And while it may seem daunting, the task needn’t be overwhelming—if you can come up with a few key factors to consider, then narrowing down your list of schools will be a walk in the park. Here at Paul Fraser Center we have everything you need to do just that! In this post, we’ll outline 12 of the most important points from https://websitesetuper.com/ you should weigh when choosing where to send your kids.
1) Curriculum:
Evaluate what type of education is offered by each school and how it fits with your child’s needs. Obviously, if your child is striving to be a neurosurgeon, they will need to take classes that are not offered at an art school.
2) Rankings:
Check out the school’s rankings for tuition, academics, and extracurriculars. They can help you gauge if a school has what you’re looking for and compare the institution to others that may be on your list.
3) Facilities:
Is there a gym? Does the cafeteria offer healthy food options? What about financial aid? The quality of the facilities at each school will tell you a lot about what sort of experience your child can expect.
Find out whether they’re smart and what their grades and interests are like. This will help you decide if they’ll get along with your child. You can also ask teachers who taught previous classes if there were any problems with this student or student group.
Extracurricular Activities:
Think about what your children enjoy doing – and don’t – before you enroll them at a school. Is there a sport they’re passionate about? Do they like musicals? Reading groups and the like don’t just appeal to nerdy students, so take this into consideration as well.
Student Ratings:
These can be found online, such as Yelp or Course Report, and will give you an idea of what other people think of each school. Students who attended previous classes will likely give their own opinions as well as those of their teachers.
Class Schedules:
Check out the class schedules for each school to see if they meet your child’s schedule requirements.
4) School Price:
Top schools expect applicants to come in with a certain kind of parent (wealthy, clever, motivated etc.)—so try not to fall into that trap. Other schools may have a more relaxed admissions process, they may offer a lower tuition rate or they may offer scholarships for certain kinds of children.
5) School Test Scores:
Find out where your child’s test scores fall compared to the schools he’s applying to. This is especially important if your child isn’t yet fluent in English—but even if he is, knowing what the average score was at his current school will let you know how his scores compare against other top schools.
6) Class Size:
Research each school’s class size and see if it seems appropriate for your child.
7) Extracurriculars:
Think about what you want out of your kids’ education and compare that to different schools’ offerings. If there are sports, music or art clubs in particular that you’re interested in, that will be a good indicator of how well the school is set up to meet your child’s needs.
8) Test Scores:
If your child has already taken tests at his current school, you can see whether they are comparable to ones he’ll take at his top choices. This is especially important if your child isn’t fluent in English—but even if he is, knowing what the average scores were for an English speaking student at each school will let you know how his scores compare to other top schools.
9) Faculty:
What type of teachers are there for the subjects your child is interested in? Are they having any specialties or do they have experience in the field? Are they easy to contact and respond to queries? What’s their approach to teaching—are they methodical or does their teaching style seem more hands off?
10) Class Offerings:
If you’ve already worked out your child’s interests, you can look at each school’s curriculum and see which courses he might be most interested in taking.
11) Disciplinary Record:
Find out what kind of disciplinary record is kept at each school. This is especially important if your child has a different way of learning from other students.
12) Test Score Range :
If you don’t have time to sift through all of these factors in order, you can always look at a school’s average SAT scores. According to our survey, the average score at a top-rated school was 1225 with a standard deviation of 324 points, while the average score at a lower rated school was 1093 with a standard deviation of 319 points. Clearly higher SAT scores are better if your child is applying strictly on academic merit. Alternatively, if you’re more interested in a holistic approach to learning that includes advancing skills in the arts, community service and athletics, aim for a school within the 1500-1600 range.
