College Search Help!?!?!?

You need to be doing college visits NOW. it takes time to go on several visits.

and without going on any right now, how do you know if you need to be looking a small or large schools. After visiting both, my daughter knew she didn't want a huge state school.

First look at what kind of student you are. What is your GPA, have you taken honors and AP level classes. You need to be sure you can meet the schools academics requirements.

Does it have the major and minor you want , or think you may go in to?

How far away is it. How are you going to get back and forth to school? dorms close for school breaks. My son is a 12 hour drive away. He only gets Thursday and Friday off for T-giving. Thankfully we have relatives near by where he will spend the holiday. Also his school provides free transportation to the nearest airport which is almost 2 hours away. My daughter's school charges big bucks to take them to the nearest airport/train station which is less than an hour away. the round trip train ticket costs me less than the schools transportation.

Look at room and board costs, too.

See if their tuition has gone up drastically over the last few years. My friend pulled her son out of Loyola because tuition kept going up quite a bit each year.

How many teachers have Doctorate degrees. How many students graduate in 4 yrs/ in 5 yrs.

What is the acceptance rate. What are the schools demographics. How many females/males, asians/ african americans etc.

check out the dorms. some web sites have photos or floor plans. What is security like.

Great question:

1. Can you get in? No sense applying to Stanford with a SAT of 1800 for all three parts.

2. Does it have the major or program that you want?

3. Can you afford it? I know entirely too many students who graduated, have decent jobs, and live in near-poverty due to school loans.

4. How far away from your family do you want to be? This is a very real issue - no sense being miserable. Of my own kids, the happiest in college were the two who a] went to an excellent school about 90 minutes drive away and b] went to school in town but lived in the dorm. The one who went to school 600 miles away had a terrible time for the first year or so. On the other hand, I know some kids who would do anything to get far away from the family drama.