She doesn't really have time since she's graduating in 2 weeks (cue me crying) and narrowed it down to two schools. School 1 is 3 hours away, much bigger, in state, decent academics but known to be a party school
School 2 is 8-9 hours away, Small (10k undergrads), out of state but with a state to state agreement, not too many social clubs, no greek life, but great internships.
She doesn't really have time since she's graduating in 2 weeks (cue me crying) and narrowed it down to two schools. School 1 is 3 hours away, much bigger, in state, decent academics but known to be a party school
School 2 is 8-9 hours away, Small (10k undergrads), out of state but with a state to state agreement, not too many social clubs, no greek life, but great internships.
School 2 sounds like a recipe for homesickness.
I live across the street and we're really close- she tells everyone I'm her sister. We rarely call each other cousins.
Go to class to observe. A couple of them. I didn't mind big classes with professors who adjusted their teaching style appropriately. And accountability wasn't a concern for me because 1. I am a nerd and 2. Most of the time there were smaller discussion sections you had to prep for.
Look at what ALL the students are wearing/doing/saying, not just the tour guides. My school, which I did love, was preppier than I'd anticipated and it took me awhile to find my people. My people who didn't come from tons of money or, if they did, didn't monogram everything in sight. Lol.
Read the course catalog to see if the classes for the major you're considering sound interesting.
I also made sure the town I choose was somewhere I'd want to live. Our 2 big state schools, where all my friends went, are in tiny, college towns. I knew I wanted to be in a larger town with some "amenities". The college I chose had a small college feel but lots of options and other things to do.
Class sizes and campus vibe would sway me. In undergrad I went to a school that was too big and my major had too many enormous classes so I barely met anyone. I went to the same school for law and it was completely different because now I was in a class of 125 instead of 4000. The smaller classes meant getting to see the same people more frequently and getting to know them better. It was a much better fit for me. If I had known that from the get go I would have gone to a much smaller school for undergrad.
I still love my alma matter. I chose based on location/area, size of school and classes, the 'feel' of the campus. It was a small liberal arts school. Small as in 10k students sounds huge to me. I came from a small town and would have felt lost anywhere bigger, I liked small class sizes, individual attention, etc. I liked the strong reputation the school had in tbe area and beyond also, it is a strong school academically. To this day, though I live 6 states away, I can say where I went to undergrad and people know it, it helped numerous times when I was looking for jobs. I didn't know what I wanted to major in but felt I could choose from what they had. The school was 12 hours from my house and I knew no one who was going anywhere near there, but was really wanting my own time and experience without the ability to go home often.
I definitely didn't choose based on cost - it was the most expensive school I applied too and is definitely a more expensive college in the country now.
3 factors: 1. Price 2. Location - how far away (or close) to home did I want to be 3. Size - I went to a very large school which gave me lots of options and flexibility in every single way -- classes, social activities, top tier sports. It worked for me but some may need a small structured environment.
Alumni services. Not something you typically think of at her age but so important. Study abroad options if she's interested. I like the idea of looking at the course catalog.
And where were you when I was a senior. I hope she realizes how awesome you are. And I hear you on the parents basically being like freshman, that's how my dad was. He did not understand why I was going to college at all.