College Search Process Take 2

The College Search Process………Again.

You can see my post here on how the college search for number one went. I will not repeat some of that information.

All I can say is each child is truly going to be unique. As if I didn’t already know…..

College search process for child number two.

I am organized and like to have things lined up. I like to know what is going on and where we are headed. I know God laughs at me about that a lot!  (Although God does indeed use organization!)

For this child God let me know that I needed to let some things go! 

First things first {aka priorities}: This child wants to play football in college. When asked the deciding factor for college he would say, “football”.  As parents, my husband and I were thinking, “Ok that’s great and we support that, BUT you ARE going to college to get an education!”.  

When we started he was unsure on a major. But we decided to make a spreadsheet of all colleges that had football that were in our state and nearby states. Class size mattered to this child, so that went on the spreadsheet.  (He didn’t want to attend a college smallerthan his high school. Can’t say I blame him.) 

We then listed some potential majors and if they had them.  At the beginning this included physical education teacher, exercise science, sports management, and biology. We did include some schools that didn’t have any majors he was interested in. For this child it was important for all of us to see all options. 

We also included the football team’s record. This was important to my son and therefore, needed to go on the list. 

It does take some planning for our family for college visits.  This often includes coordinating the school schedule (as to miss the least amount of class time) as well as my schedule, my husbands, and the other children’s. Logistics. It’s what I should have gotten a degree in. 

First college visit: Unfortunately I “missed the boat” on this one. Lesson number one learned: Never visit a college near a break.  Such as spring break, fall break, Easter break, etc.  We planned this to coincide with some time off school.  However, campus was rather empty.  

We arrived at the school and didn’t know where to go.  Lesson number two, don't hesitate to ask for direction.  Especially if it’s the college president!  Yes, this happened. I asked some rather dignified looking individuals where the admissions office was.  The president was more than happy to escort us to admissions. Along with the county commissioner he was meeting with.  (We did have a chance for photos and it was a unique experience to say the least!)

We met with an admissions counselor who was impressed we were taking care of visits during JUNIOR year. Again, I highly recommend this!  Spring is an ideal time! We had a good visit and then did a campus tour. This is when took our (empty) campus tour. We met with the head of the exercise science department. Unfortunately, they were going through some major recertifications. We didn’t feel comfortable with the strength of the program.  We also met with an assistant football coach (who we had lunch with in the dining hall). Kudos to the coach who took my son on a tour of the athletic facilities.  After our visit we drove to the football stadium. Again this is important to this child.  

Second college visit(to another college): In order to be efficient, I tried to do two schools in one weekend.  I’m not sure how efficient it was, but it worked out. Again, this all comes down to the family schedule! College #2 was hosting a open house and strongly recommended we come on that day. (This was on a Friday and I had hoped to go on Saturday, but compromised to keep admissions happy.)

As a side note: I’m not a fan of the open house type days. I feel that you don’t get a “personalized” experience. I completely understand why colleges do them. I get it. But as a parent it is much for individualized if you go on a different day.  

For this college, we asked for an overnight visit and were granted one!  I took my son to the college and dropped him off on Thursday night. Off to the hotel for me. Sadly, they put an athletic, football loving potential exercise science major with someone with totally opposite interests.  Unfortunately this didn’t help with college impressions.  But my son survived and learned a little more about the college. 

The next day was the open house. I arrived at the college to meet my son and be treated to breakfast. Prior to this I had called the college several times to begfor a meeting with the football coach.

What I was {not so patiently} learning is that football is completely different than track and field/cross country.  Football coaches don’t start recruiting until AFTER a player’s SENIOR year. Or most don’t. So the coaches were still focused on the class before my son’s.  This didn’t sit well with my patience factor.  

We sat down to eat our breakfast and as we were taking to those who were representatives from the college we realized one individual was the head football coach’s wife. You can’t make this stuff up! We asked about a meeting and she tried to have either her husband or an assistant coach meet us for lunch. 

We had the usual tour, and the college information session.  

We came back to eat lunch and sat down with the football coach.  (While I kept in eye on the clock knowing we had to leave there at a certain time!). This was helpful and I think my son knew right away that this wasn’t the college for him. 

Once it was time to go we “flew” out the door onto the next college.

I remember navigating the roads to there as quickly as possible and telling my son to record pros and cons from the visit so he wouldn't get the college we had just left and the once we were going to mixed up!

We arrived at College Visit #3 just in time! Literally!

College Visit #3: Our first appointment was with a professor from the exercise science department.  He filled us in on the academic department.  We mentioned college #1 he said that they had contacted him about their recertifications.  File that away: this college is the leader and helping the other college with their program.  We also learned that my son could major in exercise science and minor in sports management or VICE VERSA. That was a win.  

This visit was unique in that we met with the head football coach. All prior visits had been with assistants.  We had a good visit with the football coach and then were given a campus tour with an assistant football coach.  He took us all over campus which was helpful. 

We managed to run to admissions to get meal tickets for supper. Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet with admissions (this is unique as for most visits, you usually meet with admissions).  We also missed the perk of a coupon for the bookstore. Our timeline was tight, it was a Friday and admissions closed at 4.  

We met up with a friend who showed us his dorm room, and had dinner in the dining hall.  

College visit number 4: The nice thing about this college visit was the lovely drive and visiting an area that I had never been to before. That is about it. Other than that it was pretty much a bust! 

Lesson number 3: Check out the average SAT (or ACT) score of the school you are going to visit.  

We arrived at this school full of anticipation. We were taken into a classroom where a large group of perspective students and their families awaited.  Once the representative started talking about the school and shared the average SAT score I knew it was time to leave. Not that my son couldn't do well there, but I wasn’t sure it was the best fit for my son!  But…we hung in there. {Note: this can go either way. The average SAT score can be too high for the student or too low.}

We did a campus tour in small groups.  We had to buy our own lunch as this was a state run university.  (No complimentary lunch!)  We visited the campus bookstore.  We then met with the football coach.

This was perhaps the most perplexing meeting for me. My son plays offensive line. We sat down with the defensive line coach. The coach NEVER once asked my son about himself. Instead he talked about the program and asked if my son had any questions.

My son and I were both thinking, “How soon can we get out of here?” 

Granted, it’s not all about my son. BUT…you could ask, “what do you want to major in? Why do  you want to be here? What position do you play?” Anything. Just something to show you have some interest in getting to know a potential player.  

We enjoyed the nice drive home and marked college number 4 off the list.

College visit number 5: This was a small college and we had a nice reception at admissions. Kudos to the admissions counselor who arranged 3 students from the exercise science department to come speak with my son. (By this time he had settled on exercise science.)  She couldn't arrange sitting in on a class so this worked out well instead.  It was fascinating to hear the stories of these students and learn from their experiences.  In fact, this college was well connected with internships (think NFL teams, etc.).  However, I had not yet learned lesson number 3 prior to scheduling this visit.  

We did the usual campus tour and had lunch in the dining hall.  

We also met with an assistant football coach. This program had a winning record and was highly regarded.  After our meeting the coach took us to meet with the head coach. It was rather interesting as the head coach also served as the athletic director. His facilities were rather lacking.  We watched a video for recruits and talked with the coach a little bit. Again, he was mainly focused on the class that was getting ready to graduate and not my son’s class.  We then went to see the football stadium.  Again the facilities were lacking. Yet, we were perplexed as this was a highly regarded program.  

This college was very well connected with internships, had a winning football program, but yet my son wasn’t sure he saw himself there. 

College visit number #3 Take 2.  We decided to head back to college 3 at the invitation of the football coach. This was great because we could see a game and my husband was able to go along. It was also homecoming for the college.

This allowed for WAY more people to be on campus, and attendance at the football game was more than usual, however the coach wasn’t able to spend as much time with my son due to the homecoming game.  So it had ups and downs.

We went on another campus tour (for the sake of my husband) with other recruits.  This was beneficial as our tour guide was an injured football player. My son was able to see what it would be like if he couldn’t play.  

At one point we shared with a friend that we challenged our son to think “What if you couldn’t play football college ? Could you still see yourself there?” Our friend said, “I wish my parents would have asked me that!”  

College visit number #3 Take 3

This college prefers an interview as part of the admissions process.  At this point football season had ended for my son and we had one week before his winter sport season started. (Again….logistics!) So we squeezed in another visit.  

In addition we had started to work on applications. (Look for another post on this!) 

We went for an interview. My son did ask to stay in the dorm, but college rules for football players did not allow that if the college football players were in season. Understandable.  It was at this time I learned that the deadline was the NEXT day for some competitive scholarships the school offers.  (See upcoming post)

We met with financial aid and did get to eat in the dining hall.  My son was also able to sit in on a class. Although class location was changed and he didn’t know it so he waslate to class! The professor, who was the new exercise department chair, did spend some time with him afterwards discussing the program.  This was appreciated.

We did get our bookstore discount coupons so we were able to use them!

We stayed an extra day to catch another football game.  

Incidentally for this trip I had my son drive both ways. I learned this tip from my father-in-law. If the child wants to go to this college, then he should be willing to make the drive back and forth! Better to do it in the car with me the first time than by himself!

We will again be visiting college #3 as my son was invited to a President’s reception. We decided that it was a good opportunity and not one to pass on.