Any parent who is looking at college applications knows how important getting involved in extracurriculars can be. Your teen might not have the involvement in school activities that are going to impress the kinds of colleges they are looking for, but it’s not too late. However, there’s no denying that children who aren’t sporty can find it tougher to find the activities that they like. Here are some of the options you might want to nudge them towards instead.
You probably don’t need a survey to tell you what you already know: parents are more involved in the college process than ever before. They want to participate in the decision and communicate with the colleges. They want to help and guide their students in the decision-making process.
Insight #1-Parents want direct communication from colleges.
Parents want to be more involved. Parents are increasingly anxious and hands-on. Parents want communication from the college and want to participate in the college decision. They want to be involved at the same time as their students in the college search.
I read a post from a parent on one of the Facebook groups I follow. Her son was applying to 40 colleges and she asked how he was going to do it using the Common App since there is a maximum of 20 allowed in the application.
Parents chimed in with suggestions on how to supplement the Common App by applying via college websites and choosing alternate college applications. I read all the suggestions, which were logical and helpful. I kept wondering if anyone would respond by encouraging her to help her son narrow down his list.
Finally, someone spoke up with that suggestion. I’m hoping the mother took their advice because it was the most logical of all.
I will never forget the moment we received our Student Aid Report and I saw the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) on the right-hand corner. I was in shock as most parents are. How could the powers that be believe we could afford to pay that amount for college? It was a mystery to me how they came up with that number, as it is to most of you.
The EFC determines how much financial aid the colleges will award to your student. You can’t receive any federal or institutional aid without getting an EFC when you complete the FAFSA. We are stuck with it and will probably never truly understand how they use to determine how much money your family can afford to pay.
If you are going to need financial aid for college (and who doesn’t?), you will need to understand the EFC.
There’s a new documentary on PBS called “Try Harder!”. It chronicles the lives of some students at Lowell High School, a prestigious high school in California with predominantly Asian students. Their goal–get into the Ivies or the UC colleges. Why? Because according to them, anything else communicates failure.
I was struck by one young man who said, “If I don’t get into one of these schools, I won’t make a difference in the world or be successful.” How sad. What type of message are we conveying to our students? Try Harder.
The acceptance letters have arrived and your student is ready to make his final college decision and then move forward to graduation. Check the box–going to college! It’s a tremendous accomplishment for both students and their parents.
It’s not just your student who is graduating–you are too! You planned for years for your student to go to college and now he has been accepted. After years of planning it’s time to start a new chapter in your life as well.
First things first–do some celebrating. You’ve earned it. It was a difficult task to raise a successful high school graduate and soon-to-be college student. Allow yourself some time to bask in the accomplishment. This is also time to flood him with showers of praise and words of encouragement. He’s worked hard for this and he needs to hear that you are proud of him.
Once the celebration dust settles, to help you head into the next phase, we have some suggestions to assist with the transition.
For seniors who applied regular decision, March brings those long-awaited college decisions: deferred, accepted, rejected, and waitlisted. One knowledgeable college counselor once told me, “I don’t like to call these letters of acceptance. I use the term—offers of admission.” As a parent, I like that distinction. This alternative wording makes it easier to stomach those not-so-pleasant responses and help your college-bound teen work through the gamut of emotions that come when decisions arrive.
Your student may be the one receiving these communications from the colleges, but you feel every emotion they do from failure to excitement and everything in between. But unless you understand what each term means, it’s hard to know how to help your student (and yourself) with appropriate responses and proper action.
It’s that time of year when seniors will be weighing their college options. Choices will be made as parents and students evaluate colleges who offered admission.
The long wait is over and it’s time to make a decision. Which college will your student attend? This decision feels like the most important decision in his life up to this point and will weigh heavily on his mind and yours over the next month.
Before your teen makes the decision, however, you should weigh your college options. You would never purchase a home without determining its value, its fit for your family, or even its location. This college decision should be approached in the same manner. And to complicate matters, the decision has to be made in a timely manner—the National Candidate’s Reply Date is May 1st.
If your student didn’t get an offer of admission from his first or even second choice college, or he is accepted without enough financial aid, it’s time to re-evaluate the colleges on his list. Your teen should take a closer look at those schools on the list that weren’t on top. If he did his homework before applying, these schools should be more than sloppy seconds.
Does your student want to avoid taking a standardized test? Do they bomb them every time they take them? Are you hesitant to pay for a test prep tutor? Good news. There are hundreds of schools, large and small, who will use the SAT or ACT for placement only or other minimal requirements.
Due to the 2020 pandemic, most colleges became test-optional because students were unable to take standardized tests. Rumors abound that this will have a future impact on the value colleges place on standardized tests or eliminating the test requirement altogether.
After my daughter applied to colleges, we waited with anticipation to receive those offers of admission. But just as important, was the financial aid award letter. That letter could mean the difference between attending a college, deciding to incur debt, or attending a less expensive college.
When the letter finally began to trickle in, I realized that choosing the colleges to apply to was only the beginning of some very tough decisions. We learned some lessons along the way.
