When asked what did I do the summer of 2010 it would be I ...



When asked what I did during the summer of 2010, my answer would be that I visited nine colleges in five states. We went to the University of Texas, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Clemson, Washington and Lee, the University of Virginia, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, and Auburn. The following is a just a list of things that I as a parent found out that I wish I had known when I visited the first college. Even if you have already decided where you are going, the housing list might still be useful. Mrs. Matthews has some good information on her website also.

First, try to visit in the fall or the spring of your Junior year. Not in the summer. Of course, we had no choice. I could not go in the fall or the spring. However, to get the true feel for a campus you need to be there when all the students are there. Most applications begin August 1 of their senior year.

Admissions:

Go to the information session about admissions. It is worth it because you can ask questions and listen to question others are asking. These also are normally given right before campus tours. You break up into tour groups after the admission session. Take a notepad and write the answers down, you think you will remember, but you WON’T and the pamphlets they give you are not specific enough.

Some specific questions:

1. Do they care if ACT or SAT? If taking the Act, do they require the writing portion? (Most major schools do)

2. Do they superscore the ACT? Superscore is where if you take it 3 times they will take the best score in each category and then average those to get your ACT score. Most do not but there are still some that do. (Georgia for example does, Auburn does not)

3. What is the average ACT/SAT of the freshman class? While this is not a guarantee of admittance if you have this score, it at least gives you an idea of what you need to be shooting for and an idea of whom you will be competing against for scholarships.

4. Is early decision binding? This means if you apply under the early decision option are you locked in if you are accepted. Locked in meaning you sign a contract when you apply saying if you are accepted you are liable for tuition for that next year.

5. Is there an advantage applying early? So is there a difference between if you send your app in Aug 2nd or Dec 31st.

6. Does the major you're choosing affect the acceptance policy? Example: University of Texas does not admit you to UT they admit you to a specific college and major. Therefore, when you apply you are applying to the college of engineering with a major in chemical engineering. Vandy is the same way you apply to one of 4 schools.

7. How easy is it change majors? You can imagine if acceptance is based on your major they aren’t going to let you change very easily. But how difficult is it specifically. At UT the dean of engineering said they do not let you change form one field of engineering to another. Actually, he said you could do it but it takes about 2 to 3 years to actually change. This makes a big difference in College choice if you don’t know exactly what you want to be. (By the way, this was the deal breaker for us about UT)

8. What is the percentage of out of state kids, if you are looking at an out of state school?

9. What about Scholarships and their deadlines? Go on and ask in the admission session, you think you will able to just find that info on the website because Auburn and Alabama have it listed nicely it is not always the case. Big thing to find out is there a separate app for scholarships or do they use the admission app. Keep in mind that as hard as it is to believe some places just don’t give hardly any freshman out of state scholarships, no matter how high your Act score is. (Ex: Virginia tech if you are going into engineering)

10. Letters of rec- see what they really want. At Vanderbilt they put stock in letters of rec, it is very important. But at Virginia Tech while you can submit them they don't hold any weight because as they put it “who is going to send in a bad rec?”

11. Get a sheet about what AP classes actually will count as credit. You think all AP counts as college credit that is why you take it. That is not the case at all even if you do perfect on the AP exam. Let me stress though it is good idea to take AP though even if it will not count because it looks good on the Transcript.

Housing/living:

Make sure to go on the housing tours, some of these are not in the regular school tour like you would think it should be so allow enough time in your schedule to make sure to go see the dorms. When on the dorm tours make sure you listen about security, cost, laundry, and roommate section. Also, make sure you ask them if this is what all the dorms look like. Obviously they want to show you their best dorm so make sure you ask is this really what a freshman room would look like. Some specific questions:

1. Do you have to live on campus your freshman year?

2. What is the percentage of kids that live on campus not just freshmen but upperclassmen? You have to remember that sometimes living off campus is very expensive and you need to keep that in mind if everyone lives off campus after freshman year.

3. How is it determined who gets housing, and does when you apply affect that?

4. Type of dorms and who is in which type. Ex: Are the freshman put in special freshman dorms or they going to be on the same hall as seniors?

5. What is the Bathroom type, and is there a sink in the room? This feature of a sink in the room is important if they have community bathrooms. Think about it, with a sink you can wash your face, get a drink of water and brush your teeth without having to go all the way down the hall. It makes community baths not so bad. (Some kids-and by kids I mean boys-want the community bath because then they does not have to clean it.)

6. Parking- first can you even have a car your freshman year, if so where is the parking in relationship to the housing? What is the shuttle service?

7. What comes in the dorm room? Most of the time, they have the sample dorm with everything in it, the loft bed, the refrigerator, a microwave, and shelves. If you ask you will find some are extras that you pay an additional cost for. Be aware that most of the schools will let you have a microwave, but it must be their microwave that you rent from them. (Just another expense to keep in mind when you are trying to determine if you can afford this school)

Academics:

1. Student professor ratios

2. How many classes taught by Grad students

3. Average class size

4. For large lecture classes (everyone has them, even small schools) do they offer additional help. For example: Recitations are classes that they can attend where the large class is broken into a smaller number and the kids can ask questions, these are normally taught by a GTA

5. What type of free tutoring do they offer? Get specifies when you are on the tour or at the end. And write it down. It is so much easier to find out in person than trying to call the college in the fall and ask. Every college we visited had free tutoring on campus for most every subject. It is good as a parent to know about these ahead of time so that if your child gets in to trouble that fall you can say remember there is free tutoring in building so and so at this time.

6. What type of Peer mentoring is offered?

So there are just some things that might be helpful. I am sure you will come up with your own list also as you tour around. Good luck.

P.S. On a personal note, Nick decided to go to Auburn. The scholarship package they offered was one we couldn’t turn down. I am still glad we visited everywhere though. It was fun to spend that time with him and beneficial to see other places and compare. Sometimes you don’t realize what a nice campus Auburn has until you have something to compare it to.

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