College Prep
Nothing prepares you for college-for your teenager! My own college years were a breeze, considering what we’re going through now in preparing my 16-year-old daughter for college! As a sophomore in high school, she’s receiving tons of mail from various colleges and we’re weeding through all of it to find the majors she’s interested in, where the schools are in relation to us, the cost of tuition and other fees-as well as lots of other factors. There seem to be no end to the number of factors you can find to figure into where your kid should go to school!
My daughter’s primary interest is in archaeology. We’re finding out that very few schools offer undergraduate majors in archaeology and that you’re not allowed to do much in the field with an undergraduate major anyhow. Therefore, it looks as though she might be majoring in anthropology, then moving on to graduate work in archaeology.
Her best subjects are math and science, so math and, possibly, engineering, are a secondary interest. (I’m trying very hard to keep in mind that she has two more years of high school and, although she has been interested in archaeology for several years, may change her mind before she actually begins college!) We’re trying to find schools that offer both, so that she can major in one and minor in the other.
Then, there’s proximity to consider. I’d really rather she be close enough to us for driving visits (what mom wouldn’t), since weekend trips wouldn’t involve airline tickets and, therefore, be that much more expensive. What we’re running into is that no colleges in our state offer archaeology as an undergraduate major. Therefore, with in-state schools, she’d have to go with an anthropology major, and move onto graduate school for archaeology. Then, we run into the problem that the best school we have found in our state for anthropology (which is, by the way, close enough for weekend visits), and the one she is most interested in, is a private college and, therefore, one of the most expensive!
Given all this, we move on to cost which, at this particular school, is almost $50,000 per year! I get short of breath just typing that number! Which means that, if she goes to this particular school, she’s going to need lots of financial aid. At this point, we have to get into searching for financial aid available at a national level, at the state level, and at this particular school, as well as any community aid that might be available.
Are you dizzy yet? I am, and there’s still two more years of this process to go, and more schools to consider! I’d rather go through my own six years of college and graduate school all over again! However, during the process, I’ve found that there are places to get help (besides my psychiatrist’s office!). Her school counselor has been very helpful in providing us with her time, and with lots of information. She’s also provided us with several worksheets we can use to help organize some of the chaos.
A great website to visit is College Board. During the search phase, they have a great College Matchmaker feature, which allows you to put in all kinds of parameters that you or your child want in a college. It then uses those parameters to spit out a list of schools matching your choices. The more parameters you put in, the more it narrows down your search.
It also has all kinds of other neat features, which allow parents to consider the costs of colleges and plan how much financial aid might be needed. It allows students to set up an account and organize a plan for college, as well as provides information about where they should be in their plan, starting as early as their sophomore year in high school. There’s tons of other features-way too many to list.
Check out this site, as well as talking with your son or daughter’s counselor. Start getting a handle on all the confusing information and decisions to be made as soon as you can! I’m sure I’ll be posting lots more on this subject, given where my daughter is in her high school career! I’ll let you know about other resources I find.
parenting teens, parenting teenagers, college, high school, College Board, college preparation, college majors, teens, teenagers, parents, parenting
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