There are so many variables: what is your state flagship, do you need a financial saftey as well as an academic safety (most people do!), what part of the country is she interested in living? The very best site for this kind of info is the Parent Forum at College Confidential. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Parents Forum at College Confiedential

I do think you are early. There is so much personal growth going on in the teenage years centered on that huge question of "who am I as an individual, apart from my parents."

Part of the reason you are so stymied is that she is still defining herself. I really think that it would be better use of time this summer to have her get a job or an internship doing something in a field that she thinks she might want to study. Cooking included.It will help her define her goals and what she wants to get out of her college years.

A note about the cooking thing. I have a sister who wanted to be a chef and my parents had the same reaction you do. Somewhat against her will, she ended up going to Cornell Engineering. My parents were thrilled thinking she would have a great career. My sister was miserable, dropped out after one year, and worked for several years as a waitress. She did finally go back to school and got a CPA and now runs a specialized business that caters to chefs!

Funny how no one discourages their child from becoming a doctor despite the long hours and physical nature of the job, lol.

Anyway there are tons of schools out there. I have a brillant niece who turned down a few Ivy League colleges to go to the Rhode Island School of Design and was very happy. Providence is a nice city, and students can cross register for liberal arts classes at Brown. I have a cousin who went to Rochester Institute of Technology and has a very successful career as a furniture designer.

There are so many schools that finding one is not a big problem once you know just what you are looking for.

Anyway, good luck. Your DD sounds terrific!

My advice would be to just take it easy and tread lightly for a year. I've been in your position and thought I could start this discussion sophomore year. That worked with 2 out of my 3 - the one that it didn't work on decided to work for a year after high school. He is the smartest of my 3 with an innate ability to learn complex material and then apply it. But he just wasn't ready to go to college after h.s. and of course I worried that he'd just float along.

A college professor who is a friend of mine gave me the best advice - he said that one of the principal reasons freshman students flunk out or party hearty or simply fail to return sophomore year is because they were not ready..it could be academically or on a more personal level. He stressed that this is a decision they must make and that as a parent I had to learn to step back.

Well I took his advice. My son did attend college after his year of work and then after graduating near the top of his class he decided to work in restaurants again for 2 years. I figured if he made a career out of it at least he had taken some business classes.

Nope - then he decided that he wanted to attend law school. I'm proud and relieved to say that he passed the bar in 3 states last year and is happily employed in a law firm. I think I learned more from him than from all 3 of mine combined.

There's only so much you can do and I'm sure you don't want to pressure your DD. One idea which all 3 of my kids liked was to visit a college where they had friends enrolled. They went on a weekend and were able to stay in the dorm with their friend, attend a game or two, stop by the admissions office and even sit in on a class.

My DD spent a weekend at Penn State her sophomore year, stayed with a friend from her h.s. and came home absolutely positive that she'd never go there. Her comment was why would I go to a school where I had to take a 15 minute shuttle bus to class? It gave her a feel for what type of campus she might like.

Oh it's such an interesting time and I hope you and your DD have fun. Has her h.s. guidance counselor discussed the college selection process year? Does your school have an evening where college representatives come and informally met with students?

Have you considered letting her go to a camp or be involved in a summer program that's related to her interests? I went to an academic camp in my early teens, and I think that it was more useful for me at that age than college visits would have been. A few weeks in an immersive/experiential program might inspire her more than campus tours could. It might also give her more to talk about in her personal statements when application time comes, which could help differentiate her from other applicants.

My niece is 16 and just finishing her junior year in high school. She has changed her career ideas 4 times in the last 2 years with pretty dramatic changes. 1) Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to be a chef 2)Library Science 3)American History and now it's creative writing. My sis/brother in law dragged the poor kid to 3 colleges last summer and my niece was a complete dud on the visits - she simply wasn't ready to care. I was along for one of the visits and she just sat there like a lump...and I couldn't blame her.

I don't think any 13/14 yr old is ready to have to deal with college. She's still a kid. You are ready, but I'd give her at least 1 more year to be just that - a young kid. I'd also let her true interests surface through the natural education process.

I was a kid who was pushed in the direction that my parents wanted me to go in....it was not a pretty sight for our relationship for quite a few years.

Get your daughter into a camp this summer, have her volunteer somewhere. Worry about college later.

It's just too bad we don't do what the Brit's do. Take a year off after high school. I always thought 18 is way too young to decide what one wants to do with the rest of their lives!

My best advice is for her to choose "Undecided" for a major her freshman year, and give her that extra year to focus on a major, and have her take the basic classes that will be needed for all majors.

I'd also advise for her to take pastry classes on the side. lol. You sound like me, mom. :)

Thanks all.... I don't think my original post was as clear as I had intended -let me try again, LOL! DD has amazing passion and drive -I think she'll make a great place for herself in the world someday. And I think truly, she'll probably do fine whereever she goes. But in the same way that my 'foodie' friends expose me to amazing food, I'd love to expose her to what would be (for her) an 'amazing' college.

I'm just trying to expose her to the possibilities at this point. I don't need her to go to a fancy big-name school particularly. And I'm not the least bit concerned about her defining her career path yet. At 15 1/2 she barely knows anything about the world, let alone her place in it. I mentioned her possible interest in design, because I think we ought to consider a school that at least *has* a design program, in case that does end up being a choice for a major. As far as pastry, we're not *really* anti-pastry chef, but are very cautious for two reasons...#1: the few pastry chefs we know are telling her to forget about it -apparently the hours are horrible, you spend a huge chunk of your time lifting 100# bags of stuff, and working in high-stress situations. #2: There don't seem to be any true full-fledged colleges or universities (which would keep her options open) that offer pastry chef programs.

I'm not nervous about her being ready for college -she's much more mature than her older brother at the same age, and he's handling it extremely well. Unfortunately she goes to a very large public high school with over-worked counselors, so they don't get involved in college searches typically.

Although we live in Texas, she would prefer to go out of state, and I fully support that.

I've been to a few places online such as collegeboard, etc., but without more qualifiers, I just keep coming up with huge lists. I'm hoping someone might read this post and think, "Oh she sounds just like my niece or daughter or whatever, who goes to a fabulous school...."

I think this is too early, too, but you know what works for you and your DD best. I second the notion to look for a summer program geared to her interests. My DS went to two summer filmmaking programs that really solidified his idea that he wanted to study that in college. And they were intense programs that also "weeded out" the kids who decided it really wasn't for them.

I also have a DS who is a freshman in HS now, and he has absolutely no idea what sort of college he wants to go to, but I think in another year or two, he will begin to know. I can't imagine what he'd do if I suggested looking at colleges this summer!

I don't know if you've seen the book "Colleges That Change Lives" (I think that's the title) -- I thought it was really helpful for DS#1.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colleges That Change Lives

Well, I'll go out on a limb and say I don't think you're way too early.

- Too early to pick short-list schools based on majors - yeah.

- But *NOT* too early to get a feel for various types of schools, and to narrow down what type of school she might like.

For example, in Texas, we have a few GINORMOUS state colleges, a good number of REALLY BIG colleges, and a few small liberal arts colleges. Some of the colleges here are distinctively religious and conservative; others are artsy and decidedly liberal. Some are commuter schools and others are residential with very strong social identities. Visiting colleges at the extremes of these spectrums could be very helpful in narrowing down the *type* of school she might enjoy and/or hate, which is just as important.

When I went college shopping with my older son, there were schools he fell in love with, schools he sort of liked, and schools he literally ran away screaming from. That initial gut reaction did NOT change much from year to year, though his intended major did.

Some of the questions that were recommended to us and that really did help narrow things down were:

- Is a big athletic tradition important? Would the college experience be incomplete without the whole big 'Football Weekend' thing? Or would she consider that kind of tradition silly? (Apparently, this one issue can cut your search in half.)

- Is there a certain 'feel' or atmosphere she strongly associates with college? (For my son, it was college-gothic architecture, ivy covered stone walls, 4 seasons -- the stereotypical north-eastern ivy-type school. That was important to him, and going to a school that didn't have that feel just wouldn't have felt like 'college' to him.)

- Does she want to go to school with kids who are 'just like her' or kids who come from a variety of different backgrounds? Either way, geography may play a larger role than you think.

- We found a school's size (campus and student body) to be a very important factor. It isn't for everyone, but if it is, you'll know after a few tours. (You could probably go up a size category from her initial preference, as many schools feel a litle overwhelming at first, and it'll 'shrink' once she gains familiarity.)

- Does she want to go to the very most competitive and presitgious school she can get into? Possibly a school where most of the kids are smarter than she is? One where she's about average academically? Or where she can be more confident of shining? Again, if it matters - a real field narrower.

IMO, the choice of *which* college to attend (with the 'best' being defined by FIT, not academic ranking or prestige) is a critically important decision. But fortunately, there is, I think, more than one right answer.

But I've seen a disturbing tendancy among my friends to genericize 'college' as if they were all alike! And no surprise to me, their kids are the ones suffering in misfit schools. I've seen so many of their kids complain that they 'hate college' for reasons that would have been OBVIOUS had they done their research and toured the schools in question early on. Complaints of kids that were "narrow minded and intolerant" at schools with a well-publicized religious slant, kids that "just wanted to party" at well-known party schools, teachers that "didn't know your name or care" at schools with average class sizes in the 100's, classes that "didn't teach you anything!" at schools with low average SATs. Once you know what to look for, those problems would have been so easy to avoid.

Not surprisingly, many of these kids dropped out. They concluded "they just weren't meant for college" and their parents concluded they "just weren't ready."

So here's to a thorough and fruitful college search for your DD --
May she do as well as her older brother did -- ;-)

Have you checked on Johnson and Wales? It is in RI and also has a location in Charlotte, NC. We also have the Art Institute of America here in Charleston, SC. It is located downtown in the tourist district. I think both have full programs and you are virtually guaranteed a job afterwards because of the excellent training.

Here are a couple of great sites that I've kept bookmarked even though my older son is already in a college that he loves. I've kept these sites because they were so useful to us:

For consistent 'checklist' type information, IMO, Petersons.com and Princeton Review can't be beat. You can find basics like school size, SAT/ACT ranges, tuition information, Greek life, student diversity, most popular majors, class sizes, graduation rates, etc. Once you know what you're looking for, you can weed through a vast quantity of schools pretty quickly using those two sites.

I also liked Princeton Review's rankings. Not the 'Most Selective' type information, but rather the social rankings like 'Best Professors' and 'Gay Friendly' -- things that paint a picture of the campus culture. No, they're not perfect. But if there's something that really matters to you - such as environmentalism - you can easily find schools where that's important to them too, or indicators that's it's likely to be.

When you have a school in mind and want the 'real scoop' from the students who go there, StudentsReview.com is absolutely the place. You'll hear from students who LOVE the school and students who HATE it -- and every school has both camps. The useful parts are where the stories converge. The *reasons* why the haters hate the school and the things the gushers gush about. There's also a handy little graph showing what proportion of the students surveys would choose to go there again, and I found that very helpful. Schools where a large proportion of the students wouldn't go there again got crossed off my list.

The following are two nice little 'How to Choose' summaries that you may find helpful.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/08/7506102/how-to-choose-a-college-that-s-right-for-you

http://www.college-scholarships.com/ten_rules_for_selecting_a_college_or_universities.htm

CollegeBoard.com also has a great all-purpose site that would be especially useful in the 'getting started' phase. Some nice articles on what to look for to determine 'fit' and how different factors (size, locale, Greek life, athletics) influence the college experience.

We did not find many of the database-type 'How to Choose' questionaires useful at all. Most either gave equal weight to all of the questions or weighted them using some other formula that didn't really apply to us. After a few tours, it became clear what factors were important to my DS, and many of those weren't on any of the questionaires...

Truly, the best strategy we found was to visit some colleges and just hang around for a few hours in the student union, quad, and library. Definitely take the official guided tour. And even if DD isn't interested in Texas schools, I'd strongly recommend you tour them anyway. They're close, easy to get to, easy to tour. You'll be able to tell whether she likes a big school or a small one, rural, urban or 'college town' environment, conservative or liberal, how (if) the architecture matters to her, what kind of student atmosphere she likes... See how she likes UT Austin's huge liberal urban campus or A&M's huge conservative rural one. How about Rice's tiny urban campus? Trinity? Baylor? SMU? Sam Houston State? Southwestern University (in Georgetown)? You'll be able to knock out a bunch of schools in just a few days and learn a lot about what she does and doesn't like that you can apply to schools in other areas that will be harder to get to.

As far as specifics -- you know Cornell has Hotel and Restaurant Administration (with food/culinary emphasis) as well as a variety of food science majors... And (as my Dad said) whatever else she'll want to transfer into ;-)

sueb20 -yes, actually I love "Colleges That Change Lives". I'm going to give it another look-thru, but my memory is that many/most of the colleges were quite small. I think she'd be happier at a mid-to-large sized school.

Regarding the idea of a summer internship, I think that's a fabulous idea, but she has already committed to a job as a lifeguard this summer -not my idea, but there was no holding her back on getting her first job-. We do have a photography institute in Houston, and we're trying to see if there is something there that would be interesting to her.

Sweeby -wow, thank YOU for the great tips and exhaustive list of sites, etc. I'm definitely going to go spend some time with those....and yes, we'll definitely go to some Texas campuses just to help her understand the whole college world a bit better, to narrow down her likes and dislikes, etc. But most of the Texas schools have a very high percentage of Texas kids, and she'd really like to go somewhere with more of a mix of kids from everywhere. UT would be a great fit for her in many ways, but again, too many Texas kids. A&M is too rural and too conservative. As for Rice, my independent girl wouldn't even CONSIDER going to school that close to home, LOL! Totally agree with you btw on parents who just look for a 'name' or 'great school' without much consideration of their own child's needs. As I mentioned, she is very different from her brother, and I'm trying to really acknowledge what makes her special, and help her pick a school that will be great for her. One of the sticking points is that, as I mentioned, she is a straight-A student, butttttt she works really, really hard for those grades, and does not identify or hang out with the truly brainy types in the class. For that reason, she needs a school that pulls from a wide array of students, not just those with great grades.

Jeane -you know, I did look at Johnson and Wales, and got very excited at first, primarily because they had a campus in Charlotte, NC, which I've heard is a fabulous city. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized it didn't quite fit the bill. Primarily because it doesn't have any kind of design degree programs, and I really think that is a strong probability at this point. Another reason is that the campus is just too small. Her high school is nearly that big, and she has somewhat outgrown that already.

Okay, off to check out some of Sweeby's sites...

Just a little note to add that if she does want to become a pastry chef, the cia has associate degrees in that and she could get a bachelors there as well and add grad school somewhere else.

To rule it out because of a few disgruntled pastry chefs is wrong, imo. It all depends of course, what she really wants to do and if that's a leaning an internship at a fine restaurant would be a good exposure.

At some point, as you well know, it will help her to focus but try to remember it's still really early.

Just a thought here -- my daughter is a senior in HS, graduating soon. Last Fall, she narrowed her colleges down to several small liberal arts colleges. She was SURE she wanted a small LAC. We had visited several, she loved them, it was what she wanted. Well...we made her apply to our in-state universities which are very big as safeties. Can you guess what happened? Over the course of her senior year she went to revisit the small liberal arts colleges. There were events for admitted students and so forth and she realized the schools she loved early in her freshman year all seemed TOO SMALL by the end of this year! She matured alot in this year, got a better handle on her likes/dislikes, and realized that with her interest in science a big uni offered many more research opportunities. I was sick about it, had she known earlier she could have had so many more options. She will end up either at Penn State or Univ. of Pittsburgh, now. Anyway, I just am throwing this out so you know that not only do their ideas change in the years preceding their applications...they also change dramatically from the beginning to the end of Sr. year! Make sure she applies to several types of schools so when the final decision has to be made, she has some big, some small, some urban, some rural, etc. and has all her bases covered.

OK - so UT with fewer Texas kids. What about UNC? Virginia Tech? UVA? Some of the UC's? University of Wisconsin or Illinois might also be good. Or Penn State? BU or Boston College? There's Colorado, but perhaps a little too close... She might also want to check out the Clareont Colleges in So. Cal. -- whole group, so lots to choose from.

I'm firmly with the group that says this is tooooo early!!! Way too much pressure for a 15 yo kid - let's hope she's going to do a lot of growing and changing and refining in the next couple years, and after all that she may also want to change colleges after a year or two.

All six of our kids chose their own colleges, and I honestly have no idea why they chose the schools they did. We talked about their choices a lot, took many campus tours, actively participated (we are very hands-on parents), but they chose their own schools. Only one of the six had any idea what he was going to major in until time to declare, and that one had decided his major in 5th grade!

I hope you don't get too worried too soon about this. If your daughter wants it to happen, it will.

I agree that it is too early. Wanting to expose her to the possibilities isn't all that important yet. Really. talk to the HS college counselor if you want, but too much of the "we don't like that" and "not my choice" sort of thing could quickly backfire. Even if you don't say it out loud, the message will come through one way or another.

Love the idea of CIA (Culinary Institute of America). Great place if she ends up still wanting to be a pastry chef. In addition, that is rather a specialty that would come after lots of basic training.

At her age, it is hard to let go of the little girl image we parents have, but believe me, she will find her passion and be able to accomplish it no matter what if it is something she loves (design, cooking, working with kids after discovering the fun through being a lifeguard for a summer). I am with all the others who advise you to relax a bit and let her enjoy high school. It passes way too quickly and if you micromanage her to focus too soon on what comes after, she may not enjoy it as much. Chances are you won't enjoy it either!

My husband is a chef, and the best possible training for her would be a business degree. There's lots of people who want to open their own little cupcake shop but have no idea about the business aspects of doing so, which is why so many restaurants fail.
Food science, however, is a career choice that can take someone in a lot of different directions. Same with product design, which I think is a fascinating field. There's lots of cool jobs that are sort of hidden from public consciousness--working as a sourcer or broker for food manufacturers, etc.

Freshman year is a bit early, but thinking and learning about what happens after college isn't a bad idea.

Funny how no one discourages their child from becoming a doctor despite the long hours and physical nature of the job, lol.

Amen to that!

I have to run, but I'll be back to read this more thoroughly. I have a daughter in her Junior year, too. We had our first meeting with her college adviser today. It's going to be quite a year...

One thing I will say is that when I was a high school senior and began my visits to colleges, I wished someone had taken me around to see some amazing places much earlier. I felt I might have worked harder with a concrete goal rather than just an abstract idea about what "college" was.

We visited Culinary Institute of America last fall, while we were on a trip to visit our son who is in college in upstate NY. It's a beautiful school and we had an amazing lunch! They took us on a fabulous tour. DD said on the drive back though, that "I guess I really want a real college, not just a culinary school." That's what I love about visits. Decisions and criteria so often solve themselves when you take it from the abstract to the concrete.

Just to put people's minds at ease a bit..... I'm not the least bit *nervous* about this, nor am I wistful about her growing up and away. She has been the most independent girl you can imagine since infancy (wouldn't let me feed her with a spoon after six months, etc.) I'm an independent sort too, so I get it, in fact I LOVE this about her. And I'm not looking in any way for her to nail down a choice yet -my word, now THAT I'd be nervous about. I'm just trying to start the hunt a bit... figure out what's out there that she might like to look at. I always think of summers as a time to stretch your mind and body, enrich your soul in a way that school doesn't allow for. Visiting other cities, throwing in a few school tours seems to fit right into that for me. So I guess we will just have to disagree on whether or not it is too early... ideefixe -one of our thoughts was that we could show her schools that have entrepeneurship degrees -there are not a ton of them, but there are a few, exactly for the reason your husband described..if she wants to open a cupcake shop or something, it would be great to have some understanding of the business side of things.

amysrq -you actually echo exactly what I read somewhere years ago, when helping expose our son to schools.... by taking it from the abstract to the concrete, a lot of kids suddenly get it, and get serious about preparing for the school they really want to get in to. In DD's case, it's a moot point because she is a crazy hard worker, LOL.

I just can't see how it is ever too early to expose your kids to stuff, with no pressure. But in thinking about it, I realize I may have been swimming against the tide all along in this case. We always fed our kids all kinds of foods, again without pressure, rather than 'kid foods', and we've tried to expose them to lots of places. They are yours for just a little while... it seems like one of the most important things I can do.

"I have a daughter in her Junior year, too. We had our first meeting with her college adviser today."

Her *FIRST* meeting with her college advisor in the spring of her Junior year?! That's *so* much less helpful than it could have been... All she can do now is select a few schools, apply, and cross her fingers -- hoping that whatever preparation it is she has done is what these schools want and look for. But had this meeting happened sooner, she could have done so much more...

For example, my undergraduate degree program *really, really* values high school work experience in the field. Had I know this information in time, I could have taken a summer job in the field, or volunteered or something, greatly increasing my chances... (I found out later I was one of only 2 students admitted my year without it.)

Another example - My friend advised her daughter to stay in 'regular' courses so her grade point average wouldn't suffer. It wasn't until her senior year meeting with the college counselor that she learned that a 'B' in an honors course counts the same as an 'A' in a 'regular' class GPA-wise and is greatly preferred by most colleges. Knowing that earlier would have made a big difference in her daughter's education. (She's going to junior college next year because the colleges of her choice didn't accept her.) And what's worse, since she's staying in-state, had she taken those AP classes, she could already have most of her freshman year done and paid for...

Older DS's high school (public) is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to supporting their kids' college opportunities. Younger DS is finishing 8th grade now, and the high school already had their first college-prep parent meeting for the parents of the current 8th graders. The topic? What classes the kids should sign up for as future freshmen to get them on the right tracks for their intended futures. (MIT-bound? Geometry as a 9th grader or summer after 9th so they get through calculus. UT? Algebra is fine. Foreign language requirements - 2 years? Or should they go for 3, 4, or 5? Which types of schools care. AP and dual-credit classes. IB preparation.)

They hold grade-level college-prep parent meetings twice per year, every year - spring and fall, and if I recall, a few more Junior year. There's a college fair *every* year, and all grades (and parents) are encouraged to attend. 100's of college recruiters come to campus regularly, and both junior and seniors can be excused from class to meet with recruiters and attend presentations. Seniors get 2 designated excused absence days for college visits.

Too much pressure? Maybe. But their kids get into good colleges and succeed once they get there...

I've been through this with both of our daughters; the younger one is about to graduate college in less than two weeks; she attended an out of state university. My older daughter attended a private university in Texas, different people with different interests and very different schools.

Our girls have traveled and we tried our best to expose them to many different ways of life, different people, and different ideas, as much as possible. We encouraged them to be very independent and to make their own decisions, and to be prepared to own consequences of their decisions.

Neither girl was absolutely sure about what they wanted to do before their Senior High School year, and that has indeed changed.

My older daughter is now working full time and attending grad school in an entirely different arena than her majors and the daughter about to graduate changed her major after the first semester.

My point is, very few people know exactly what they want to do by the time they go off to college, and some go through years of education and change their minds.

We took a "tour" the spring of their Junior years after they had done research and decided what colleges they were interested in.

We entirely stayed out of their process; I took them to the bookstore, they selected the information they would read, they did the research, and discussed it with us and told us which colleges they were likely to want to attend and we visited them. They both filled out the applications, wrote their own essays, submitted them--without any input from us or prompters about dates they were due.

They did ask our opinions when it came down to making a decision and we discussed finances, but from day one the process was in their hands as to determining for themselves "what is out there" as far as opportunities without any prompting from us. I think they made better decisions because of that.

Sweeby, I know it seems late. But, my kid goes to a school where the students are so crazed about college, the unspoken truth is that you're not welcome in the college advising office as a freshman or sophomore. Most of her peers have been groomed for prestigious colleges since their early years. It is kind of crazy and the official position at the school is that their students should enjoy High School and get the most out of it they can....not just focus solely on what colleges want. It is not the norm, I know.

The college advisors have only a couple dozen advisees and the kids get a huge amount of support and attention. Juniors are not assigned until the seniors are launched in January. My daughter has been meeting with her advisor since February and we've had informal conversations and attended meetings for the past few years.

Regarding the pressure others have mentioned about starting too soon, I want to point out that when you visit early on, there is actually less pressure. No interviews, no impending decisions, no worries. My daughter tagged along with an older friend to see some NYC schools during her sophomore year and she had a great time. Last summer, the application process was still remote enough that our college visits felt somewhat like a mini-vacation. I think that the visits next Fall will be laced with far more stress. Getting a feel for campuses before the gravity builds may be a better way to be clear about what one wants.

We also live in Texas, our two boys go to Texas and A&M, but our daughter (who is a senior in hs) did not want that at all. She wanted a much smaller school. Here are the schools we looked at with her:

Austin College Sherman, TX (DH's and my alma mater)
Southwestern Univ. Georgetown, TX
Trinity Univ. San Antonio
TCU Ft. Worth
Eckerd College St. Petersburg, FL
Rice Houston
Hendrix Conaway, AR
Colorado College Colorado Springs, CO
Rhodes College Memphis, TN

She applied to six of them, and was accepted by all. She will be going to Rhodes this fall.

I recommend that you let her look at several schools that fit her interests. She will know the right one when she experiences it. Good luck!

We've been through this with 2 sons and a daughter. We completely left it up to each of them to decide which schools provided the academic area they wished to pursue. We had very little involvement in their selection process since this is their beginning step of making choices that affect their adult life. We didn't do the college visits until the summer between their junior/senior year and during their senior year. They gave us the list of their choices and we planned accordingly.

We live in Nebraska and oldest son started at Rose Hulman in Indiana but ended up transferring back to a program at the Univ of Nebr with a full ride. His ACT scores weren't high enough initially to get into the program. He ultimately got his masters at Harvard. First lesson is that ACT scores don't mean everything; it's a combination of academics, activities, application and proving themselves.

Daughter had a unique selection process. She knew she wanted to be a long way from home but her father said she couldn't have a car if it was longer than one days driving distance. Her car was pretty important to her. So she took a compass and drew a 600 mile radius, then eliminated North & South Dakotas since she wanted more populated areas and wanted to live near a larger city. She wanted a small school with an English department and a Law school in case she chose to go on. We're Lutheran and that was a consideration for her at the time. She ultimately attended Valparaiso Univ, also in Indiana and then went on to Law schools, starting in Columbus, OH and then transferring to the Univ. of Chicago. Another lesson is to let them dream big. We live in a town of less than 500 and high school class sizes were less than 20. We didn't push, they challenged themselves.

Youngest son chose to stay in Nebraska as it has the program in agriculture he wants.

Lessons learned: let them choose so it's their decision. Visit the school and drive around the area. At one school, just a few blocks from campus a drunk sitting at the bus stop was a deal-breaker for our daughter.

Another time it was the weather - one school it was 7 below and the wind blowing as we walked around campus (no fun). When we visited the next contending school a few weeks later it was 70 and beautiful.

Have her talk to people who have been in the program. Our son considered attending out of state where his cousin attended, but son knew he would ultimately be working in Nebraska. His cousin then suggested staying in Nebraska because he would have the contacts and networking in place that would benefit him down the road. This message had more credibility from his cousin than it would have from us as a parent.

Lots of things to consider. But ultimately, they have to be the ones to decide.

hilltop - You added an interesting point at the end of your post that many people don't think about. We live in the South. My daughter was interested in some small, expensive Northeastern liberal arts colleges. Not ivy's but still around 50k per year. I did ask her to consider that if she intends to live in the South that most people will not have heard of the schools and it may not help her in her job search.

She decided that it was important to her that she went to a school that people "knew", so she choose an honors program at an SEC school. As an added bonus, college will be much less expensive. We can pay for all her undergrad without loans and we will be able to help her with grad school.

First, judithn---I fully support the Penn State idea. Totally. Absolutely the best place on Earth. Have another opinion about Pitt, but that is because I went to PSU and currently have 2 kids there.

bestyears, my ds is at SCAD right now in Savannah. He will be transferring after his Freshman year. Rather than getting into too many details, let's just say that it was a bit too urban for him. So my advice to a student who is sure they want that urban school, really really read what other students are saying about that experience. If you are at a college that doesn't have a campus, but rather is just spread out across a city in various buildings that are being renovated, your college experience may not be exactly what you hoped for. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them if you send me an email.

Freshman year isn't too early to start looking. My kids were always tagging along with other siblings on college trips, so we really were killing more than one bird with those stones. College trips were always so much fun.

We saw SCAD a few years ago, when we were visiting Savannah -love that city! We didn't tour the school, just saw the outside of it. But because design is just a 'maybe' we really feel she needs to be at a school with other options. I understand what you mean about the urban feel though. My son really liked Columbia, and thought he'd end up there, but then when he got to Cornell, he really, really loved the more traditional campus feel of it over the urban feel of Columbia. Sometimes you don't know that till you live it though.

So Penn State has definitely peaked my interest. Funnily enough, our neighbor's daughter is heading there in the fall. I checked the website, but found it a bit confusing to the uninitiated. Where is the main campus? Any other clarifications on the various campuses?

best years - the main campus of Penn State is in a town called State College, PA. also nicknamed Happy Valley. It's about 90 miles North of Harrisburg, PA and it's in the middle of nowhere. But Penn State is huge so you have no idea that you're in the middle of the nowhere. Oh - you must watch out for the Amish and their horse drawn buggies because there are many Amish farms in the area. Penn State has the best ice cream. They make it right on campus and it has a higher fat content and is so creamy.

There are quite a few branch campuses - at least 15 the last time I looked. It's definitely harder to get accepted into the main campus. Many students are disappointed to find out that they were accepted to a satellite campus. But they can transfer to the main campus later.

All 3 of my kids applied there and were accepted to the main campus but none of them went. One went to Columbia, one went to Vermont and one went to a selective liberal arts university not too far from Penn State. I think since it's in almost in our backyard and so many of their classmates went there that they wanted something different.

amysrq - my DH is a oncologist and he discouraged our kids from entering the field. Actually it wasn't that hard because they saw his long hours, the phone calls during the night, how many times he missed their games and school activities and frankly none of them wanted to work that hard. Unfortunately medicine has changed so drastically that he's now planning to retire several years earlier that he originally intended.

Funny Bee - Penn State is one of the schools that sent my son running away screaming ;-) Really. The other one was Hampshire. Both excellent schools, but NOT right for him ;-)

This is why I think visiting is SO important --

Hi Bestyears--I'd like to echo some of the suggestions Sweeby had. When you go on these "early" visits, look at general types of schools instead of focusing on schools that have specific programs of interest. I've been a college chemistry professor for 22 years, and I've had TONS of students who swore they wanted to go to med school end up as award winning art majors instead, so go figure. Besides, unless you go to a very small school, most colleges have a broad array of choices, and it is not necessary to major in a particular field to get a job in that field, or even to go to grad school in that. We've had communication majors go to med school and biochem majors go to law school! So at this stage it's too early to be thinking program.

When you do go visit a school, approach it as a fun thing to do, just to go see one for curiosity--no pressure. Sometimes it's more fun just to explore and not take a tour, so take your cue from her and see what she enjoys most when visiting.

I want to second the idea of going on College Confidential and going to the parents forum. There is a ton of information on that site. I also like the book Colleges that Change Lives. My daughter did attend a small LAC and I can tell you it did not limit her future at all. That small school (yes, it was in the book) had ties to a medical program, a law program as well as great professor/student interaction. My other daughter went to a large state school. I wish she had done the smaller school and gotten a more personalize education.

Thank you all so much.

One thing you've made me realize is that although in my eyes, these early visits are meant to be just exploratory, fun in the way you would explore a new city -perhaps I haven't expressed that well to dd. Maybe that's why she thinks she 'has plenty of time....' So I'm going to have a talk with her.

marie-cate, thanks for the info on the PennState campuses!

kristine-thank you for your input too. Especially good to hear from someone 'on the other side' of the college equation, LOL. I always say I'd much rather see an 'undeclared' freshman, than a 16 year old who is 100% certain they want to be an accountant. But because she has always been drawn to design (as a 3 year old, she would ask me 'where do you get those shorts?" when she saw them on a passerby, etc.) I would be nervous about sending her somewhere without a design program. I've been somewhat surprised at the number of schools that don't offer it. I thought nearly all would....

prairie -yes, love CollegeConfidential! And the input on small vs. larger is interesting. We definitely need to include both sizes in our visits I guess.

I want to second barb's rec. of Brown/RISD. GREAT combination, IMO. Definitely worth exploring.

It's interesting to see how kids develop and their interests change.

In 4th grade we had to write an autobiography. My Mom saved it. I wrote that I was going to be a librarian. Guess what - that's exactly what I did and I loved my profession.

One of my kids changed his major before classes started his freshman year and then switched back his sophomore year. My DD planned on majoring in physics and astronomy. Then she took a film class and changed everything.

While you're researching colleges take a look at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Their campus abuts the University of Pennsylvania and it's an interesting school. They have all the usual majors plus design, fashion, film etc.

Their Culinary Arts program is a unique since it combines the culinary arts with a business minor. Drexel also offers a co-op program so you can actually work in your chosen field and gain real experience.

I don't know anyone who took that major but I do know lots of students who have gone to Drexel. It's worth a look.

marie cate, thank you SO much. Thanks to you, Drexel is the very first university that we know of which offers culinary, design AND other options. I am definitely going to show this one to dd and see what she thinks.

Thank you a TON!

Bestyears - You are so welcome. I must confess that I am thankful that I'm finally out of the college search process. All 3 of mine have finished college, one added an MBA, one went to law school and the third went Ivy League and is now an apprentice in stage production in Philly. If your DD ends up there I'm only about 20 minutes away - I'll met you in Center City for lunch!

I've always liked Drexel although none of mine went there. My kids drew a circle around Philly and then looked for schools outside that area. Part of that is because their high school was fairly small - they had about 150 in their graduating classes and they wanted a broader life experience. But many of their classmates did graduate from Drexel and most of them enrolled in the co-op program.

And for trips back to Texas - it's an easy commute to the airport. My brother lives in Houston and he used to fly up to visit our parents often. Even though I grew up on the other side of Penna. after living here for 30 years I've become an unabashed supporter of Philly. It's just so darned convenient. The Jersey shore is 60 miles away, New York City is 90 and there are several ski areas within a 2 hour drive. When my DD was at Columbia I'd hop the train and in 90 minutes I'd be in Manhattan and we'd met up for a day of shopping or a Broadway matinee or just lunch.

I'm not sure where you are in Texas but we do get snow here!

I'm joining the conversation really late, but I want to second the idea of college summer camps. I attended two, and they had a huge effect on me. One was in archeology and one was on writing, both at different schools (one a state school, and one a private school). I learned a lot about what college was going to be like, and how different (or not) state and private schools feel. On my advice, my young cousin also attended summer camp at a college, and ended up doing his degree there several years later. It really helped him know what he wanted to do.

Bestyears- Today's Philadelphia Inquirer has a huge article on possible funding cuts to Penn State. Gov. Corbett wants to cut state appropriations to higher education in PA in half

The article though also gives an overview of the school itself- the main campus at University Park has almost 45,000 students with an additional 51,000 at 23 other sites. They employ 47,000 faculty and staff.

I know you're still in the early stages but you might be interested in reading the article.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penn State

Thanks maire cate!

Talk, talk, talk! In todays day and age, I don't believe it's ever too early to gear kids up for *their* future. ;o)

Just wanted to post here that I emailed Amy Butler -she's a designer who mostly does textiles, but I think she's branching out a bit. We have long loved her fabrics and sewn with them frequently. I read a profile about her somewhere and she sounded so similar to DD as a child. So I emailed her and asked for suggestions. She emailed back -I was so impressed! She gave me the names of some design schools, the best of which (in her opinion) I hadn't even heard of -Fashion Institute and Technology, NYC -I'm rushing to get out the door, I may have the name a bit off... Anyway, I looked at it, and it looks like a GREAT place, if by that time, DD feels truly driven toward a design career. I also forgot to mention that she is taking an Architecture & Design course in HS next fall, which may help her make a decision as well.

FIT is excellent! It's now part of SUNY (State University of NY) and I know several graduates. My interior designer and her daughters are graduates. One does consulting for corporations and the other is a fashion consultant for Bloomingdale's.

While you're looking at schools in Philadelphia, take a look at Philadelphia University. It used to be called Philadelphia College of Textile & Design, but now has Architecture, Fashion Design, Interior Design and Business. My daughter went there and had a wonderful experience. It's a small school with a beautiful campus near Manayunk.

maire -ahh, somehow I missed that it was part of SUNY now, thanks!

kitchenwitch, that's an interesting looking school -I think it is called Philadelphia Univ. now? AND it has a Div. II volleyball program -she says she doesn't want to play in college, but you never know....

Thank you!