College Admissions Part I

As I sat through another college information session with my high school senior tonight, I reflected on how far we've come. Setting aside the stress of the first semester of the senior year, which is extreme, I think that my daughter, my husband, and I are all much calmer and more confident in our understanding of how to help her find a good college match for her skills, ambitions, likes, and dislikes. I won't tell you that everything is resolved (it's only early October), but I think we've learned a lot.

Some tips:

• Start early and listen a lot
• Go to high school info sessions
• Listen to high school college counselors
• Visit the college counseling office at school -- learn the resources available
• Attend high school college fairs
• Read books
• Visit colleges in the Junior year - one small, one medium, one large
• Try to get your child exposed enough to various types of colleges so that they begin to understand what they want -- large or small, urban or rural, private or public, etc.
• Visit the collegeboard.com website and play with the criteria for choosing colleges
• Talk with other parents who have been through the process