The College Road Trips: Key Research Info To Look At
Art display at the Amherst College Library
Your student will have their own set criteria they want to use while researching schools. As parents we want to make sure all of the key details are at their fingertips. Working with a college counselor is great, they will help weed out the schools that look shiny online, but in reality, may not be the best fit for your student. What is great about working with a counselor, while they work together, they get to know your student and they ask the right questions for fielding the best schools for them. Whether your student is straight A’s or a high 2’s GPA. There is something out there for everyone. I speak from experience. I barely had a 3.5 GPA when I graduated from High School and all of the schools I applied to, were all over the place when it came to acceptances. The school I settled on, was one of the easier one’s and honestly, I was not prepared, nor challenged by my school of choice, once I was there. I was accepted by another school based on swimming , and when I chose to retire from competition in the middle of my senior year, due to sports injuries, I lost my my financial support. Sadly my decision was not 100% completely informed, compared to info on the internet today.
There is so much information out there today, that helps students from suffering from the same pitfall I did. In a previous post, I advocated to make sure your student visits a few college campuses before applying, to truly understand some of the core dynamics that students respond to today.
Campus Location: The location of a school has many different factors for potential students. From a region or state, even the setting of the campus. City based schools can look vastly different from school to school. For exmple, in NYC, a school like Columbia has a centralized campus, which means the housing, classrooms and student life falls into a few blocks in the city. These campuses do have a few satellite buildings of campus that might hold classrooms or housing. But compared to Pace and NYU University, where the campus buildings are surrounded by public and commercial buildings. The same goes for schools in small towns, some towns are home to several schools which provides a strong collegiate presence, while some are lone schools and often are far removed from the town center. For example, Amherst College sits in the middle of downtown Amherst, while UMASS, and Mount Holyoake Colleges sit on the outskirts of the town. Simply reading about these enrivorments will not translate to reality for your student. Regions are a factor as well, especially when it comes to weather. Michigan and Maine are going to have cold climates, with wind that will literally go through your clothes if you don’t layer properly. While Florida and Souther California is will be hot but varying kinds of heat. I am not a huge fan of sticky hot weather.
City vs. Small Town: This is a very important dynamic for all future college students. The vast majority of students are truly not aware of how a small town setting for a school vs. a city campus will effect them. I strongly recommend when visiting schools, be sure to have at least one of each on your to visit list. Available data does show a large portion of students prefer a city environment, but honestly if you ask your student which they prefer right at the start of their search, you may get a puzzled look. After just one visit between the two, your student will make that decision pretty quick. Even if your student says “city” all the way, still visit both to make sure. My student went from a pro-city school student from Kinder to Sophmore year,, to small a town school student after one visit to a city school in one summer.
Open vs. Closed Curriculum: Yes this information is provided online, but many schools list their curriculum style as BOTH. This is where it gets confusing. Listening to admissions presentations or even a student tour guide talk about how the school offers a close and open curriculum does help your student to understand the environment they are stepping into. This can also be accomplished with an online info session, only if they offer a Q&A period. A basic google search “Columbia Open v. Closed Curriculum” should give you a solid first answer. What you need to watch out for is when a school says yes to both. When they say both, pay attention to how classes are listed out for a major. Are there specific classes listed, or is there generalized header for one category, and several options listed below. Aother way you can check this out, is by looking at degree requirements. A open curriculum will have a longer list of options, under one degree or field of study.
Student Population: We like to say every student is different, and that’s the case when it comes to the environment your student is looking for. Large schools student population can have anywhere from 10,000 to 150,000. Western Governors in Utah is number one in student population, but the remainder of the 10 top schools are all state schools, with around 30K-50K students on campus. Seeing a campus in person, no matter if the students are present or not, can really give a student perspective. Large campuses designed for 50K students, will be more vast or the buildings massive in size, they can also be very intimidating due to it’s size. While a small school of 1K-9K students will be smaller and provide more comfort, with shorter distances between buildings and there will be an absence of large crowds. Overall the question is, what is your student’s comfort level with being either a fish in the ocean vs. the fish in the pond.
NICHE Review Data is great source for your student to check out online reviews from other students enrolled or alum. Below are some key pieces of data that we pulled off the site and included on the school spreadsheet.
Niche Overall Grade: Niche calculates an overall grade on the several areas the students can grade the school. This includes things like Academics, Diversity, Campus, Athletics, Professors, Dorms, Campus Food, Safety, Student Life, and other areas. On our college spreadsheet we added a column for these grades, which listed all of the areas a school might have C+ or lower grade. Some schools will have nothing, thanks to A’s & B’s. Most schools will have one or two items.
Interesting Poll Comments: There are several polls on the site that students can complete when filling out information for their school. The one poll that kept popping up, and we ended up adding the data to our spreadsheet was titled “What is your overall opinion of your school and the campus community?” My suggestion is explore these polls, mainly to see peoples writte comments about the question or school.
Review Numbers: We also pulled the total numbers of student reviews, to show if there is a pattern or decline. We referenced the three lower scores (Average, Poor, Terrible) over total reviews. For example 30% of Pace Colleges reviews are “average” or lower. If your student is sensative to one grade area, this might help them dig a little further into the feedback section of Niche, to see what students have to say about the particular area of concern.
Words Best Describe Students: This is an interesting poll question that appears on almost every school on Niche. The answers are not them same for each school. We focused on the top word, to see the general census of the school. There are responses like “Down to have fun” “hardworking” or “Work Hard Play Harder 25%”, even words like “Quirky” and comments that are more critical like "Preppy, Rich, Elitist, East Coast, Snobby” or “Privileged”. Pick whatever you want! Its good to see how other students see others on campus.
Student Numbers: There are several numbers to pull from sources like Niche.com, Common Data Set, College Navigator. Take your pick, these were a few we looked at in more detail.
% of Students From Out of State - If your student is looking at a out of state school, this number gives you an idea of the number students in a similar situation as your student.
% of Freshman Live on Campus - This is a great number to see for all students applying to college. It shows how the number students who are commuters vs. living in the dorm. Commuter schools will not give your student who will be living on campus, the total college experience. For example, SUNY schools tend to only have 25-30% of freshmen live on campus. That is a huge social downfall for your student, not having a large population walking around campus in the evenings or on the weekends.
% of Students Join Sorority/Franternity - A good number for female students, showing what the pressure of going to look like for incoming students to go Greek. This number varies by regions. In the mid-west you will find greek life is a strong number. That said, we looked at Lehigh College in Pennsylvania, and found nearly 90% of femail freshman go greek.
Political Makeup - If your student has a strong political voice, they are going to want to attend a school that will either challenge them or find comfort with likeness. It also helps protect students who find themselves concerned of today’s events and want to surround themselves more with their like minded people. This is something I overlooked greatly. Many of the close friends I kept from college, we on the end of the other spectrum 30+ years later.
Rates: There are so many rate numbers on all the different sources. Your best bet is just to pick one source and go with it. The difference are not big swing in term of the digits.
Regular Acceptance Rate
Early Action/Decision Rate
Retention Rate - Helps greatly, some schools don’t make an effort to keep students. In my freshman year, I lived with 8 suite mates and by the end of the first semester there was only 4 of us.
Recommended GPA & SAT: This is important data when you start to whittle down your students list of schools. There are schools for all levels of students. Whether your student has a 4.3 or 3.3 or 2.3, there is a college out there for them. SAT scores are mostly optional still, but knowing the average GPA and SAT scores that are accepted during the application process. Tells you the environment your student will be in, when they are at that school. If your student has a 4.4 GPA during their junior year, and they are looking at schools with a 3.2, then their college career is going to be very, very easy or just less challenging in the end. While a 3.4 student will find more challenges.
Campus Safety Data: For a parent this is important data, but your future college student cares about this data as well. This information can be found on Common Data Set, College Navigator and niche.com. Here is a list of the key data points we found helpful in the selection process.
Rape/Fondling
Dating Domestic Violence
Stalking
Alcohol Violation Arrest & Disciplinary
Drug Violation Arrest & Disciplinary
As mentioned this data can be compiled on a spreadsheet for your student to reference. Share the spreadsheet virtually, this way you can edit it when you are traveling to schools. Seeing it also laid out on a spreadsheet, allows you to make sure all of the data is captured.