Whoooop Whooooop We Picked Our Colleges!!!!!

This has been a HUGE challenge to select the schools we would visit for my sabbatical work.  We needed to select 10 colleges, universities or trade schools that would appeal to our local students.  We will visit each campus and create a virtual field trip to appeal to our local students.  It's been so hard because we really wanted to pick the schools that were best for our students.  We used many resources including:  Washington Monthly, Inside Colleges, US News and World Report, Hawaii Association of College Advising Counselors, the Aspen Institute, and  Community College Week. We also interviewed the college counselors at Honoka'a High School, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, and more.  We interviewed teachers, students and college students.  We also showed various websites to our current students to see what appealed to them.  We rated schools on tuition, location, proximity to other schools for transfers, housing, athletics, crime stats, programs and academics, requirements, membership in WUE, and overall appeal. We selected large schools, small schools, rural schools and urban.  We wanted some familiar schools but also some our students never heard of.  We considered over 200 schools and FINALLY have narrowed it down to 15.  We only have to do 10, but will visit 15 and select the top ten in which to create the virtual field trip.  This has been an ongoing task that has taken well over a hundred hours.  So....here's the list!!!! (In No Particular Order)

1. Northern Arizona University
2. New Mexico State University
3. Oregon State
4. University of the Redlands
5. Colorado Mesa University
6. University of Northern Colorado
7. Portland State
8. Vermillon Community College
9. Santa Barbara City College
10. University of Nevada Las Vegas
11. Skagit Valley Community College
12. Yavapai College
13. Snow College
14. Taft College
15. Wisconsin Indianhead Tech College

So glad this part is done!  It will really help us with our travel plans!!!!!