[speaker001:] why what would you tell someone
[speaker002:] well I think first thing is they need to talk with their child to their child talk to their child and find exactly what they want to do why are they're going why are they going to college instead of doing something else
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] once you find out why they want to go to college then you can get a better idea of uh what range of colleges they should go to
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh obviously if they want to learn trade skills you wouldn't send them to an academic center and vice versa
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um beyond that I think you need to consider the uh range of expenses of going to college that would probably narrow your ranges down even further
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and if you want to go something beyond what you can afford then you need to start investigating scholarship and other things
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so I think you start out with something broad like that and then narrow your range as you you know as you find out more about the child and what the their uh needs are and what they want to do how about you
[speaker001:] well I guess I would agree somewhat I mean in terms of finding out first why they want to go to college if they do want to go to college a lot of times it's the parents who want them to go to college rather than themselves
[speaker002:] that does happen yes
[speaker001:] um but uh I think it's probably the the studies have been done looking at uh how well you are and what you do when you end up whether or not you uh have a degree or not uh makes a big difference later on in your life and um you know it'd be good to even to start as early as possible to understand what what you child would desire
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and and determine a goal some point uh before like the last moment
[speaker002:] well
[speaker001:] and but you know you never know they always a lot of people go to college because they don't know what else is better to do it seems like it's my experience but uh I guess that once they've decided they wanted to go to college I think that's that's also that's something uh important but uh you know have them go through the I guess they have like the Barron's books and various other books that describes all the different colleges that they are in terms of competitiveness and things like that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and they could also narrow it down that way other than just the economic things though it's probably more so now than used to be um but people you know you want to try to match their needs as best they can and then if you know you could always shoot for those places that don't have you know are that might be considered out of your range but sometimes you might be able to get a scholarship or whatever have you so I wouldn't rule them out on the first cut uh I would try to get them to to find the colleges they think that are you know best fit their needs in terms of the size the college the kinds of course offerings the reputation they have in those areas um you know whether a child wants to be closer or away how far away they want to be from home there's a lot of different other aspects to it you know
[speaker002:] that does enter into it all
[speaker001:] yeah and uh I think there's things like student uh faculty ratios and and uh all that kind of stuff how well endowed the school is sometimes you that's important because if it's not well endowed school uh then a you know a lot of times they're just they uh the schools go from year to year based on just the enrollment and uh if that's what the school's doing then um it may not be around the following year especially these times
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] you know they're not as economically sound right
[speaker002:] well I have a a daughter now who is a junior who is looking at colleges and uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] it's interesting uh there were a lot more choices years ago when I went to college
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh she is is going through the process much like what you're you know you've described and I've described described so how far away do they want to go what do they want to do how important is whether it's a private or a public school what are the chances for scholarships and uh a lot of mid range smaller schools that are actually easier to get into if you have pretty good grades of course it's not quite so comparative to say the Ivy League schools
[speaker001:] oh yeah uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um
[speaker001:] yeah they also tend not to be as well endowed and they also have lots of other uh good and bad points sometimes the offerings that they have is better than
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know some of the Ivy schools that's for sure uh but there's also other problems too um you know they tend to they all admit all sorts of people