Kent and Sue Taulbee's oldest daughter, Ann, had a wonderful experience at a Christian liberal arts college a few hours from their home. They thought Claire, Ann's little sister, would benefit from attending the same school. But they didn't tell their younger daughter that.

"With Claire's personality, we knew if we pushed too hard, she would choose a different school just because she would want to make the decision herself," says Sue. "So we knew we had to be diplomatic about the college search and try to guide her gently.

"We also covered the process in prayer. We believed God would lead Claire to the school he wanted her to go to, and we asked him to help us guide her in the right direction."

Claire actually began preparing for her college search during her sophomore year in high school. Although Claire was a good student, she wanted to attend a top-notch liberal arts college and knew that she would need good test scores along with solid grades. When she took the ACT after her sophomore year, her scores weren't as high as they needed to be. For this reason, Kent and Sue encouraged Claire to take a test-prep course early in her junior year before retaking the ACT. While she wasn't thrilled about adding another class to her packed schedule, Claire agreed to take the course.

The class paid off, and Claire received a score on her ACT test that would enable her to apply to competitive schools as a viable candidate.

Throughout the summer after Claire's junior year, the family began discussing some of the basics that would help narrow her search. As they talked to their daughter during mealtime conversations, Kent and Sue stressed the importance of a Christian-based education. "Having our girls go to Christ-centered institutions was more important to us than anything else in the college search," says Kent.

Claire had no problem narrowing her search to only Christian colleges. After all, her older sister had enjoyed her time on a Christian campus. Claire felt certain she, too, could thrive in that kind of environment. While this narrowed her choices quite a bit, she still needed to consider factors like distance and location.

Initially, Claire didn't care where the schools were on the map. But as the family continued to talk about the realities of being far away from home, she started to have second thoughts.

"While the idea of moving halfway across the country sounds kind of cool, I realized that it would be difficult for me," admits Claire. "I really love my family, and with everything else in my life changing, I thought it would be good to be able to get home in a couple of hours if I needed to see Mom and Dad."

Claire decided to narrow her search to schools that were within a four-hour drive from home. Kent and Sue were relieved.

"We would have let her go far away, but I'm so thankful she wants to stay close," says Sue. "Ann was about two hours away from us throughout college, and we loved being able to go to her volleyball games and visit on family weekends."

"We didn't try to dissuade Claire from going far away," remembers Kent. "But we did talk openly about what it would mean for her to be far away: airplane flights, not being able to come home as often, Sue and I not being able to see her as much as we were able to see her sister."

Claire's academic interest also helped her narrow the options. Since she knew she wanted to study English, she felt a liberal arts education was the way to go. "I've had a lot of friends go to Bible colleges and love it, but I want to study English, and I felt a Christian liberal arts school would be the best place to do that."

A city girl at heart, Claire was pretty sure she wanted to be on a campus in or near a large city. Still, Kent and Sue didn't want Claire to eliminate a school just because of its location.

Sue remembers the compromises that took place: "There were a few schools that Claire wasn't interested in at all because of their location, but we asked her to keep an open mind and make the trips anyway. She agreed, as long as she didn't have to apply to schools she wasn't really that interested in. We thought that if she liked the visit enough and felt the school was a possible fit, she would agree to turn in an application. But we didn't push it."

By the middle of the summer, the Taulbee family had chosen five colleges to visit in the coming months. All of the schools were fairly close to the Taulbees' hometown, so each visit was pretty easy to make and relatively inexpensive. They were even able to incorporate college visits with other trips—one on the way back from a summer vacation and another after a weekend visiting family. The combination trips, as Sue called them, turned out to be a lot of fun for the family. "Because these two trips weren't solely for Claire's college visit," says Sue, "we looked at visiting these colleges as part of our overall vacation or family visit. It was a very enjoyable time."

After a day of touring the campus and talking to students and admissions counselors, the Taulbees would hit the road. On those drives home, Claire would become pretty quiet.

"We didn't start asking Claire questions right away about what she thought of the colleges," says Kent. "She knew we were available to process her experience, and we figured that when she was ready to talk, she would talk."

Usually a few days after each visit, Claire would start to talk about the campuses, the students she'd met, and what she liked and didn't like at each college. In their conversations, Kent and Sue sought to help Claire understand why she appreciated certain aspects of one college rather than another, striving to help her narrow her options. After her initial college visits, Claire said she wanted to revisit two schools that she liked the best. Both colleges were within two hours from home. One of the schools was her sister's alma mater—the school Kent and Sue wanted Claire to attend.

"We were really happy that she wanted to apply to her sister's college," says Kent, "but we saw some great opportunities for her at the other college, too."

Sue encouraged Claire to start on the applications as soon as she knew she was seriously interested in the two schools. By using the school's early decision process (which meant applying in the fall of her senior year), Claire would know by Christmas if she had been accepted at either college or whether she needed to apply to other schools in January.

Sue helped Claire with the application process by volunteering to do all of the administrative tasks associated with the applications—requesting transcripts, sending test scores to the right colleges, and mailing the applications. "I wanted Claire to focus on writing solid essays, so I was glad to take care of the details for her."

Claire says she appreciated the help: "College apps can be overwhelming, and Mom's help really took some of the pressure off. My job was to write the essays well and continue to keep my grades up."

With some encouragement from her parents, Claire was able to get her two applications in by the end of September. Her follow-up visits to the two colleges followed closely behind, and Claire found that she really liked both schools. The English department at each institution was strong, and the atmosphere of each campus seemed to be a good match for Claire's personality.

"I could see myself at either school," says Claire. "I liked them both a lot and didn't plan on applying to other schools unless I needed to."

Kent was happy with her two choices: "Both colleges are strong schools that are focused on upholding Christ and the truths of the Bible. No matter where she goes it will be good."

Within a month, Claire had heard back from one of the colleges and was accepted. "There's something really great about getting your first acceptance letter," says Claire. "It's like, 'Well, at least I know I'm going to college!' That's a relief."

Two months later, Claire was accepted to the second school.

"It's really great to be able to choose between the two," she says. "I'm not sure where I'm going to go yet, but I know that God will show me and my family. Right now, I'm just going to enjoy knowing that I can go to a school that I'm really excited about and that I feel like I was able to choose for myself."

Kent and Sue agree. "We know that God has great plans for Claire, and that no matter what school he leads her to, it will be a good experience for her," says Sue. "We can rest knowing that even if she doesn't pick our top choice, she'll be picking God's top choice for her, and that gives us a lot of joy."

Writer Ann Swindell interviewed her parents and sister for this story—and is pictured (second from right) with her dad, mom and sister Claire. Ann is a 2006 graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. After the story was written, Claire decided to attend her sister's alma mater.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.
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