So, it seems like just yesterday my wife and I had two little girls; making sure we were doing all the right things to help them succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. Now, with one a junior in college and the other finishing her senior year of high school, I look back and wonder where the time flew!

Although I’ve worked in college admissions for more than twenty-five years (which by the way, freaked my daughters out when they were looking at colleges), it still came down to some basic factors for them to find the “right fit” – and the “right feel.”

Here’s what I learned being the parent in the college search process –

• Start talking about college early. Late in middle school seemed about the right time for our family. Make sure your student is on the path to take all the college-required courses…and more to help provide a well-rounded academic and extra-curricular experience.
• Stop by a few campuses of different types and sizes during family trips before planning the official campus tour circuit.
• Encourage your student to keep track of their activities, honors and awards during high school; create an activities and awards resume. This will help later when applying for admissions and scholarships; even for internships during college.
• Help your student think about their interests, what careers might line-up with those interests, and what majors would be most helpful to land a job in those fields or to get into an appropriate graduate school program. There are many online career and college interest tools. A good one to consider is Big Future on The College Board’s website – https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/make-a-plan or ACT Profile at http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/act-profile/about-act-profile.html.
• When it’s time to visit college campuses with your student during junior year of high school (or sooner), keep track of important details and impressions of each visit. We found creating an Excel spreadsheet kept things organized, including: dates and details for our visits; deadlines for application, housing, scholarships and financial aid; major(s); costs of attendance; scholarships and other financial assistance offered along with actual out-of-pocket costs per year; etc. All of this information became invaluable in April of the senior year in high school when a final decision of where to attend needed to be made.

One great way to check out college campuses early, is to encourage your student to attend a summer youth program. The University of Iowa has many opportunities for all ages; learn more at http://admissions.uiowa.edu/parents-family/youth-pre-college-programs. Many other resources to help you and your student in the college search process are located on our website at http://admissions.uiowa.edu/parents-family.

So, start early, be encouraging, get organized, and let the search for that “right fit” begin!

John Laverty
Senior Associate Director:
Search & Prospect Development
The University of Iowa
Office of Admissions