Selecting a college to attend ranks among the most important decisions
that your children will face in young adulthood. While many parents want
to control this decision, I encourage you to enter it jointly with your
child. It is their life and they ultimately have to live with the
consequences of that choice. My children both made very different
selections than I would have made at their age, but then I raised them
to be much more mature and self-sufficient than I was. As homeschoolers,
their education was far superior to mine and therefore prepared them for
much more challenging fields and equipped them to compete at top
schools.
Understanding Yourself
While it is true that you can survive anything for four years and youth
makes you very resilient, I still counsel students to think about who
they are and what they like before any serious college search begins. Is
your student a “city kid” or a “country kid?” I don’t mean where they
were raised, but where their heart feels at home.
City kids thrill to the big city sounds of sirens, the throbbing pulse
of the crowd, the excitement of countless museum exhibits. They might
pick a campus in the heart of New York or Boston. All this noise and
confusion will shut a country kid down. It feels threatening. Country
kids need room to breath, green spaces, places of retreat. They might
pick a campus that is either outside a city or is very spacious and
private within a city.
Does weather affect your student? It certainly is a factor for some
kids. One student, after visiting Boston, made the comment, “Everything
was grey-the sky, the buildings, the people!” He needed sun and wisely
chose southern California. He would have been miserable in Cambridge or
Chicago. Some students choose to go somewhere very different from home
just for experience and that’s great, as long as they realize what they
have to deal with. Be aware that most college visits are made when the
weather is great. The same campus in the throes of winter is a very
different place.
Does your student want people or privacy? Extroverts with a host of
friends might choose a large campus with thousands of incoming freshmen.
There is always somebody new to meet and something exciting going on.
There are countless clubs to join, but the chance of being taught by
TA’s (and not professors) is much higher when class sizes number in the
hundreds. Ironically, there is also the chance for anonymity on a large
campus; no one knows your business unless you want them to.
If your student thrives on deep relationships with a few individuals and
likes knowing everyone he meets on campus, a small school would be a
better choice. Here administrators and professors know you by name and
you get more personalized attention and opportunity for specialized
projects. There will be fewer options for majors and a smaller selection
of classes. The smallness is a cocoon for some and claustrophobic for
others. You can’t hide here; everyone knows you.
Even more important than the logistical and environmental issues are the
deeply embedded personalities of your students. Are they resilient? Can
they bounce back from failure repeatedly? Are they flexible and able to
live with (and love) people with very different values, morals, and
beliefs than their own? Are your students tenacious? Can they hang on to
their dreams despite opposition and obstacles? If your answer to any of
these questions is “no,” they are not ready for the challenge of a cold,
hard, intellectual campus experience. You must search hard for a truly
Christian campus that will give them time to mature.
Check Your Field
It is easy to Google the top-ranked schools in your field of interest,
to find which schools are considered powerhouses and command the
attention of recruiters in particular fields. It gives us a place to
begin our research.
While some students are fairly sure of their major, it is always wise to
select a school that gives you room to move. It is also important to
think about what else your student would like to pursue. For example, my
daughter wanted an engineering major at a well-respected science school
and wanted to continue her violin study with master teachers. As a
safety net, she also needed a strong math and physics department should
she decide to change majors. We had to find a school that offered all of
the above (not an easy task).
As we began our search, we found some schools that offered a fabulous
math department but a mediocre engineering department. For my student
who could go either way, this was not a good choice. Some schools were
engineering only, leaving no room to change majors. Some schools did not
have engineering at all. Some schools that had great science, but had
limited opportunities for music or did not have good financial aid. This
sifting and sorting process was the first of many steps.
Be aware that if your students plan to go to graduate school at a
top-ranked institution, chances are they will need to get a bachelors
degree at a good mid-tier school or be an absolutely stellar, top-ranked
student at a strong state school.
Once you’ve narrowed the schools to those who have what you want, you
must then carefully scrutinize each school.
What to Read
If you are considering a top or mid-tier school, I recommend starting
with Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America’s Top
Schools from Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Updated annually, this
huge book looks at America’s top 100 schools and gives you a perspective
on campus life as well as statistics on admission, crime, cost, and
student debt. They look at the outstanding professors on campus, core
academic requirements and whether the school offers a true Western
civics core component. While ISI does tend to focus more on the liberal
arts rather than the quantitative subjects, it is invaluable to get a
feel for each campus. They report on speech codes, coed bathrooms,
sensitivity requirements, alcohol and drug use, etc.
ISI also publishes All American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives,
Old-fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith. This book has the same
format, but lists ISI’s favorite schools-usually small, liberal arts
schools that do a good job with the Western canon.
I also keep an eye of publications like World magazine, which frequently
reports on the academic freedom of colleges, both Christian and secular.
Talk to Students & Grads
One of the most helpful things to do is to talk to alumni and students
in your major, particularly upperclassmen and those recently graduated.
There can be vast differences between departments on a single campus.
New students are still enraptured with their new-found freedom and are
still very positive. Older alumni are loyal to their core and have
forgotten many things. Schools can also change drastically through the
years.
Upperclassmen and recent graduates can be bluntly honest about the good
points and the shortcomings of their school. Questions to ask:
- What is the best thing about this school?
- What is the worst thing about this school?
- Did it prepare you for your job?
- Would you choose it again?
- Are professors open-minded or do they have an agenda?
Ask your department of interest who is recruiting their graduates. What
grad schools have accepted their students? What are their strengths and
weaknesses? How do they compare to similar departments at the other
schools you are looking at?
The Campus Visit
Are there safety issues at this school? What is the neighborhood like
around the campus? How many assaults occur yearly on campus (available
in the ISI Guide)? Is public transportation safe? We found that students
were much more honest about this than the administration. Another part
of the safety issue is whether campus housing is guaranteed for four
years. For schools that are surrounded by bad neighborhoods, this info
is vital. Safety is an issue for any student, but particularly for
females. Several schools that were options for my 6’2” weight-lifting
son were not options for my willowy 5’6” daughter.
Is there an anti-Christian feel on campus? How strong is the campus
Christian group (Campus Crusade, Navigators, InterVarsity)? Are there
solid churches within walking distance (for the student who does not
have a car)?
What kind of posters are up on bulletin boards and public places? Be
aware that campus newspapers always attract the far-left and the
obnoxious, so don’t assume they represent the tone of the entire campus.
Are people pleasant? Are the dorms light and airy or filthy and
oppressive? Are dorm suites or bathrooms coed? Are there many militant,
combative activists around campus?
Don’t Stop at One
It is important that your student not set their heart on a single
school, especially if it is a competitive school. Top schools can
receive up to 30,000 applications for only 2,000 slots. For this reason,
we must select a range of schools with which they can be comfortable:
stretches, possibles, and safeties.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Top
My experience has proven that Christian kids who are grounded and mature
thrive in a top college environment. Students who are not mature start
sliding fast at any college, including Christian ones. Unfortunately,
many “Christian” schools are Christian in name only. Because students
feel “safe” going there, they find their faith undermined by professors
they think they can trust.
Students should not make the critical college choice because of the name
of the school (Harvard) or the label it has (Christian), but find the
school that offers them the atmosphere and academics they want. It has
to be the right fit for them. It doesn’t matter that it’s not the right
fit for someone else. There are fine Christian schools and there are
horrible elite schools. But the reverse is also true.
Jeannette Webb has worked with high school students for over 25
years. Jeannette teaches “Homeschooling Through High School” seminars
and is a college coach dedicated to helping homeschool students
matriculate to America’s top colleges. She can be reached through
aiminghigherconsultants.com.