College Tours Part 3 by Sharon O’Donnell

In the past month, I’ve gone on 2 college tours with my youngest son — son #3 — with several more coming up in the next month. Son #3 is six and nine years younger than his two other brothers who are already college graduates with one working as a CPA in DC and one in grad school to his Masters of Accounting. Actually, he has a late summer birthday, so I started him a year later than most, meaning he’s seven and ten years behind his brothers in school.  And yes, I’ve really been having some deja vu feelings going through the college tour process for the first time.

A few things I’ve learned from the college application process with my older sons that benefit son #3:

1. Take an SAT/ACT prep course in the August  before your junior year. This way your child can study/prep for it without also having to study for tests, etc. for school classes, and this means much less stress. Also, when you visit college campuses, you will already have a benchmark test score to know which colleges are realistic and which are reach/dream schools.

2. There is a college out there for everyone — don’t sweat it so much. If your child doesn’t get into his/her first, second, or even third choice, there are still great schools out there AND the option to transfer to one of those top choice schools later after attending another one first.

3. Visit schools early and register for these visits, so there will be a record of his/her interest in the school. ‘Like’ the college’s FB, Twitter, Instagram pages/accounts.

4. Advanced Placement (AP) courses can help get college credits while in high school, but sometimes it is not worth the stress. It will depend on what interests your child and if it is something your child truly wants to do. Personally, I’d rather my child take what interests them in high school and not take AP courses in everything, even courses they hate or struggle with. My oldest son took some AP courses in high school, but he had three AP Calculus teachers in one year, and it was awful. He made it through with a B, I think, but didn’t get the grade on the AP test in order to get college credit. And that was perfectly fine. He took Calculus in college, had a great professor, and got an A.  He got some credits in history and Spanish and elected not to take the AP test in Environmental Science because he hated it so much. Did okay but hated it.  His life, his college. His decision. It wasn’t me taking the test. Son did great in college, graduated with a 3.6. Middle son had severe anxiety, took three AP courses in things he liked, focused on the SAT and didn’t take the AP exams (which probably irritated his teacher and gave less money to the College Board but oh well). I am not going to stress about my child taking a lot of AP classes. The kids that take 8 or 9 of them — good for them — but this is what drives the average GPAs for incoming freshman to 4.5 — making it tough to get admitted to many schools for those who are smart but simply can’t take that many AP courses.

5. A decade has gone by since doing this college tour with my oldest son, and you know what?  A lot of things have stayed the same. Newer buildings, more technology. But basically, it’s all about teenagers and parents getting ready to take a big step in life together. Exciting and emotional at the same time.

It was a bit harder for this older mom this time around having to sit in stuffy rooms and walk all over campuses in the hot sun. Two words: hot flashes.

Tags: AP courses, campus tours, going to college, hot flashes, SAT