And don’t forget Canada! Even with the American dollar being virtually even in value with the Canadian dollar, Canadian schools are Ivy-quality with an “in-state” public school price tag. When our daughter was admitted to McGill in Montreal in 2004, the cost was about the same as the in-state tuition for Illinois.

So now that our son’s SAT scores are in (he did fairly well with a 690 math and a 590 verbal — he’s obviously better in math than critical reading) and he continues to prepare for the upcoming ACTs in April (and no doubt a re-take of both next year), we move to a new (and more serious) phase in “the process.” Within a couple of weeks, no doubt, our mailbox (and his email box) will be filled to brimming with all sorts of enticing cards, letter, invitations, and other assorted goodies from colleges that want him. Today he got the first batch. One big package from University of Illinois, and another offering him a full scholarship to our local (two-year) community college. With the price of tuition, especially at our esteemed flagship university, that may not be something to sneeze at!

So what's the plan? Currently, our son has several schools on his "list." The "list" has three sections: "safety" schools; "reach" schools; and "good fit" schools." We will continue to add to and delete from this list of candidate schools; attend the college fair that is coming to our town next week; and begin to seriously think about whether it's all that important that the school have a "Music Industry" program (which is his major "du jour" — in all fairness to him, it's been his choice major since he was 14.)

We will also begin to apply other criteria, such as size, location, the existence of a vibrant Jewish campus life (something more important to us as parents  than it is to him — but we do have a say in this!). And, eventually, hopefully by late this spring, we will have a (more or less) final (and reasonable) list of school that make sense for him — and for us. However, as in everything connected with this merry (or not) chase, everything's subject to change.