Originally Posted by
acmom
There are pieces of the common app (in addition to the essays) that I would consider beyond "data entry" - namely the activities and additional info sections. I think the way those are filled out can be very beneficial or not beneficial to an applicant in terms of what they choose to include and how they present and write it. Those are section can help shape the picture of the applicant and what is important to them and their story. I think having an adult proofread is totally fine (and helpful!) but I feel those pieces should be in student's voice not parent's.
ETA: I also appreciate that every student is different and will need different levels of support with their applications - from help with proofreading to help with wording to help with staying on track. I don't think it is a one size fits all situation. However, I do feel like the end result is that the application should be in the student's voice and representative of them, their interests, abilities and values - not the parent's.
Well, I didn’t go into this level of detail in my answer above but in our case it really was data entry. My 2 boys had created and printed out separate documents with their activities listed on them in the order of importance to them. They had had teachers at school proofread them and give insights. They checked with the school office to make sure the school correctly had them listed as participating in those activities and in those years. They had been updating these documents for a couple of years. Then they printed them off and gave them to me. So I entered the data from the documents they gave me. I already stated that they completed their essays themselves and had them proofread by teachers. They wrote several drafts of their essays proofread.
There were plenty of other things that they were responsible for on their Common Apps. And as I said above, they were Eagle Scouts with boards of review the year before. Also, their school is brutally unmerciful about observing deadlines even for middle school. So what I did for ds1 and ds2 to help with the college applications didn’t harm them or deprive them from any experiences they had never experienced before.
Last edited by gatorsmom; 03-15-2024 at 08:33 PM.
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