Oh Boy… It’s Shop for Colleges Time
August 21st, 2009 . by economistmomMy oldest is about to start her senior year in high school. I can’t quite believe that we’re here already and facing a semester of campus visits and college applications. She’s a brilliant student with a perfect math SAT score and a well-rounded list of activities, so I know she’ll have no trouble getting into some very good schools. Still, I haven’t paid much attention to how kids apply to college since, well, since I applied myself a little over 30 years ago, and I know enough about how much tuition has gone up since then, so I’m feeling a bit anxious about the whole application and decision process ahead of us over the next few months–and years. U.S. News and World Report just came out with their annual “America’s Best Colleges” guide, so this will be the first thing I’ll study carefully on this journey. (Don’t worry, my daughter is way ahead of me on this.)
EconomistMom.com readers will get to “tag along” on my “shop for colleges” journey this fall. And I will happily accept advice from those of you who have already been through this or otherwise have insights into the process of finding the best college for one’s kid and figuring out how to pay for it! We’ll see if I stick to my own “living within our means” mantra.
I too have started the search for colleges for my daughter. What a grueling process! She wants a party school, I want something that has excellent academics. It is hard to say what we will decide, but I want her close to home and she wants to run far away… Any tips on finding the right school for us? There should be a quiz to take. I’ll look on facebook.
-Ashton
Cigars
Some very fine schools are not on the USNews&World Rept. They decided the rating process is somewhat bogus. Reed College is one of those who chose not to run. I think a good resource is your friends, especially those whose children are in or just out of college.
If your child knows what field they want to go into then that will make the search easier. For example: one college I went to had a 90% placement for accountants because they had many close relationships with firms who liked to hire directly from the college graduates.
2nd once the right 4 year college is found, I would recommend finding a good community college that has close ties the the university. You can always ask the university and they will give you a list of good community colleges. That wll save some money since the student can earn an AA degree and easily transfer the to college of choice.
Some tips from a couple who have attended over 10 colleges together. On a second note, transfering credits out of state is a bad idea. most do not transfer as the required course.