College choices and explorations

Going to college is a well- thought of and important decision in a student’s life. With more than 4000 colleges and universities in the United States, with different majors and degrees offered, it may become a daunting task for a student to make a decision. With family support and high school counselors guidance, the college application process can be made less stressful and more systematic. In this post I am writing about different colleges around the US, their statistics with the national ranking, and tips about applying to colleges that may interest the student/s.

Last week I attended a virtual college information night with my junior’s high school staff and it was very informative. I will share some tips about what I learned as a parent and what I know as an educator, and hope this post will be helpful to parents who have their oldest child getting ready to go to college. I am sure it will be better with the subsequent child/ren as we get some tools hidden in our toolbox during the learning process.

According to Statistica.com there were about 20 million students enrolled in accredited higher institutions after high school in 2018. That is a big number, and it is increasing every year. The decision about which colleges to apply to happens in the fall of the senior year. The two options for students include applying to a private or public college. Second option is staying in-state or going out-of-state. Generally speaking public colleges and universities are always budget friendly and cheaper than private colleges and universities. It does not matter if a student is going in- state or our-of-state for a private college as the tuition stays the same. For a public college, on the other hand, going locally in state may be half of the tuition as opposed to going out- of-state public state institutions.

The most time consuming is the college application process which may take a lot of time and efforts. It needs patience, focus and organization to make sure senior students are taking their time and putting in their best efforts when applying to different colleges. The application must be complete in all respects and most applications involve writing an essay or two, which has to be done by delving in deep, with ease and confidence; as students try to put in words their life experiences and making sure they are reaching the right audience with clarity and conciseness showing their strengths, traits, virtues and learning experiences.

When applying there are three types of college groups to keep in mind- reach, target and safety.

Reach colleges are the ones that may have academic standards above your students level, target colleges are the ones that meet your students academic levels and the safety colleges are the ones which are safe bets and a 100% surety that you child will get admission into.

Although there is no magic number, by rule of thumb a student should apply to six to eight colleges. This should include one or two safety schools that they love and the others can be split between the target and reach schools. Be sure you and your child are taking time to research and get more information about the college and the campus they want to apply to. The best way is to go on their website and learn about enrollment, admission, application date, deadlines etc.

According to a report by US News published in 2020 the top ten colleges in US include Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, MIT, Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Duke University followed by John Hopkins University, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth University, Brown University and University of Notre Dam. You can read more rankings here.

The decision about which colleges to apply to should factor in academic programs offered, physical location, student and teacher ratio, institution size, retention rate, campus life, diversity and affordability. It should meet the academic, social and financial needs of the student; don’t just look at ranking.

One great way to look at a college and learn more about it is doing campus tours. Due to COVID-19 all college tours are right now temporarily suspended. We were booked to fly to Boston during our spring break and were thinking of doing tours of Boston University and MIT but everything had to be cancelled. Our summer plans have also changed as it is not yet safe to travel; and we really wanted to go to few colleges in person before my older one made up her mind about which colleges to apply to. It is a little disappointing time with such things on standstill but then we have to remember and be thankful for so many other things that are going on right in our life! So college tour or not, we are not going to complain siting here but instead will try to find most information online and by contacting the college admissions reps.

Although we could not do college tours this year, we did have a chance when kids were younger and we visited colleges in north east. Sharing here few pictures from our New England trip in 2014 when we visited and did informal tours of Harvard and MIT.

Below are couple work pics from MIT trip in 2017 summer, where I attended XQ colloquium and it was a very learning and informative week spent at MIT.

When applying to colleges, it is also important to know and understand few key words. What is ED, EA and REA? Early decision or ED is a binding agreement in which the student commits to the school, early action is non- binding where student applies early and receives a decision in advance, and restrictive early action is binding where a students commits after receiving a decision early from the institution.

Now let’s talk about financial aids. There are four different types of aids- scholarships, grants, work study and loans. Scholarships can be need based or academic/merit based. Scholarships and grants are free and the students do not have to pay them back. Work study is when students work on campus and get paid. The last ones are loans that may be with or without interest, and have to be paid back.

In addition to tuition cost, other expenditures include living on campus or dorm charges also called housing costs along with meal or dining plans. Then there are books to buy, socialization and other petty expenses like going out, shopping and entertaining.

A public university and a private university comparison of total expenditure may look like this, see below-

According to Business Inside published in August 2019, below are the top 25 colleges with their tuition rates.You can get more information here.

MIT- 23K

Stanford University- 17K

Yale-18 K

Harvard- 17 K

Princeton- 16 K

Duke-22 K

Brown- 26 K

Columbia – 23 K

University of Pennsylvania-25 K

Rice University-24 K

If interested you may look at the 2019 research from Forbes to check their list of top 25 colleges; which includes Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, CIT, Duke, Dartmouth, Cornell, Pomona, U C Berkeley, Columbia, Georgetown, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dam, Williams College, University of Michigan at Ann Harbor, Rice University, John Hopkins, Harvey Mudd college, U S Naval academy and Swarthmore college.

Irrespective of where a student may decide to go, it is very important to be well informed about the net cost of college education or affordability. Equally important is to know the college setting– be it urban, suburban or rural, along with the climate and campus life. With so many student organizations on campus, every student should be able to find one or couple that they are most passionate about. The other things to look for are the distance from home town, majors provided, admission rate, graduation rate and past known alumni, if any.

To summarize, applying to colleges may take time and efforts but it is worth in the long run as your child makes up one of the most important decisions about their future. As parents and adults, we should guide them and help make their application process less daunting but in the end it should show the efforts, dedication and organizational skills of the students as they showcase their talents, achievements and life experiences on a piece of paper.

If you or your student are interested in learning more about how to get scholarships, you may check out these books:

Get Free Cash for College: Secrets to Winning Scholarships

The Ultimate Scholarship Book 2020: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes

As I mentioned in my last post about major high school decisions, there is no one size that fits all for deciding on a college. Just remember that there is a college for every student. It is impossible for a student to say that they did not get into college, as there are endless possibilities and a best fit for each one.

Good luck and best wishes to all the students for their college application process and college explorations! Dear readers, if you want to share your experience and expertise with other parents who are new in this endeavor, or if you have any specific questions, please share in comments or send an email to nishtha@dawnandhope.com