On Friday, my older son Scott walked through the doors of Green Hope High as a senior. I don’t know why this moment is turning me into a weepy-eyed weenie. It may be a result of all the reminders that this is his last year at home. Even the mailman is delivering envelopes stuffed with exciting offers for Scott to apply early to a variety of colleges. Several of these are from obscure institutes that seem to require a gazillion dollars for tuition. Narrowing down the list of possibilities is a monumental task. Thankfully, Scott has been able to see through the hyped-up glitz of some campuses to focus on the real reason for going to college — earning a degree, moving out of our home and on to his life as an adult. This past summer, he narrowed his field of interest and is considering a degree or two in naval and aerospace engineering. Next, he reviewed the lists of colleges that offer degrees in these fields and determined which schools are in his range of possibilities. I had to back off from pushing my top picks for him — N.C. State, Duke and Savannah College of Art and Design — and be patient for Scott to come to me with his top three: Virginia Tech, Webb Institute and Florida Institute of Technology. Campus tours were on our list of summer activities. After carefully reviewing our packed calendar, we discovered we had two free days, which made our choice of which campus to visit first easy — Virginia Tech. We started by checking the VT Web site and discovered that during the week there are several opportunities to attend general information sessions, go on campus tours and visit academic departments. Wanting to make the most of our trip, we outlined questions, printed off the campus map, lined up time to talk with a counselor, and packed pen and paper to write down insider tips on application process and scholarships.

Once on campus, I expected a “suit” to give us the tour before passing us along for another guy in a suit to give the hard sell during the information session.

Boy was I wrong. Brittany, a VT junior sporting a Hokie T-shirt, blue jean shorts and tennis shoes bounced into the center of the group of approximately 30 students and parents gathered outside Burruss Hall and introduced herself as our campus tour guide. She walked backward, talked fast and kept the group moving so smoothly through the campus we didn’t notice we had covered over a mile. The only time she slowed down a little was to give insider tips such as adding the Dining Dollars plan to the Hokie Passport Account, being in the leadership group because they stay in the dorms with air conditioning and almost whispering, said, “Boys, don’t sign up for the male dorms. Phew! They stink. Go for co-ed.”

The tour ended where we started making it easy to attend the information session led by VT Assistant Director of Undergraduate Services Yalana Bryant, who gave a quick overview of the online application process that is so streamlined it doesn’t require reference letters. Bryant was pretty blunt about how hard it is to get into VT — last year 19,000 students applied and only about 60 percent received offers. The session ended on a softer note with Bryant reassuring the students that the personal statements are almost as important as grades and that her job is to make an offer to as many students as she could.

In the pursuit of finding the best college for my older son, I am hoping we don’t miss the sweetness of his last year as a high school senior.

Contact columnist Liza Weidle at familyfilter@nc.rr.com or http://home.nc.rr.com/lizaweidle/.