<p>You are wrongly misplacing this at the feet of the school. While the guidance counselor would know if the student submitted an application (receiving request for transcripts, SSR, etc), they would have no idea if the student paid the application fees unless the student was fee waiver eligible and the school would have sent out the fee waiver. Unless the school is calling every single college that their students are applying to and ask for a status update, the counselor will not get notification that the student application is incomplete because of something that needed to be done by the student (paying fees, submitting scores, applying for financial aid). </p>
<p>The minute you choose to click the submit button, you are prompted with the question of how are you going to pay for the fee (mailing check, credit card, fee waiver). If your friend’s D did not pay the fee, she would have received notice (more than one) that the application was incomplete and the steps that needed to be taken. Sounds to me that the student made a conscious decision not to move on with the process as she chose to tell no one that the fees needed to be paid and she could not afford it, did not have the money or simply did not want to pay.</p>
<p>Sybbie, if you’re replying to my last post, you may have misunderstood. I wasn’t placing blame on the school. I was stating that the school counselors have too many students that there’s no way to closely follow a student through the college app process. A situation such as this seems to require parents to be more involved in the process. </p>
<p>One of the most important parts of the process is reading directions. </p>
<p>Going directly to the websites of the schools in the summer before you apply, seeing their requirements for admission. Make a spreadsheet or notes about each school. Do they need official transcripts? Test scores sent? Which ones? Recommendations - written or template recs, like at Common App. Due dates for each. What is the fee? Is there a fee waiver? Essays - how many, what kind, word length? Do you need to write it and upload or attach? There are a lot of moving parts in the process. </p>
<p>If they use the Common App, do they also take another kind of application through their institution? Although Common App was generally easier (until the debacle of 2013), it might be easier to just do the school’s app.</p>
<p>Something is indeed fishy with the friend’s kid. My guess after working with a few kids who made these kinds of mistakes is that student was sabotaging the process on purpose. If the kid started the app, they would have gotten emails from schools about incomplete apps. </p>
<p>There would not be a green checkmark if the student hadn’t paid, and they wouldn’t have been able to submit the supplements if they hadn’t paid. Reading the directions for the Common App website would have given them the clue that it wasn’t complete until those green check marks appeared. </p>
<p>Maybe this student did not apply to any colleges where supplements are required. But honestly… every student does not make a spreadsheet, or read the directions… (I know because one of them lives in my house). And my kid ignored emails from schools all the time; she just figured they were more marketing materials. (Not saying it is a good quality, it drives me (and others) crazy. But I don’t assume there is something fishy… just a particularly flakey kid.</p>
<p>Intparent, I am making the assumption that since applications weren’t paid for, that it is because they were incomplete. This is a function of how the CA worked this year. It may have been a different system of apps.</p>
<p>Yes, many kids are flaky. Sometimes it means they aren’t quite ready to apply for college, yet. </p>
<p>Ignoring emails is also one of those things that can really harm an applicant. Especially when the email asks for more information. Live and learn. </p>
<p>My brother, many years ago, got stuck in mud with his college apps. Fortunately, my other brother got wind of it, and flew home and helped him out. He just froze. My parents were totally hands off, so they had no idea, and I don’t think they would have thought it would be such a catastrophe anyways as he could go for free to the local comm college where my dad worked. He missed out on a lot of the Ivy League schools on his list along with some other schools with 12/31 deadlines.</p>
<p>Fast Forward 25 years later, a friend of mine with a very responsible straight A son who ended up at UPenn did the same things. She went into his room after months of getting “leave me alone” and “it’s taken care of” responses and snooped. It looked like a hoarders den. She found parts of apps, things everywhere. The evidence was clear that he had hit a mental block. Parents took over, got the apps out at the 11th hour, kid got some great choices, and did very well in college and thereafter. Sometimes these things happen and kids need help.</p>
<p>Well… my flakey one is off at college. And stuff happens. Emails come out from the Physics department about a seminar over break she wants to attend, but she doesn’t realize that the email is about that… and doesn’t get signed up (has to go later and ask the prof for permission, which is granted). Financial aid emails – don’t get read or forwarded (which caused a problem that had to be sorted later when the FA department reduced her FA and I didn’t know about it until the bill arrived later). Room draw info – I think her potential roommate is on top of it, good thing someone is… She does have a learning disability, so natural consequences still don’t always result in a change in behavior. Her grades are okay in a tough academic environment, so whatever is required there seems to be getting done. And I think she is not the only flakey kid at her school. But I could see how this debacle could have happened to my kid…</p>
<p>Mental blocks happen. It is a big process and sometimes mentally overwhelming for students to start. </p>
<p>There are simply so many things that have to get completed and deadlines are unforgiving, Starting too late can really impact a student’s chances of admission. </p>
<p>However, the student would have saved two years of the difference between a CC and a four year school. In addition, a non-work gap year delays entry into the work force by a year, a potentially large amount of lost earnings (a work gap year earns some money, but probably a lot less than the amount that a college graduate would earn after graduation).</p>
<p>YES, ucb. The person I was responded to had already covered the advantages of a CC in terms of cost-savings. I was presenting an alternative scenario for why a high stats application may want to go straight to a Uni rather than going to a CC first. For those with substantial scholarships, there may not only be a zero cost difference over the 4 years, but he/she might actually save money going directly to a Uni as there are not many scholarships for transfer students. For example, in my state, the last two years at a Uni can cost you between 50 and 60k. However, there are scholarships that can bring your yearly costs (four years) down to less than ~15k a year. Thus, you likely save money going straight to Uni. </p>
If kid goes into cc, then will have less merit money offered to kid; most merit money is offered to incoming freshmen. Thus would recommend a gap year.
My D was planning on doing a gap year. (Her plan after admission to college was to defer starting the college for 1 year). Gap years are much more common in European countries than in US (I’ve been told). For planned gap year, D found places on the web in Australia and in Spain to work and get paid in both countries. I think she was looking up gap year programs in other countries because it is more common so there may be more opportunities out there in Australia and Spain. She was also going to travel during her days off. It made me want to take a gap year off of work to join her. These gap year programs did not cost anything; in fact, they pay for you to work.</p>
<p>I don’t care if my kid was a combination of Proust and Sir Isaac Newton intellectually- a HS senior who can’t push the right buttons in the right order is a kid not ready for college. This is likely a teenager who can figure out the nuances of every last social networking app and can post photos, video and audio to the web… and we think she couldn’t figure out how to get an online application submitted on time?</p>
<p>And the LAST thing I would do is to go into the “hoarder’s den” and fix things at the last minute. Are you going to hang out during reading period in your kids dorm room and finish up the problem sets, write the research paper, and complete 30 pages worth of statistical appendices?</p>
<p>We all draw our own lines as to when to help and when it’s time to cut the cord. I know that I am glad that my brother got the help he did when he stalled, and my friend’s son is doing just fine now, better than most. For whatever reason, they got stuck. For all we know, that this happened and there was help to get out of the rut made for a better person. It’s not always the case that adversity or consequences makes for better people. </p>
<p>My father died during my brother’s freshman year, and my mother moved to my area, which would have meant that my brother would have had to have transferred out of the free CC deal to a whole other state, and we all know what fin aid for transfers likely would have been. Don’t know how that freshman year would have been either, living at home with a dad dying. Instead, I took over, as brother was away at college with a good fin aid package that was increased even more after my father died. One of the privileges one gets at a top 25 school that guarantees to meet full need and is one of the most generous in aid packages. Statistically, the chances of graduating from that school was and is quite high. From the CC and the having to transfer to another CC or other college, would have drastically reduced odds, and my brother’s freshman year grades were terrible due to stresses of the home situation. I think that it was as good as it got. </p>
<p>So, you have to make up your own mind when it’s time for a kid to bear the brunt of his bad decisions, or depressions, procrastinations. For many parents I know, the end of the line is when they go off to college. But through the app process and getting through high school, they remain helicopter parents just hoping the hovering is moving back a bit. The test is often whether they can get through that freshman year successfully. I did very little for my kids once they were away at college, and, yes, they made some mistakes that would have been less problematic had I been involved. But they picked schools far away, and I was not involved. </p>
<p>What’s wrong is that if the kid is a candidate for selective schools that don’t have an articulation agreement with the CC, they will be applying as transfer students. In many cases, it is A) much more difficult to be admitted as a transfer student, and B) the college is much less likely to give the student money. It is also true that C) not all CCs are created equal, and while in California it is apparently not uncommon for CCs to offer math beyond calculus and so forth, so that top HS students may have dual enrollment, in other places the CC is almost exclusively aimed at traditional students who couldn’t cut it in HS, non-traditional students who are balancing work with school, and vocational programs, not courses leading to a 4-year degree. </p>
<p>That said, starting at CC can be a perfectly reasonable plan in the right circumstances. </p>
<p>Just wanted to say, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with going to community college for a year or two out of high school. Personally, I think it’s the best option for all but the most extraordinary students. </p>
<p>I too believe that 18 year olds need an administrative assistant to help them at times. There is so much on their plates with rigorous classes, jobs, EC’s…my dd’s life is far busier than mine. Thank God I took the time to check the deadline for one of her colleges. It was 12/31 and NOT 1/1… Not sure how she missed it, but I think she became bleary eyed with the whole application and it all started to look the same. She was overwhelmed and tired. </p>
<p>I then took it upon myself to proofread her entire CA twice…maybe 3 times. I found some subtle mistakes here and there…after I pointed them out, she laughed and couldn’t believe that she has made such silly errors. </p>
<p>I wish I had a mom who assisted me when I was younger. She was completely hands off by age 13 or 14. Looking back now, I was lost without her “helicopter eyes”! </p>