Anonymous wrote:Actually, I am beginning to understand why those pages are so crazy after learning some parents research and craft supplemental essays for their kids. Why stop living your kid’s life for them once they are admitted?

DP. No judgment—everyone does what’s best for their family. That said, after reading this thread, I apologized to my DS tonight. Lol. He’s been asking all summer to drop some chores (dishwasher, trash, driving little brother) so he could focus on school and college apps. He also asked whether we could help with EC list drafting and essay research. We said no—told him to work on balance and time management.

It’s been tough, but he’s grown a lot. Five apps in, accepted to his safety, and the rest nearly ready. We had a counselor to help stay on track, but he wrote all his essays and ECs himself.

Very proud of him—and grateful for the lessons learned on both sides

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its a race to nowhere. No wait, its a race to see who can play the game.

It is, and with the industry that’s popped up around it, there are a whole lot of suckers getting swindled.

Hand-in-hand with travel sports. People preying on parents’ insecurities and attempts to live through their kids.

I dont know the stats, but one person I knew, their child had amazing achievements. High stats, two research papers published, captain of two clubs, some outstanding volunteer awards, and a lot more.

I honestly thought the kid would get into most of T10. Very involved parent and am pretty sure doing a lot of the legwork at least. She seemed to know inside out of every top college requirements and I felt it would be a utter waste of time to even try for T10 if that is the level of competition because my son had nowhere near what her child accomplished.

To my shock her son got waitlisted and then rejected to every one of T20. It was really unfair given what the child has done in HS.

My son got one T20 acceptance much to my surprise. My son's application were a bit raw and I did not bother to provide a lot of feedback because it seemed like such a long shot and waste of time.

Anonymous wrote:Its a race to nowhere. No wait, its a race to see who can play the game.

It is, and with the industry that’s popped up around it, there are a whole lot of suckers getting swindled.

Its a race to nowhere. No wait, its a race to see who can play the game.

The kids aren't giving it their best shot.
The parents, the parents' money, and the hired help are doing the work. No wonder you hear of high dtats kids not getting in. They took a shot and missed. The kids that got in had adults walking them across the court, positioning their feet on the foul line, placing the ball in their hands, putting their hands over the kid's hands, and making the basket for them.

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I am beginning to understand why those pages are so crazy after learning some parents research and craft supplemental essays for their kids. Why stop living your kid’s life for them once they are admitted?

But don’t you see, their kids are so exceptional, they can’t not do this for them! Or something like that.

Actually, I am beginning to understand why those pages are so crazy after learning some parents research and craft supplemental essays for their kids. Why stop living your kid’s life for them once they are admitted?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just incredible how many high stats kids are getting help with their college applications. Wonder what else these kids got help for during their high school years. Such a crappy game.

Genuinely asking, why does this surprise you? Admissions to the most selective schools is a total crapshoot, and everyone knows someone who had amazing stats but didn't get into any top schools and would like a better result for their own kid. I hired a college counselor to help my kid review essays, the common app activity list, etc. II would prefer someone who has been through this with other students and is familiar with these various colleges and "what they are looking for" to provide advice from her own experience.

same. all of this.
its all about shooting your best shot, otherwise, why bother?

Anonymous wrote:Just incredible how many high stats kids are getting help with their college applications. Wonder what else these kids got help for during their high school years. Such a crappy game.

Genuinely asking, why does this surprise you? Admissions to the most selective schools is a total crapshoot, and everyone knows someone who had amazing stats but didn't get into any top schools and would like a better result for their own kid. I hired a college counselor to help my kid review essays, the common app activity list, etc. II would prefer someone who has been through this with other students and is familiar with these various colleges and "what they are looking for" to provide advice from her own experience.

Just incredible how many high stats kids are getting help with their college applications. Wonder what else these kids got help for during their high school years. Such a crappy game.

My high stats kid is also drained. And now getting sick. I work in a high school and all the high flyers looked sick and tired today. It’s the season.

NP here. We pay a former AO $75/week to meet with our DD for 30 minutes virtually just to keep the process rolling. We could have done it ourselves (and were willing to) but basically paid the money because we thought DD would take it better from this woman (“get XYZ done by our next meeting”) and would be more accountable to her and it had the desired effect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess you will hire tutors for your kid in college too to reming them to go to class do problem sets, write papers? Then job coaches too?

If all your friends and neighbors do this, well, you are not in a representative area of town. I see why elites are reviled.

Many parents help organize tutors on college parent facebook groups and help kids get internships. It is out of control. As an immigrant, it has been very tough to navigate the process.

Its not a necessity to do this stuff. Just moms living vicariously through their children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess you will hire tutors for your kid in college too to reming them to go to class do problem sets, write papers? Then job coaches too?

If all your friends and neighbors do this, well, you are not in a representative area of town. I see why elites are reviled.

Many parents help organize tutors on college parent facebook groups and help kids get internships. It is out of control. As an immigrant, it has been very tough to navigate the process.

Those college FB pages are wild! Crazy