college search: first pass of research

big future – 20 feb 2016

Last spring, in Camille’s sophomore year, we attended our first college fair when Colleges That Change Lives came to Atlanta. We like the idea of the organization, but Camille’s desire to attend an urban school quickly crosses many of the schools off of her list.

Last summer, the summer between Camille’s sophmore and junior years, I started reading two college search books, The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price (2nd Edition) by Lynn O’Shaughnessy and Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges by Loren Pope.

This fall, we started to get busy with research. One night a week, we’ve sat down and researched schools in a few states. Camille uses the site niche.com. I use the Big Future site from the College Board. We start with a basic search then eliminate schools that are not a great fit – commuter schools, all-male schools, HBCUs, for-profit schools, business schools, etc.

We still have the Northeast left, but we’ve made good progress.

We’ve created a huge spreadsheet and Google map with our findings. Once we get through the initial search, we’ll do a second pass to narrow things down. We need to think about location, scholarships, and culture. With the visits we have made, we have a better idea now of what she really likes and doesn’t ….