When my students are trying to decide between schools, I often ask them to consider what the total cost will be at each option, and evaluate whether that difference is worth anything to them. Will it get them more income later? A better quality of life as a student? Any of their other priorities?

After all, they applied to these schools ONLY because they liked them. (Why bother applying to a “safety” school that you kinda hate, when there are so many great schools that admit at all GPAs or at all different price points?”).

But, it’s been a weird year for financial aid. FAFSAs weren’t accessible until the end of December, then there were glitches, delays, and errors that have brought us here to almost May 1, and many students still don’t know what their financial aid offers will be. But, they still have to make decisions. And some schools are sticking to the May 1 deposit deadline. And some schools are pressuring you to deposit now or you might not be guaranteed on campus housing. And… And…

And, because someone wrote to me yesterday asking my advice on other ways to choose between schools, here’s some things to compare that aren’t financial:

1. Courses they are REQUIRED to take for their likely major(s).
   • A major Computer Science, for example, sometimes requires 4+ advanced math courses, a compiler course, and a couple of seriously mathy electives. But, at other schools, the CS major is focused more on problem solving challenges and using CS to do interesting things. Comparing the core required courses will show you what kind of program you’re headed for.
2. The courses they will take as part of their “general education” requirements.
   • Aka the Core courses outside the major that are intended to make you a well rounded graduate. Are they all huge lectures like “Introduction to American History,” or do you get more freedom to pick the kind of course you’d like to take (discussion, lab, etc.) and the focus area that will be covered (“The Evolution of Military Technology from 1000-1900”)?
3. The placement and retention rates for people in your field.
   • Is this a top school FOR the things you want to study? Are there a lot of people taking it here? (Check the Common Data Set for each school to find out how many students graduate in each major each year)
   • CollegeFactual ranks schools in relation to major at https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/. Identify the major in the search bar, then scroll down a little bit to “Bachelor’s Degrees.” (Did you know that the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities may be the only school in the USA where you can major in “Native American Languages”?)
4. The walk time between the most common freshman residence halls and the most common classroom buildings they’ll have in the first year. Use Google Maps to see the estimations. Sometimes this walk time is almost 40 minutes!
   • While you’re on Google Maps, take the street view walk through the student off-campus district. Are there places you’d like to hang out? Or is it scary and dead?
5. The average weather in January.
6. TCK and International Student support.
   • Will they let you come to school during the International Student Orientation days instead of the regular domestic student orientations during the early summer?
   • Will that orientation time include rides to shopping and banking to help you get set up for the year, or is it just about filling out visa forms?
7. “A Day in the Life” videos on CampusReel.org or Youtube
   • Does the campus feel the way you thought it did? Do the people walking in the background feel like the kind of people you’d like to meet?

What are some other things you’d want to compare if you were deciding between two or three schools.

Pre-college programs for high schoolers are big business in the US. Most of these programs are coordinated by third-parties and hosted on college campuses. They’ll give you a taste of “dorm life” and what dining hall food really tastes like. They can also be super fun, with loads of camp-like programming interspersed with your academic taster class. Some of them are less structured, and essentially are exactly like college-life, you have a class schedule (and usually take the same summer school classes that the currently enrolled university students do) and a room, but no “camp staff” to plan other events or help you connect with your peers. You might earn a college credit or two at either of these options.

Last summer, I saw typical program costs for both of these types of programs ranging from $3000 to $6500 for 2-4 week programs.

While they can be really fun, and energize you for the hard slog through the applications season, these summer programs generally have no bearing on your actual college admissions results. Most college admissions officers see these programs as expensive summer camps.

It may be more cost effective (and actually better for your college application in general), to do something intensive in an activity you love, or take on a short term job. Both of these would show some personal depth or grit, which are pretty desirable attributes in a future college student.

Job options:

Camp: If you’re in the US this summer, look to work as an assistant teacher in a local day camp. Many pre-schools offer summer programs to elementary students and hire high schoolers as assistant counselors. You could also do a Counselor-in-training program at an overnight camp. You’re unlikely to earn money as a CIT, but you’ll get a lot of lovely outdoor time, and can work with horses, arts, swim, etc.

Summer Hire: If you’re at post, you can look into the embassy summer hire program. Not every post is running the program this year, but it’s an excellent opportunity to build out your experience list, pick up a little bit of spending money and also just get an insiders look into what professional work really is like.

Start a micro business: Some low-investment businesses that work well for teens include: Redbubble or Society6 product design (reuse your school art projects!), tutoring or running a small hobby class, do administrative tasks on Fiverr, or do the data projects that are still too hard for robots as a tasker for Amazon’s MechanicalTurk, Appen, or Humanatic.

Classes or Camps:

If you look outside the US, you’ll find that pre-university summer programs are significantly cheaper. In person classes at London area universities, for example, are around $500 (plus $700 for housing) for a 2 week session. Some include free transportation from the airport as part of their course fee.

Many of these will also offer live virtual programs this summer, with times that are more convenient for people at EUR, AF and posts further east.

Cambridge is offering 2 week virtual programs for less than $300: https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/virtual-pre-university-summer-programme

York University has short course options that are free (tasters) and low cost: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/international/applying/summer-schools-and-short-courses/

Specialty programs in arts, medicine and lots more are searchable, or I can help you find them if you let me know what you’d like to learn.

Volunteer Options:

This is a great list of volunteer ideas that can work almost anywhere. I’d recommend that you do something that is important or fun to you, rather than worry about your volunteer work “looking good” on a college application. https://www.teenlife.com/blog/50-community-service-ideas-teen-volunteers/

Traditional US Pre-college programs, Individual Research programs, and Volunteer opportunities with established programs

A compilation of some great options from CollegeMatchpoint: Many of these are in the “costly” range, but if you scroll down a bit futher, you’ll see information on programs that will match you to a 1:1 mentor to pursue a personal research project, or virtual volunteering. If you are open to paying a bit more this summer, the list of pre-college programs is also very extensive: https://www.collegematchpoint.com/college-matchpoint-blog/springsummer2022opportunities

I’m here to help you talk out the pros and cons of your summer options, send me a message and let me know your needs!