Reply to My son applied to college without any assistance whatsoever. AMA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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? [/quote]

Well, me too, but it was considerably easier then.  High school students now have it much, much tougher than we did.  First, now it is a highly complicated, process-oriented venture, requiring more preparation, more documentation, and more time.  Second, it is MUCH more costly to go to college, relative to first-years' post-abc earnings, and student indebtedness is quite the crisis, so more high school students fairly seek and expect more parent consultation than we did.  Third, admission to selective colleges is much more competitive than it was, so a high school junior or senior is likely to have to apply to more schools, spend more money, spend more time, and require more support during the admissions season. 20 or 30 or 35 years ago, a good high school student in a good college-prep high school program would apply to two reaches, two goods, and two safeties.  Now the number (from this cohort) is more like ten or eleven.

Analogies to "what I did back before the Big One" don't really work.  
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