My son applied to college without any assistance whatsoever. AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For most merit packages or scholarships, you still have to file the FAFSA so the school has a basis to work from. i don't think we will qualify but we did the FAFSA and the CSS because that's what the schools asked for.

Some schools you do, many you don't. None of the school DC got merit scholarship required FAFSA - UMD, Upitt, UMiami (FL), USC, UMBC,..etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I applied to college without assistance from my parents 20 years ago. Why do parents feel the need to help kids now? Is the process more complicated or is helicoptering just too ingrained?

So did I and I think these parents doing the work for their kids is BS and unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied to college without assistance from my parents 20 years ago. Why do parents feel the need to help kids now? Is the process more complicated or is helicoptering just too ingrained?

Same here. My folk wrote check for the application fees but that was about it.

P.S.: Number of campus visits? Z-E-R-O, and I didn't know anyone else who did them either. This was in 1986/87.

Really? I graduated from HS in 1982 and doing the "college tour" the summer before senior year was the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that we have all these posters who did it all themselves with no help or review from their parent (s). Well. things were a helluva lot simpler yesteryear.

Really? Seems easier with a common app. Applications used to have several lengthy questions to answer plus essays. Each. Plus information about schools wasn't so readily available.

It's not that the application process is so different these days. It's that kids are coddled more in every aspect of life.

I had help from my parents when I applied in the early 80's- and so did most of my HS peers. It was the norm even then among the college educated professional crowd. I think what has grown is the college educated professional crowd and so more parents are helping their children through the process. It seems that things have changed, but they really haven't.

For the schools my older DC applied that accepted the Common AP, it was the starting point - all had additional long answer questions if not essays. It wasn't arduous for him as he only applied to four schools and one was an add on in case he decided to go a different direction during his senior year. None of the schools he picked were reach, three were more rural land grant state schools with excellent engineering programs. One became his safety as he was accepted in October (rolling admission).

My younger DC is in the hunt right now. It is more of a team effort. He has LDs that will require accommodations - so I am in charge of researching that aspect and he is in charge of researching based on his intended majors and personal choices. We have a working list of about 10 schools now. I anticipate it will narrow as we get closer to application time, but he is not as laser focused on one sort of school and it looks like a few crapshoot colleges will make the cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For most merit packages or scholarships, you still have to file the FAFSA so the school has a basis to work from. i don't think we will qualify but we did the FAFSA and the CSS because that's what the schools asked for.

Some schools you do, many you don't. None of the school DC got merit scholarship required FAFSA - UMD, Upitt, UMiami (FL), USC, UMBC,..etc.

Well all 8 of our college/universities said they would not begin to discuss merit scholarships until we had filed the FAFSA (the CSS and IDOC)