3. Focusing on a school’s "reputation" or "personality."

When it comes to selective colleges, any one of their campuses has the relatively same sort of social diversity, your jocks, your artists, your activists, etc. Only a handful of more select schools are truly inclined a certain way. Even so, an artsy and liberal campus may not be a perfect fit for an artsy and liberal person. Don’t buy much into the caricatures many college books provide on schools as they will not likely weigh on your child’s happiness there. Finding friends and fitting in socially will be relatively the same everywhere. Academics are often the best indicator to the experience at a certain school. Make a list with your child of their top 15 academic interests, encourage them to put down anything at all, as unlikely or far-fetched as it may seem to them to actually do. When visiting schools and talking to admission representatives, questions about academics are far more informative than ones about campus safety, social atmosphere, extracurricular activities, etc. Answers about the latter will often be very rehearsed and general, "Our safety is great...the extracurriculars are popular...the social life is fun and easy to get into...etc.” Obtaining a current school course catalogue is a great way to see the popularity and development of a major, if the Comparative Lit department only offers one course next semester, it’s probably a good indication that this department is very small and has a very limited academic experience. Don’t confuse a course directory/bulletin with the current course catalogue. Schools like to send out "academic bulletins" to prospective students; these are very thick, book-like objects that look impressive and imply variety. While that may be true, the current course catalogue, a thin, magazine-like booklet found on campus, will list courses being offered the current/next semester. This will give you a much better idea of the academic opportunities. Educate your child about "major requirements." Some schools may require ten courses for a History major, others six. Knowing the differences in major requirements give an idea about how viable double majoring, study abroad, taking an extra language, etc. will actually be.