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- As a professor, I know how students should determine what colleges to apply to.
- Students should ignore most traditional advice and avoid focusing on the campus tour they took.
- Instead, they should look at data to find colleges investing in students' futures and education.
Over the next couple of weeks, your college-bound kid will join millions of others applying to begin college next fall. The college search has become increasingly stressful as the competition for admission has intensified. As a result, students are applying to more and more colleges.
However, most students and their parents look at the wrong factors when deciding where to apply to college. Having spent 40 years as a college professor and academic advisor, I know what really matters when it comes to the quality of a college education. Here's how to help your teen make a solid decision.
Ignore the traditional guidance
Quit obsessing about getting your child into the most prestigious and highest-ranking schools, which are also the most selective. Gaining admission to an Ivy or other top-tier school may give them bragging rights, but it doesn't guarantee they'll be exposed to outstanding undergraduate teachers. Remember, lots of very successful people went to colleges you've likely never heard of.
You should also resist the allure of all those glitzy marketing brochures and slick online videos. Like all advertising, they offer idealized images of the school — not an objective assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. Take it all with a generous helping of salt.
Avoid making a decision based on random impressions or experiences: the charming college campus tour guide, the class you visited where students seemed disengaged, the family friend who talks up their college. A single class session isn't necessarily representative of a whole course, much less the entire college. The same is true for other individual encounters.
Likewise, avoid being swayed by the posh dorms, the beautifully appointed recreation facilities, or the quality of the food in the campus dining halls. These aren't what you're paying all that tuition for, and they won't help your student get a good job after they graduate.
Your kid also shouldn't choose based on their intended major unless they're absolutely certain about their career path. It's common for students to change their major — often more than once. And many people end up in careers largely unrelated to their major.
Instead, focus on the data
To learn about a college, ask the admissions office for its results from the National Survey of Student Engagement. This extensive survey, given each year to about 250,000 students at hundreds of schools, covers students' educational, social, and personal experiences. It's the most reliable measure of what your child will encounter at that school.
Ask, too, for the results of alumni surveys to learn what former students valued — and didn't — about their school. Check the four-year and six-year graduation rates. Compare those rates among schools with similar entering classes, as measured by their average SAT scores and high-school GPAs.
Academic advising is key to student success. Inquire about how advisors are assigned to incoming students, the ratio of advisors to advisees, whether students are required to meet with advisors, and how advisors are trained and supported.
You should be looking for schools with a demonstrated commitment to effective undergraduate teaching. From there, your kid can choose a school that supports students and keeps them on track to earn their degree.
Narrow down the list by looking for colleges with unique learning experiences
I've noticed that certain education experiences supercharge student learning.
Some colleges offer a living-learning community in which students take courses and live together. Others offer service-learning courses that let students apply their classroom learning to real-world problems; study-abroad programs; research opportunities with faculty; and senior capstone projects.
Determine whether the colleges your kid is considering offer these opportunities and apply to those that do, because they're investing in your child's future.
Choosing a college is momentous. Distinguishing among the nearly endless options can be maddeningly difficult, but knowing what to ignore and what to look out for can ease the burden and narrow the direction. In doing so, you and your student can make a well-informed choice.
Louis Newman is the author of "Thinking Critically in College: The Essential Handbook for Student Success" and works as a College Success Coach.