The College Search and Four Important Lessons for Parents

I was searching Google blogs this afternoon and ran across this gem, which I urge parents to read: Four Fatal Errors Parents of College-Bound Students Make.

The post on College Search GamePLAN - The Blog is short, sweet and oh-so-right-on-the-money. It's a quick read but in case you don't have time to click on the link, here's a quick overview of the key tips offered:

1. Make sure you have a sound financial strategy in place before beginning your college search.

2. Billions of scholarships DO NOT GO UNCLAIMED each year - furthermore, the way scholarship funds are allocated by colleges means that value of the scholarship could actually be deducted from the financial aid package, resulting in a zero net gain

3. It's a fallacy that only highly visible (top U.S. News ranked colleges) offer the best educational opportunities

4. College selection and admissions has become so complex that many families don’t start soon enough - start at the beginning of a student’s junior year

Please note: This article was written by Howard Verman, director of Strategies for College, and published in collaboration with Lauren Starkey of Examiner.com

Image by Cecile Graat

How Does Your Child's College Search Differ From Yours?

Things change... and so it goes with the college search. Protocols that existed for generations have changed dramatically over the past 25 to 30 years and our children are conducting their college searches in very different ways than we did.

Take me and my son, for example. We didn't discuss colleges when I was growing up, outside of college football, that is (my parents didn't attend college). I chose my alma mater because it was convenient (in the city where I lived) and affordable (I put myself through school).

Conversely, we've discussed college with my son as long as he can remember. When it comes to the college search process, he and I are learning together because I never participated in any of the usual college planning activities. Furthermore, we are doing a great deal of research online and when I was in college, computers were still a novelty and NO ONE had a home computer.

Leave a comment and tell us about your college search. How "old school" was it? What aspects are more different today? What hasn't changed a bit?


Laptop photo by Simon Wong

Finding a College for Your High School Senior

As my 15-year-old daughter would say, "Good luck with that."

OMG - who knew that a bright, talented 17-year-old young man would be so reluctant to engage in a process that will define four important years of his life? Where he lives, how he spends his time, the foundation for his career (hypothetically, anyway). This is big stuff. Important stuff. And HE'S DRAGGING HIS FEET AND IT'S MAKING ME CRAZY!

Apparently I'm not alone. It's not just boys - I hear that girls are similarly afflicted.

As much as I'd like to ignore the matter and leave it in his hands (a tough-love tactic: you-made-your-bed-now-lie-in-it), I won't. He doesn't have the judgment to realize the consequences, even though next year, magically, he's going to have enough good sense to be able to survive on his own at college. God help us.

I'm going to chronicle some of our experiences and want to invite anyone and everyone to join in the discussion by leaving comments. WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET!

Let's start at what some experts consider a second-stage of the college search process - considering different colleges (we're going to leave the "what's your major" discussion alone for now).

Loren Pope wrote a terrific book, "Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges." Don't be surprised if you think about college differently after reading the book. Previously I was focused on finding a good school that offered my son's preferred major, particularly something VERY AFFORDABLE, and I expected that he'd end up at the state university about two hours away that is a flagship in our state university system.

But after reading this book and considering things on a broader scale, the paradigm shifted. Maybe a small college would be a feasible option that offers him the chance to more easily create close relationships with professors and be challenged in different ways. It's not that this isn't possible at a large college or university. But a small college offers a different atmosphere and he might really thrive at one.

Be forewarned: Pope is considered to be a bit anti-Ivy League and the focus is on small schools. It's still worth a read. Be sure to visit the Colleges That Change Lives website, too.

The book also helped me realize that we might be able to afford something besides a state university, that small colleges might be a financially viable consideration after all. But more about that on my next post.

What books can you recommend for college-seeking students and parents? Please leave a comment.


Photo courtesy of Garrison Photography