Tween/Teen Times
College Search Advice for Parents
By Julie Pfitzinger

By the time you read this, I will have successfully sent my oldest child to college in a city that is four hours away.  Successful for him because hopefully by now he has figured out how to balance his academic and athletic lives with his all-important social life. (important to him, of course). Successful for me because hopefully by now I have stopped crying.

Now, the funny thing is that friends who have high school sophomores and juniors have started to see me as something of an expert since I have been through the college process—and believe me, it’s a process.  A friend cornered me in the aisle at the grocery store to ask when I thought her son should take his ACT exam and how many times he should take it.  Another asked about college visits for her high school junior and when I thought the best time was for their family to schedule them- she was concerned they should have spent the summer before junior year touring schools.

Bearing in mind that I am no expert (fortunately, there are plenty of books and websites filled with great information and some of the best belong to the colleges themselves), I can offer a little “on the ground” insight into tests and college visits, as well as a few thoughts about how the college search experience is quite different if your child is an athlete. That’s a topic that was particularly difficult for us to wrap our heads around.

SAT and ACT Exams

Test early, test often. Well, that’s not exactly true, but I can’t name one of my son’s contemporaries who only took an exam once. As you’ve probably learned by now in your own research, the SAT is really only necessary for schools on either coast. It consists of the primary SAT exam, needed for admissions, placement, etc., as well as individual subject tests in topics like language, history, English and mathematics.

Although the test itself has changed, the scoring remains the same – still in the 200-800 range. Here’s an interesting fact: one of my son’s classmates received a perfect score on his SAT and was rewarded for that achievement by being required to take it again to prove that he did not cheat. There are so many kids nowadays who get perfect scores and so many ways for them to figure out “the system” that a re-test is mandatory.  Guess what? He got another perfect score.

The ACT is commonly used for admission to Midwest schools. This test involves four sections: English (75 questions), Math (60 questions), Reading (40 questions) and Science (40 questions). Like the SAT, the ACT is a timed exam. Both are offered several times during the year. The advice I would pass along is this: the ACT has an optional writing test not required by all schools, but it is needed if your child is applying to the University of Minnesota, among others. Since writing isn’t my son’s strong suit, he didn’t take the test initially, but ended up having to take the ACT a third time, when he decided to apply to the U. Have your junior take the writing portion right off the bat.

Campus Visits

One of the tour guides at a school we visited told us that statistics show the weather on the day of a campus tour and the tour guide are the two factors that can determine whether or not a student applies to a college. We toured schools on hot and humid days, on rainy days and on cold days. I remember the weather, but frankly, it was hardly a deal breaker.

Neither was a tour guide, but they definitely make a difference. We were fortunate in that, with the exception of one, all of ours were very well informed, personable and skilled at their jobs. The other one was clearly not involved in any extracurricular activities and actually made a few disparaging comments about the school’s student athletes. Not cool, especially since my son, who is 6’9”, might have been the kind of kid interested in athletics – and he was. I didn’t fill out an evaluation form about her, but I probably should have. You don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but tour guides are the face of the campus for the hour or two you are there. Schools are probably pretty interested in hearing how their guides do.

Most of our touring happened in the summer before my son’s senior year, and a little in the fall. I think there’s definitely a danger of scheduling too many campus visits because they tend to blur a little, however you should probably take the lead from your teen. If they want to see more, and it’s reasonable to do so, that probably makes sense. What you’ll hear most of all when you tour is that schools believe it’s extremely important for kids to find “the right fit” when it comes to choosing a college so if that takes one more visit, or a return trip or two, that could prove to be very helpful.

Student Athletes

Without a doubt, the murkiest part of our son’s college search had to do with athletics. To be honest, this is a topic that’s hard to discuss with other parents unless their child is in the same boat. If your son or daughter is being recruited to play a sport at a school, there can be an assumption by other parents that it’s a “free ride” situation. This is only the case at Division 1 schools. In our case, a variety of coaches came in and out of the picture: our son received mailings, text messages and phone calls from several colleges. A few seemed interested and really tried to convince him to attend their school; from a few others, calls would suddenly stop. When you’re dealing with the sometimes-fragile ego of a teenager, this can be difficult.

Our son did have an “official” visit to a very small school out of state. It was a Division II basketball program; he and his high school basketball teammate, who visited at the same time, were treated like sports royalty, which helped feed that teenage ego. A few days later, my son received an offer from the school for a tuition amount that would have definitely had a positive financial impact on our budget. However, in the search for that “right fit”, this wasn’t it, for a variety of reasons.

So, when all was said and done, he’s at a school that we believe is a good fit for all the right reasons. He’s going to be playing basketball for a talented Division III team with a great coach and he’s excited to be part of it.  If your child is considering athletics as part of his/her college experience, I strongly urge you to talk to a trusted coach or parent who has had a similar situation with his or her own child because their advice will likely be very valuable.

return to top