Reply to I'm finding this application process pretty stressful

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "I'm finding this application process pretty stressful"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't recall my parents being very involved in my college search - other than dictating budget and insisting that I visit one particular school that my dad liked --  but 1) they hadn't been to college themselves 2) admissions was much less competitive then and 3) my sister went through the whole process the year before I did so from watching her and talking about it I'd learned what to expect.

Applying for college is, for most kids, the biggest project they have ever taken on, has a huge impact on the next phase of their life, and is one of the biggest purchases a family makes.  I can't imagine a parent just telling their kid to go off and deal with it 100% on their own.  Yes, some kids can jump right in and handle most of it.  But, some find it overwhelming and need a coach to help them learn how to do it and there's nothing wrong with that IMO.  Probably even more so this year when they aren't at school where it's easy to compare notes with peers or are getting info more easily from the school counselors.

My involvement has been starting things off by initiating college tours, talking with DS about his likes/dislikes from those, doing some initial research to narrow the overwhelming field of schools, teaching him about net price calculators and then letting him do the exploration to decide on his list.  I've proofed his essay and common app and made some suggestions but he writes everything.  We've sat down together to watch the info videos from his high school about how to handle their process for transcripts and LORs and I've coached him on how to ask via email for the recommendations.  I worked with him to create a spreadsheet of deadlines and list of to-dos to meet those. We meet weekly to check in on how he's progressing.

I figure my role is to teach him how to manage this big project, how to get organized and stay on track plus being a proofreader.  Some kids may not need the project management coaching but if the parent isn't proofreading things before they go out I hope your child is at least having a teacher or peer do that.  FWIW, I also proofread for DH when he writing something important and he does the same for me.[/quote]

Your level of involvement is about what mine was...so of course I think it was perfect.  :wink: [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics