On a scale of 0-5, how involved are you in the app process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continuing to laugh at the responses to this thread. Poster after poster insisting she was a zero. What are you doing, then, on a college admissions forum on DCUM, the most Type A website in the DMV?

By OP's definition I was at least a 4.5 for all four of my kids, each of whom were very different people. I had one who barely graduated high school, yet got a 780 verbal on the SAT. We were uber involved in finding a college that would accept her after she took a gap year.

I had two others who were smart and well-rounded and had good records and test scores but weren't the intellectual type and didn't obsess over colleges and would have been happy in any good school. We suggested a few places that wouldn't have considered themselves as safeties or alternatives to schools they had found themselves, looked over their applications and essays and offered suggestions, etc. And we had another kid who was very high achieving and headstrong who had concrete ideas for where she wanted to go and do. She floated those ideas by us and we gave our reactions -- including financial ones -- but in the end she did what she was going to do.

All four qualify as 4.5 or above by OP's definition. By OP's definition, a zero is when your kid says to you in the August after high school graduation "oh, by the way, I'm going to X college next week -- can you give me a ride?"

If all four of your kids are done with the process and in school why are you still here?

Such a lame response. What's it to you?

[Anonymous]

1 or 1.5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continuing to laugh at the responses to this thread. Poster after poster insisting she was a zero. What are you doing, then, on a college admissions forum on DCUM, the most Type A website in the DMV?

By OP's definition I was at least a 4.5 for all four of my kids, each of whom were very different people. I had one who barely graduated high school, yet got a 780 verbal on the SAT. We were uber involved in finding a college that would accept her after she took a gap year.

I had two others who were smart and well-rounded and had good records and test scores but weren't the intellectual type and didn't obsess over colleges and would have been happy in any good school. We suggested a few places that wouldn't have considered themselves as safeties or alternatives to schools they had found themselves, looked over their applications and essays and offered suggestions, etc. And we had another kid who was very high achieving and headstrong who had concrete ideas for where she wanted to go and do. She floated those ideas by us and we gave our reactions -- including financial ones -- but in the end she did what she was going to do.

All four qualify as 4.5 or above by OP's definition. By OP's definition, a zero is when your kid says to you in the August after high school graduation "oh, by the way, I'm going to X college next week -- can you give me a ride?"

If all four of your kids are done with the process and in school why are you still here?

Such a lame response. What's it to you?

NP. Not a lame response by that poster, but yours certainly is pathetic. Answer the question or stop trolling those of us who are in the thick of it.

OP, I’d say DH and I are 2.5 but we do have an excellent college counselor at DC’s school.

[Anonymous]

4.5-5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That's not what I'm saying at all. I freely admit I wasn't anywhere near a zero. I'm saying none of you were/are either. If you were, you wouldn't be on DCUM's college admissions forum.

Some of us who have already been through this with one kid are here to provide answers.

Some of us are curious about various schools, even if we aren't planning to pass along what we hear to our kids

Some of us want a sanity check

Some of us want to vent

[Anonymous]

My parents growing up was negative zero. I had to do my parents tax return at 16 in order to file FASFA. I paid my own SAT and applications forms and took a bus to SAT and used a library book to study. I also did not tour a college. They also were clear I am paying 100 percent for college and pay rent at home.

Guess what I got college 100 percent paid for as well as masters 100 percent paid for. Parents should let kids be kids.

My parents FIRST time on campus was graduation. Even better I drove then in my car.

My wife sticks her nose in to much my first one. My second I took over and less is more. My third who cares

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continuing to laugh at the responses to this thread. Poster after poster insisting she was a zero. What are you doing, then, on a college admissions forum on DCUM, the most Type A website in the DMV?

By OP's definition I was at least a 4.5 for all four of my kids, each of whom were very different people. I had one who barely graduated high school, yet got a 780 verbal on the SAT. We were uber involved in finding a college that would accept her after she took a gap year.

I had two others who were smart and well-rounded and had good records and test scores but weren't the intellectual type and didn't obsess over colleges and would have been happy in any good school. We suggested a few places that wouldn't have considered themselves as safeties or alternatives to schools they had found themselves, looked over their applications and essays and offered suggestions, etc. And we had another kid who was very high achieving and headstrong who had concrete ideas for where she wanted to go and do. She floated those ideas by us and we gave our reactions -- including financial ones -- but in the end she did what she was going to do.

All four qualify as 4.5 or above by OP's definition. By OP's definition, a zero is when your kid says to you in the August after high school graduation "oh, by the way, I'm going to X college next week -- can you give me a ride?"

If all four of your kids are done with the process and in school why are you still here?

Such a lame response. What's it to you?

NP. Not a lame response by that poster, but yours certainly is pathetic. Answer the question or stop trolling those of us who are in the thick of it.

OP, I’d say DH and I are 2.5 but we do have an excellent college counselor at DC’s school.

Read much? I DID answer the question. Then I made the point that no one on this thread is truly a zero on OP's scale. Nobody. You're ALL obsessed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:0 when they ask for the card to pay I say congrats on getting that done. Good job.

I don't think taking them on the tours counts because we don't give the tour we just follow along watching a student walk backwards and wonder if they are going to trip or not and try to pick out the parent who will walk right next to the student tour guide and ask them questions the entire time. A fun game.

Never read an essay for any of the kids or saw the applications. They are completely done with them.

Taking them on tours counts.

Especially since it involves planning the family calendar around that travel, getting there, being on time, etc.

[Anonymous]

On some parts 0 on other parts 4. Depends.

[Anonymous]

5 for both kids.

We are UMC, and from conversations with the admission officers, when they read apps from kids like mine, they assume the kids have received tons of help. So I have to play my part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm generally not an overbearing, micromanaging parent, but with my current HS senior I am a 5.0. And honestly, if i was anything less - say, even a 4.99 - I swear, this kid would not be attending college because they are so completely indifferent to the whole process.


*And yes, I am starting to recognize that maybe a gap year is in order here.

Right there with ya!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if these responses also depend on the level of real support given by counselors and staff at school. We basically have none. (4.5)

Agreed, I think there needs to be a second part to this - how many of you have kids who go to private schools?

I have co-workers who talk about how independent their kid has been in the college app process. later in the conversation, I find that they have HS counselors who are heavily involved in the process; helping them pick out schools; helping with edits on the essays, etc.

A lot of lying and delusional thought with child-raising.

[Anonymous]

Hmm...he's writing essays himself and I haven't seen any (and probably won't). But regarding the organization and the research, it's mostly me. ADHD is the primary reason.

[Anonymous]

Hmm...he's writing essays himself and I haven't seen any (and probably won't). But regarding the organization and the research, it's mostly me. ADHD is the primary reason.