[nabs-l] Contacting colleges

Sun Sep 28 00:27:12 UTC 2014

Hello Lily,

It has been quite some time since I was shopping around for the right
college to attend after high school. However, I hope you can find some of my
ideas useful as you are deciding which college you would like to attend once
you graduate. Please forgive me for the long email, but I wanted to do my
best to answer all of your questions to help you as well as anyone else who
is having a difficult time deciding on a college.

First, I read almost everything I could get my hands on that would provide
information about the schools I had some kind of interest in attending. As I
read through this information, I would specifically look for things that I
was looking for in a college. For me this meant looking at such things as
the number of students who attended the college, the class sizes, the
male/female ratio, ethnic backgrounds, and of course, degree programs. I
believe this kind of information would probably appear somewhere on the
college website, or in some of the college finding websites others have
recently mentioned on this email list.

Even though you are only considering colleges within your state, using
factors such as these can help you narrow down your list depending on what
you are looking for in a college. For example, if you were to look at the
top three largest universities in Michigan, there are a number of
differences between them that might appeal to different students. Michigan
State has a more diverse student population than the University of Michigan.
It is also located minutes from the capitol in Michigan, and has a rich
history in agricultural sciences. However, both Michigan State and the
University of Michigan are located in what I would consider medium size
cities, while Wayne State University is located in Detroit, and would offer
the experience of living in a larger city. But if you are from a smaller
community, perhaps you may not feel as safe attending a college located in
Detroit. I am not as familiar with Kentucky as I am with Michigan, but I am
sure you will most likely find these same kind of differences among the
colleges on your list.

As for being able to compare college information side by side, perhaps
making a spreadsheet database in Excel may help you. It seems to me like
most of the questions you are interested in asking the admissions counselor
can be found by searching the college website or other websites devoted to
college information. Each degree program should be listed somewhere on the
college website along with the requirements for obtaining a particular
degree. Some college websites may also have department pages that provide
information specific for the department. Information that may appear on
department pages may include such things as course requirements, faculty
information, internship programs, and special events. Special scholarships
for your particular college would most likely appear on the financial aid
page. 

As for the disability office, I think this depends on your specific needs as
a blind person. Given the specific example you asked about, you may wish to
inquire about what technology the college provides, where it is located, and
hours you are able to access it. You may also wish to ask about their
policies on using readers. I have heard some good reviews of the new KNFB ap
for the IPhone, and would suggest this as a reasonable scanning solution if
you already have an IPhone. If you are a Braille user, you may wish to
inquire about the process of obtaining materials in Braille as well. 

Finally, I think you can gain some useful information about a college
regardless of when you are able to visit it. Although you will gain the most
information by visiting a college while students are there, you can still
get something out of the visit if you are only able to visit it on a weekend
as well. I believe I may have visited a college on a weekend as I remember
staying the night in a nearby hotel with my mom. I felt like the only
difference was that I was not able to sit in on one of the classes. However,
there were still some students around who were willing to talk about their
experiences attending the college. I felt as though I was able to receive
the information I needed to make my decision after this weekend visit, but I
am sure you could always visit a college again if you are truly having a
difficult time making your decision.

Again, sorry for such a long post. However,  I wanted to do my best to
answer all of the questions you posed in your email. I hope all of this
information helps you move forward on your list of colleges. Best of luck in
making your decision.

Warm regards,
Elizabeth
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lillie
Pennington via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 10:45 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Contacting colleges

Hi, 

So now I have a working list of colleges, went to the fair and got some
information, and now I'm ready to start contacting the colleges on my list
to get more information beyond the brochures. 

How do I contact the admissions counselor? I have heard both a
recommendation to do it by email and by phone. I do know there is value to
talking by phone, but email would help me to probably get the information
faster, as well as being able to let me compare all of the info side by
side. Is there one way that is better or that would help me more? 

What questions do I ask? Test scores are generally found on websites. Who
would I ask about special scholarships awarded at the college? Is this the
person to request information such as dates for sending college application
stuff in? Could I ask for more information on my field of choice from this
person, or do I contact the chair of that department? I am assuming I also
ask this person for information regarding current students that go to that
college. What other things should I ask? 

When contacting the disability support services offices, what do I ask for?
Understand that I am not going to the school that will automatically give me
the best disability services, but since I will be a bit further away from my
house ideally I will probably at least need to exercise some caution in
picking a college based on what they could give me in terms of accomidation
(for example, I couldn't have my parents probably read me a chapter of a
textbook if I didn't have it, for example.) What other questions do I ask? 

I would love to hear any advice about choosing the right college or what to
ask on or off list. 

I am also curious to hear what you all have done in regarding college
visits. I want to do visits when students are there, which I am assuming
means they have to be done throughout the week (I'm not sure of this.) 

However, I want to visit four different cities in Kentucky, and 5 colleges
all together in those cities. My school only allows me 2 college visit days,
and I really do not want to miss school. It also is probably not feasible
for me to go down to these cities (all around 1.5-2 hours from my house and
not really sure how near each other they are) very often. How have you
managed this or what suggestions do you have to manage this? Are weekend
visits a good idea? I do have a fall break coming up where I could go down
to 1 or maybe 2 cities, but probably not all 4 and have quality visits at
each college. 

Any advice would be appreciated on anything related to this at all. 

Thanks, 

Lillie

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