The Selection Process

OK by now most parents with kids in 11th grade are struggling with “which schools should my son or daughter apply to?” There are several sites that can make the selection process easier. The one I found the best for my daughter was:

http://www.collegeboard.com/

Hopefully you have already visited a couple of colleges to get an idea of what type of school your child would like the best (large/small, urban/rural). Remember you should have all your applications in by Thanksgiving. Some may need to be in sooner. Most schools these days accept the Common Application which can be found at:

http://www.commonapp.org

If you have a 10th grader (I have one of those as well) they can go on the College Board site to pick some schools to visit over the summer.
A book we found helpful was:

Preparing for College SATs

Preparing for College Applications

Having gone through the process just last year the biggest piece of advice I can give any parent with a child thinking of going to College is do whatever you can to help your child prepare for the SAT or ACT tests. Most colleges require you to submit at least your SAT scores. These scores are then used along with other information on your child to determine how much of a performance based scholarship they will receive (or in other words how much they will have to pay for College). For example view the following Webpage for a college in Albany, NY.

http://www.strose.edu/download.aspx?libitemid=7276&file=scholarships factsheet.pdf

Some suggestions, purchase a couple of books then after having your child go through the books take a couple of classes. Some high schools offer classes others can point you to resources in your area.

My daughter found the following book very helpful:




You might also want to take advanage of this cupon to by this book or others: