How much did you do for your kids college applications?

[dogmom]

Your kids let you help with the college applications? Second STILL hasn’t let me see his art portfolio as a whole, and he’s been accepted and committed, lol. Never saw his essay, wouldn’t show me. Assured me the teacher worked on it with him. Eldest had me prodding him to get things done more, read his essay, made some suggestions. But it was fall of 2020 so the guidance counselor was sort of busy doing other things and he was completely remote. Honestly as much as parents doing the work bothers you the admissions consultants bother me a heck of a lot more, but that’s what money gets you.

I try to look at it is my kids got into the colleges appropriate to them, without much help from me. It increases the chance they can manage college and the rest of their life without a lot of guidance or intervention from us. There is still so much to teach them I’m trying to get them to be fully functioning adults. I here stories from my eldest and he is very grateful he seems to be higher functioning than some of his classmates.

[StantonHyde]

Older kid with dyslexia, ADHD, etc: I filled in all of the busy work sections of the Common App and the UC app. He worked with a tutor to write his essay and develop all of the "short answer" sections. I just did data entry. He needed constant reminders and pushing to get it done. It was a process!!!

Younger son--worked with a tutor on the essay and short answer stuff. He did all of the data entry and did the whole thing pretty much himself.

I made both kids get theirs done by November 1 so they could get full consideration for scholarships. Neither kid wanted to apply Early decision or early action. Having them work with a tutor on the essays/short answer was the best money I ever spent. It was $500 a kid. Totally worth it.

[o_mom]

I helped with some of the busy work - mainly grade entry (so freakin' ridiculous to require that). However, I told them I would only help if they asked and gave clear instructions. I think that learning to delegate, provide clear instructions, and check someone else's work are as much "life skills" as any of the other parts of the application. One of them missed even getting a decision from a school because he didn't read his email where they wanted grades entered in an outside portal even though they had a transcript and the common app grades.

[georgiegirl]

I helped with some of the busy work - mainly grade entry (so freakin' ridiculous to require that).

Entering in the courses and grades was so tedious. I ended up doing it for DD since our school is weird. 9th is in a building with 8th and they are on the traditional semester schedule, but then 10-12 is on the 4x4 block system, so that required clicking on different things in the drop down menus.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[athompson]

Nada. She did it all on her own.

[anonomom]

DC did most of the work on their own, but I did:
-- read their essays (at their request) and provide feedback (DC's school provides no support, practice or resources for essays).
-- Talk through DC's activities list with them and urge them to include some of the non-school-sponsored things they did. DC didn't think they *could* list some of it, but they did anyway and one of those activities ended up getting cited specifically in their acceptance letter from one school.
-- Create a spreadsheet of application deadlines, projected decision dates, various essay requirements, and space for portal logins. DC never used it.
-- Help them find an acting coach who could help them with the BFA audition process, because neither they nor I had any idea of how it worked. DC was responsible for scheduling their meetings with the coach and actually filming their audition package(s), as well as figuring out how to get the auditions filed with the schools.
-- Got DC's headshot (actually just their senior yearbook photo) printed for in-person auditions
-- For one of the schools that required an SRAR, I did fill it in.

[citymama]

Other than making sure she didn’t apply to a lot of colleges we could possibly not afford I didn’t do a single thing for Dd1 except redo her FAFSA on Wednesday and provided her my credit card to pay the application fees. She asked DH and I specific questions but other than that she did it all.

So this is kind of b!tch honestly and I mentioned it before in another post but DD1’s BFF got into the same school DD1 did and they have very similar statistics and the exact same extra curricular activities (dance, tennis, school ambassador program, tech crew for drama, and captain of a varsity sport -Dd1 tennis and BFF dance) but BFF got an extra $22k merit scholarship per year to a school where DD1 got nothing. Dd1 told me that BFF’s mom filled out every single college (she only applied for six schools) application for BFF and did everything but the essays (I hope that is the case honestly but part of me thinks the mom could’ve written the short answer essay that was required for this university). Dd1 said that BFF didn’t even know her portal passwords until recently (which made me think twice about the short answer essay). Of course I can’t blow this parent in because she would know it is me but it bothers me that she did this.

It is this kind of FOMO that makes me mad and I know it shouldn’t and I do have the opportunity to appeal for more aid if the actual financial aid package isn’t enough if DD1 decides this school is the one for her (I am not sure it is though) after the admitted student day in a few weeks; but it still feels wrong that I know I can’t do anything about it.

Very little. She really wouldn't let us either. We filled out financial aid forms and FAFSA, gave her our cc to send SAT scores and app fees and drove her to her SAT exam. I mean, we also raised her and fed her and clothed her for 17 years....but not a lot for college apps.