My oldest is no longer homeschooling. Would anyone here mind my participating in a discussion of the college decision process?

I know that Sharon and I are in very similar boats - kids in FL who will qualify for 100% tuition + $ for books if they stay in state, but with the potential for being accepted at nationally recognized schools where the out of pocket will be orders of magnitude higher.

I know how fast time flies these days. The deadlines for applications tend (I believe) to be in December, which will be here REALLY soon.

Also, the question of how involved I should be, vs. how much to let him (the ultimate procrastinator) be responsible for is big for a control freak like me.

So, what do you guys think? Is this the place for a homeschooler-at-heart to come?

Thanks,
Melissa

Whether or not our high school seniors are still being officially homeschooled or not, I think the home school mindset is a permanent part of a family's way of life At least that is the way it seems to me.

The college counselor at my son's school was rather surprised (and taken aback, I think) at the interest we (the parents) have taken in the college decision process. He was rather surprised that we had already done some research and had a list of colleges to consider. It seemed he was more accustomed to offering suggestions to people who did not have a clue. I get the sense that college decisions are often sort of like taking your child to the store and letting him/her pick out what he/she wants. So involved parents may be the exception.

With home schooling, however, we parents may be more like consumers than spectators. We've spent years evaluating curriculum, making decisions, looking at costs/benefits. Becuase of that, it would be kind of strange not to think about being involved in the college decision process (especially when it's possible the a significant portion of the family's resources are going to be a critical component of the decision).

When we toured the U of Florida last spring, it was recommended we get the application in as early as possible, ad especially if we wanted any financial aid or scholarship considerations. Bright Futures is not the only advantage in Florida for qualified students. U of Florida has an Honors College (students are selected by invitation) which gives them separate, but newer (nicer) housing, and first choice for course selection, among other benefits. The Florida Academic Scholars program offers a bit more in addition to Bright Futures. I think you need a 1270 SAT and a 3.5 GPA for that. Further, National Merit kids are offered some strong financial incentives to consider UF, and probably other Florida schools as well.

(We have a friend whose brother went to UF basically for free---he was a National Merit Finalist and basically, he did not have to pay for college because of the incentives. UF, and possibly the other Florida schools, are trying to compete with out-of-state, academically rigorous colleges to keep the "brain drain" from drawing all the smart Florida kids out of state.)

Other states may offer similar incentives to good students---the upshot is, it may be possible to do college for very little (if any) money, for those students who have demonstrated superior performance in some of these measureable areas (high SAT, PSAT, AP scores). Considering what college costs, I think it is worth investigating what's in one's own "back yard".

I was very surprised with what we have learned. As a result, Florida colleges, which were not on our radar screen *at all*, are now the frontrunners in our list of options.

Alex won't take the SAT again until October - that was the next time it was offered. He was so busy last year that the time got away from us and he didn't take the SAT until June. That was his first time at it, not counting the Talent Search in 7th grade. He's taken the PSAT every year since freshman year, because all the kids in his school do.

So anyway, we were going to wait for those scores and then start mailing applications. I think that UF is one of his first choices. I don't know if he knows about the honors college or not. The magnet program that he is in is having a college information night the 19 of this month. I'm sure that will be very interesting.

College visits may be a problem. I am teaching now, and may take a personal day here or there for a college visit, but DH ate up all his vacation this year going to Philmont with the boys. So it looks like a few long weekends here and there, and stopping at some northern schools (Purdue, Notre Dame, University of Illinois) the week of Thanksgiving as we drive up to see Grandma.

Duke is also a school of interest.

Have you started applying yet? At what point are you going to?

It's so nice to have someone to talk to who is in almost the exact same situation as we are.
Keep me up to date with what you are doing..

Melissa

After the Duke TIP thing, I had my kids take the SAT again in 8th grade just for practice, becuase until 9t grade, those schores will not show upon score reports for college. Then in 9th they take the ACT just to get practice with the test mindset. Since those scores come from a separate oganization, I felt it was a good way to get practice with not much risk if the scores weren't all that great. Son #1 re-took the ACT this year and improved to a 33, so if we need the ACT, we have a decent score.

Although son #1 is still like yours (not ready to begin filling out applications), in my timeline I have scheduled him to begin writing his application essays this month. I think these need some time, so he will write, put them away for a week, then take them and and review/rewrite. his school schedule is so intense I know he will not have the time or energy to put much as effort into them during the school year. We are expecting a package from Furman---he was named a "Furman Scholar"---with merit scholarship information. Furman seems very interested in merit scholar types---another school that was not on our radar screeen until they made contact with us.

Be certain that you are aware of SCHOLARSHIP deadlines, as they are often different than the application deadlines. A school may continue to accept students AFTER all their good scholarships have already been awarded.
Those deadlines will vary from school to school, so be in contact with the scholarship office EARLY. Most schools will set a deadline for their good scholarships December-January-February. So that is the deadline you want your son to apply by.
And make certain that he follows up on the application. My daughter called about 4 weeks later to be sure all her information was complete, and found out she was missing one recommendation. Luckily, she still had time for the recommendation to be received before the scholarship deadline.

is not the most important criteria--or perhaps I should say that these decisions are of equal gravity regardless of previous education.
I don't know your children or situations. But I will make a few comments.
Big school vs smaller school. Many of our nation's large universities have put more energy and money into graudate programs. Yes, they may still have good undergraduate programs, but that is not where they are now putting their limited resources. AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) did a survey of their members a few years back. Most of their members have terminal degrees (PhDs) in their chosen science or engineering field. They found that over 70% had received their undergraduate degree at a small (5000 or less) college. They went on to get advanced degrees from larger schools.
I will add that both of my children went to smaller schools, and there did seem to be a more personal attitude on those campuses. I worked at our state's largest public university for 22 years--that is what I have to compare to.
Visit, visit, visit. What a school says on paper may seem very different in person. Regardless of what a child THINKS they want, they really need to feel comfortable in the setting and with most of the professors.
I would like to say that money is no object, but that is not the truth. I feel very sorry for students who graduate with HUGE debt loads. That affects them for years to come. I think students should apply many places, but in the end, a look at the probably debt load does need to be considered.

We are going to have to squeeze these college visits in. I just don't know how. It would be nice to visit a smaller school, and let Alex get the feel of that. He really thinks he wants a BIG school right now, for whatever reasons. I'll have to show him what you said about smaller for undergrad and big for grad school, because he is deinitely planning on grad school.

I look forward to your insights on this as we begin muddling through in earnest.

Thanks!

Melissa

We have visited both a large and small school thus far. Visits can not only put a school on your "list"; they can also move a school down, or off, your list of prospects. While we were on vacation last summer, we visited Wheaton College in Illinois and did a tour. We liked it, so in the spring we went back so son #1 could do a sleepover college visit. (I didn't know these existed, but they do. You can let your child tour the school and spend the night in the dorms with regular students.) We had told our son we thought he would really enjoy being around other kids who shared the same kind of faith/world view. He ended up being less enthusiastic about Wheaton! I don't know if we built it up too much, or what, but he was disappointed with the kids he stayed with; he felt they were not as spiritually mature as he had expected.

Wheaton also does not offer much more than a token amount in merit money so that has impacted our enthusiasm as well. (Did you know that a National Merit Scholarship is only worth $2500 unless the college augments that amount? $2500 might have been a lot of money 30-40 years ago; but it doesn't mean as much these days at it did when it basically covered 1-4 full years of tuition costs.)

The nice thing about a UF visit is that it is a short drive away, and I think they do tours on Saturdays. But the tours are not geared to talk about the Honors College--our tour guide knew nothing about it, and since it is not a question of general interest), the leader of the post-tour talk did not want to discuss our Honors College question in front of our large group. We felt very at home at UF because of going there for the Duke TIP thing for all 3 kids, plus my kids have done a couple baseball camps there.

One of our prime considerations for college is that there must be a strong church nearby, and/or a strong Christian campus ministry where we feel our son can be fed spiritually. For us, large school, small school, is less important than being able to find fellowship with other Christians.

So money and spiritual resources are the most important considerations. What other considerations might we want to think about?