for what he most wants to participate in for extracurriculars--cross-country and band--so that was not a deciding factor. He then looked at the acceptance rates, GPAs, SATs. The ones that were more demanding were more interesting to him because he likes a challenge. The schools that made his list were: University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia Tech, Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) and the United States Air Force Academy (the only exception to our 5-hour drive rule).
SCV: What were the visit experiences like for you/your son?
Celeste: The first one was amazing, possibly because everything was new and a bit overwhelming. By the fourth one, we were tired of information sessions. Some schools, like UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill, did a great job of making it interesting and engaging. We walked away with a good sense of the school's culture and what they stood for. Duke's was average--it provided a good overview, but it was too long. Virginia Tech's seemed boring--although it might have more to do with our early-morning drive there than the speaker herself, I didn't feel I had a sense of what Tech was all about. My son felt that way about the information session as well, but he really enjoyed the tour there.
The groups tended to be too large to hear everything on the spring tours, although the guides did their best. I would really recommend visiting in the wintertime if possible--it might be cold, but the groups are much smaller. I noticed the guides showed only parts of campus, partly because of time, and partly, I suspect, to make you feel as if these universities weren't as large as what you feared! It really didn't matter, because by the end we had a pretty good feel for the school. Also, the combination of information sessions and tours usually ran about two to two-and-a-half hours, and by then we had reached our saturation point! (If you're going to Duke, bring snacks and a drink. Theirs went three-and-a-half hours!) Virginia Tech actually showed a dorm room. No other college did.
SCV: What do you wish would have had happened or that you would have had time for on any college visit?
Celeste: Questions! All of them except for UNC-Chapel Hill were morning tours that went through lunch. By the time they were done, we were practically shaking from low blood sugar levels. Even though we wanted to stay to ask questions, we were too hungry to do so. This was unfortunate, because the only colleges that talked about ROTC were UVA (because someone did ask during the information session) and Virginia Tech. Knowing only a few students are interested in ROTC, we would have preferred to ask about it after the tours, but the tour guides typically did not know anything about it (except at Tech) and we were too hungry to go back in and ask the admissions people. I would also liked to have had a chance to ask about spiritual life on campus.
SCV: Was your son engaged with the visit?
Celeste: For us, these visits were overviews, so he did not ask many questions at this point. He tends to absorb things, reflect on them, and come back with questions later. I think he asked one question during the four visits. For these visits, he wanted to get a feel for the campus and the culture and decide whether he wanted to apply. He typically separated from us to stay closer to the guide (and on one tour the students were actually ordered to separate from the parents and be in the front) so he could hear better. We usually dropped back so other students could be up front as well. We believe that while parents play a part in this decision, it rests primarily with the student, so they need as much information as possible.
SCV: What's your #1 concern/priority regarding where your son ends up going to school?
Celeste: I have told him very plainly: My concerns are he attends somewhere he can continue to grow in his relationship with God, he gets a good education, and he has fun. In that order. I am not concerned with name recognition, I just want a college that is a good fit for him.
Do you have a college visit story to share? What's it been like to tour colleges? How do you decide where and when to visit? Click here to share your story with us. We'd love to hear from you.
Next on CampusChat: Christmas Break and College KidsHow do you cope when the kids come home from college?
'Tis the season for college kids to vacate campus and re-enter life at home. They've been gone for 3-4 months, living independently, taking responsibility for themselves (and their laundry), and now they're back.
For parents of freshmen, it's a season of firsts--first time back home for an extended stay (most semester breaks are 3-4 weeks long), first college grade report, and the first time your child returns to the fold (just long enough to get back into the family routine before returning to school).
Parents, what are your expectations? And, for those who have already gone through this, what advice do you have to share? Bring your questions and expectations to the next CampusChat, this Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9PM, Eastern, and we'll chat via Twitter about college kids' homecoming.
Remember to tag your tweets with "#campuschat" to participate in the conversation.
For more information about CampusChat:
- What is CampusChat
- Twitter Tools & Resources
- Takeaway Tweets & Transcript from #CampusChat & #PTChat
College Tour: Parent Notes from 3 Campus Visits
Real Mom/Real College Visits
A parent of a high school senior shares her notes from three days of college visits touring out-of-state schools:
School #1: Went on a Sunday. Student just took us on a tour of the campus.
School #2: Went on Monday. Great slide show while we were waiting for admissions person to talk to pm group. Emphasis on what famous people have graduated and what graduates have done. Had to drive to place where we were put on a bus to tour campus: 1/2 by bus, 1/2 by walking.
School #3: Went on Tuesday. OK slide show. Admissions person went over numbers, but didn't know a whole lot (not impressed - he should have really been selling the place). Student took group on 2 hr tour of campus. She knew more than the admiss guy.
What can parents takeaway from this family's college tour experience?
- If you visit when classes are not in session (ex: on Sundays, holidays, or during semester breaks), you won't have access to the same quality of information or visit experience compared to visiting during scheduled visit days.
- Quality of experience matters and a host who knows the school well, and can answer parents' questions or can get answers quickly makes a good impression.
- Tour guides matter, too. Teens relate to the college student tour guides and a knowledgeable friendly guide will often have the greatest influence over whether or not the college tour made a strong impression.
Which school do you think made the best impression on the prospective student?
Parent-to-Parent: From College Tours to the Decision-making Process of Teen #1Tom Field is well known in the Blue Ridge Region of Virginia for his illustrious career in publishing and marketing. He is co-founder and creative director of Valley Business FRONT magazine and owns a marketing consultancy firm in Salem, Va. He's also dad to three teens. Tom reported on his oldest teen's college tour adventures a year ago in A Tale of Two Visitors through our First College Visit series hosted on Handshake 2.0. He later shared the highlights of this adventure as one of our first guests on SmartCollegeVisit's CampusChat on Twitter. This week, on the one-year anniversary of SmartCollegeVisit, Tom provides a wrap-up of his journey as a parent and the decision-making process of teen No. 1.
First, CONGRATULATIONS SmartCollegeVisit on your anniversary!
I jumped into your company and service upon your deployment, which happened to coincide with my first child's search for college. We talked about the campus visit process, and our summer circuit around the state. We discovered each campus has its own very distinctive personality--which shines through when you actually step on their hallowed grounds. The TONS of marketing that preceds visits may or may not match the onsite actual environment, but NOTHING is the same as the experience of walking and touching the very place where you will be investing your life.
So what happened with my first child? She's at the University of Virginia. One of the schools at the top of her list (of the three she finally applied to) and the ONLY campus we... ummm.... actually did NOT visit! We've been on "the Grounds" numerous times through the years, but we never did the official tour.
Oh... and one other thing about our experience. She actually accepted another university too, prior to her acceptance at U.Va; so we "lost" our $600 deposit at that one (as they refused to return it, four days after the "non-refundable" cutoff, even though that timeframe was well in advance of the term--and did not allow sufficient time for final acceptance at other schools). So, beware of that little piece of trickery, parents! And you're welcome, GMU, for our donation.
The moral of our college entrance experience? It's HECTIC with a capital "H." And the captial letter is not for the word, "hectic," let me tell you. You will hate (another "H" word) the paperwork, and the paperwork, and the followup with more paperwork. But the "F" word is worth it. Yes, "FAFSA" is your "friend." We are so happy for child number one...and we will put up with all the H-words and F-words for child number two and child number three in 2012 and 2015. Thanks SmartCollegeVisit for your service, your information, and your "pre-education" for "post-education." Again, happy anniversary!
