Before me, seated cross-legged on the family room rug, is my remarkably bright eighteen-year-old, a rising senior at a competitive prep school, who has surrounded himself with dozens of tiny yellow and orange post-its, each enumerating the various pros and cons of two of his final three college choices. The other school is not represented because he's trying to forget about it. Frankly, I don't blame him. Trying to keep the gazillions of competing aspects of two of these places straight is difficult enough. Four other finalists have already fallen under his axe, this on the heels of an eighteen-month hunt during which dozens of universities were at least briefly considered. I eye with interest the various notes scribbled on the post-its and it occurs to me that my son has really been doing his homework. "Nice campus". "Urban." "Rural." "My major." "Greek life." "Crappy dorms." One of the orange papers floating above the rug also reads: "$40,000." That's the annual price tag, after a modest scholarship.
CLICK ON THE VIDEO ABOVE THIS ARTICLE TO HEAR MORE ON THE COLLEGE SEARCH FROM LIZ ESHLEMAN, DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE PLANNING AND PLACEMENT AT DEVON PREPARATORY SCHOOL.
The boy and his mother are now discussing all of it again for roughly the six millionth time. But I find my mind wandering. I'm thinking about the rug. It's from Pakistan. Hand-woven. I remember the day we bought it. It was at the old Wanamaker's out at the Springfield Mall, about a week before it went out of business. We got a great deal, I recall. Eyeing again the "$40,000" I'm thinking, "Thank God!"
There are thousands of financial decisions made over the years leading up to National College Decision Day, and this is true in nearly every household. The average bill for tuition and housing at most leading universities, as of late 2009, is about $50,000 and at many schools, that figure is climbing by roughly $2,000 to $3,000 a year. That means either you or your kid could be looking at an investment well north of $200,000 in either loans or savings over four years, and even though merit and need-based scholarships often trim that cost, and thousands of families enact other cost-saving options (like less-expensive state schools, or a year or two a Community College followed by a transfer), even those costs add-up. And if you've got two kids in college at the same time? It's scary.
I know plenty of people who have it worse than me. One family just got their first child graduated, and now has twins on their way in. But even in the household of a fancy-shmancy weather guy, the signs of two kids in college aren't hard to spot. Some of it's kind of funny. The sectional my wife and I are sitting on is entering its second decade of abuse, bowing beneath a history of my three kids flinging themselves full-force at its cushions, in various states of growth and weight, so that the springs are now almost completely shot. In many places, sitting on this piece of furniture requires one buttock to rest some four inches below the other. Guests are usually polite and do not comment. There's also the leaking dishwasher, the two aging cars, and any number of other possessions that are currently clanking and clunking in strange, new ways. They're all being kept around and kept alive, as long as those college bills keep rolling in.
Easily, the biggest job most of us will ever undertake, as parents, is getting our kids through college, and it all starts with the college search. You may not think this is a big deal going in, but unless your kid is one of the blessed few who knows exactly what he or she wants and where they want to go (or unless you're limited by circumstance to only a single, least expensive option), the search for the right college is bound to be a phenomenal undertaking, which will require your best organizational skills. The chances are good that there are many things you do not know, and will have a hard time keeping straight even after you DO know them.
And so, with this blog, I'm embarking on a series of installments concerning the college search. I'll cover things you can do years in advance to improve your child's chances of a successful hunt, the high school resume, when to begin the search, what the search should entail, the SAT/ACT tests, the application process, and how admissions and financial aid offers work. A veteran of two very different searches (one easy, one ridiculously involved), my hope is to take some of the stress out of the process for other parents, by detailing how the whole thing went for us and passing along all the myriad of things we learned along the way.
MORE COLLEGE SEARCH BLOGS:
Facts About the FASFA, Submitting Applications, When Will I Hear If I'm In?, What If I'm Put On A Wait List?, When Must I Decide?, What If I Have Trouble Deciding?, Merit Aid, Need-Based Aid, Federal Need-Based Aid, Can I Ask For More Aid?, 529 Savings Accounts, Myths About The Cost, What Is Upromise?, The Best Way To Pay, College Troubles, College Depression, NCAA Athletics, Athletic Scholarships
