College applications: What I've learned as a parent the second time around

mackinaw
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 04:54:43 +0000

For us, there was little carryover from one child’s college search to the other’s. Each search was planful and largely free of angst.

What the kids had in common

1 & #2 had parents with a good sense of the academic scene on a national level.

1 & #2 had parents who could afford to send them to any college, in part because the grandparents chipped in about 25% of the costs of attendance.

How the kids differed
– #1 wanted a strong academic institution in a major league city. No specific career goal but possibly an academic career.
– #2 wanted an art school preferably in a real city in the East. Career as artist and ecological designer.

– #1 had strong math skills and very high scores on all the key standardized tests. A National Merit Semifinalist.
– #2 had taken summer pre-college art programs to help in building skills and a portfolio of 2D and 3D creations.

– #1 had strong EC’s, as well as statewide awards in journalism, debate, and math competitions.
– #2 had won blue ribbons at art shows.

The search
Because of their different interests and core skills there was no carry over from one college search to the other. There was also no rivalry between the kids. There was no overlap in the colleges that the two kids applied to. Of the ca. 12 colleges they applied to, they got into 11. They were happy with the colleges they chose to attend. They each spent a period of study abroad (one of them for a summer, the other for an academic year). They both graduated in 4 years.