<p>Have you found yourself listening to a guidance counselor or other <em>authority</em> and found yourself thinking “they’re not on CC” or worse, rolling your eyes at the mis-information?</p>
<p>Example:
My son’s GC stating in the Fall of 2013 that the best common app essay prompt was “describe a significant moment in your life”. The common app discontinued that prompt for my son’s class (HS 2014; college 2018).</p>
<p>A parent asking a panel of admissions counselors “if my son took the SAT more than once, which score do you use?” This parent has a child who is already in college. I’m doing the eye roll and thinking, It’s called superscore. You should know this.</p>
<p>Another parent, same evening, asking “Do you offer financial aid that isn’t tied to the family’s financial status?” Me, eye roll, thinking it’s called merit aid. Duh.</p>
<p>Yet another parent asking “how important is demonstrated interest?” Depends on the school. And this has been covered time and time again on CC.</p>
<p>I don’t get the premise of your post. Are you trying to say that you’re annoyed that people don’t know the answers to questions you found on CC? Most of the world isn’t on this site and probably hasn’t even heard of it. Let’s cut people some slack just because they want an answer to a reasonable question. It’s great you get your questions answered here, but other people getting them answered elsewhere isn’t a big deal.</p>
<p>Class of 2015,
I know what you are talking about. While I wouldn’t “bash” parents for not knowing the answers to these questions, how about guidance counselors? I have been volunteering in a public high school guidance office this year (I have some formal training in addition to being on CC since 2004 ;)) and I watched as a guidance counselor was asked at an assembly what the difference was between Early Action and Early Decision. His answer? “Wow, I really get those mixed up.” I handled the question. Another instance in the office was a different guidance counselor who disagreed with me about score choice. This counselor insisted that there was no more score choice, until I showed her that it had been re-instituted in 2009.
Time for the :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I am a compulsive researcher…not knowing what to expect ranks among my chief stressors. So I research everything! Thank heaven for the internet because it’s made it a lot easier. I am always surprised when I cross paths with people who haven’t done any research of their own ahead of time–whether it is about the college application process, the strategy for organizing your day at Disneyland, etc. But then I remember that not everyone is like me.</p>
<p>What saddens me is when people who rely on the school to provide them with their information and don’t look for it elsewhere truly miss out. My daughter’s high school held their “college information night” in February or March of junior year. If we’d waited until then to start thinking about college, we wouldn’t have known that the SAT is now offered nearly monthly, that students often start taking it in January of junior year, that they take it over and over again, etc. (We found this out too late to register my daughter for the January sitting but she took the ACT in Feb and the SAT in March. Wouldn’t have been able to do either of these if we’d waited for the school to give us the cue.)</p>
<p>At the college information night, the school also didn’t share the important truth about what “EFC” really is, and that most families are expected to contribute more than they, themselves, would have believed they could afford to contribute. Instead, the school emphasized how financial aid was available, how everyone should apply and schools would make attendance “affordable.” I’m afraid these are the families who get a big shock when they fill out the FAFSA in their kid’s senior year, too late to look for other options.</p>
<p>The other thing they did was to distribute a fact sheet about the colleges most popular among our school’s students, but they’d taken the College Board data on the grade distribution of the admitted students for each school and collapsed it, so that it showed what fraction had a GPA of 3.5 or better. (The implication being that 3.5 is plenty good for, say, Harvard.) This made every school on the fact sheet seem about the same in terms of selectivity…not so helpful for people looking for the realistic facts.</p>
<p>I also think that one of the most valuable resources this board offers is the reality check function. Kids–or parents of kids–with 4.0 and perfect test scores may truly have no idea that there are literally thousands of kids that accomplished. It’s easy to think you are more remarkable than you are if you don’t look beyond the boundaries of your own school/community. Sure, it’s discouraging, but it also makes for a more realistic strategy.</p>
<p>I have been researching college and schools for about three years for my D since this is our first time around and even though I thought I was more prepared than many others, I am not surprised that I am still a novice in this process. The word of mouth info on CC has added to my knowledge, but I only stumbled in this site, after most applications were submitted. I think I did a very good job considering I work full time and have not been to college in many years. I was disappointed in the guidance department and I’m happy I wasn’t waiting around for any help. I would still be waiting. Considering a college education costs as much as a mortgage, you can never know too much. And then there are the parents who just insist state school and their kids get in, do well, get jobs and they don’t know what the fuss is all about. I sometimes wish I had just taken that approach myself.</p>
<p>I think some parents are just less invested in the whole college application process than others. If you have an extremely motivated child with some time on their hands then perhaps the “hands off” approach will work. But if you have your typical teenager with a full load of academics, athletics and outside activities, I think it is a mistake to not educate yourself on the whole process. We are in the latter category and since we will qualify for no aid whatsoever, we approach this like we would any other $200,000 + investment - seriously. Personally, I am just not the “eye rolling” type, but will admit if I find myself in a meeting or gathering that I feel is of no value, then I just make a quiet exit. Many HS seminars on college admissions are pretty rudimentary.</p>
<p>Not everyone uses the internet, not everyone cares to hang around message boards where people bash them because they aren’t as “smart” as they are. Those are legitimate questions to be asked at a college planning session. </p>
<p>Not all colleges superscore, not all colleges care about demonstrated interest…but you know that because you are a CC expert right?</p>
<p>+1 SteveMA! And B IS a good grade! I know kids who have gotten into “selective” college with a B or two. But they are URM so they probably stole a slot of a much smarter kid. (insert MY version of the CC eyeroll).</p>
<p>I do think it’s exasperating when parents seem to have no clue about any of this–they have a lot more knowledge when they’re thinking about buying a new car.</p>
<p>But I cut them slack, because often they don’t know that there is more to know. It’s a different story for guidance counselors and teachers. Too often they are giving bad, or at least stale, advice–like two reaches, two matches, and two safeties for a kid who would like to go to Harvard. My son had a teacher–in an IB magnet–who would only write recommendations for three colleges, because he thought that was enough.</p>
<p>I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. A public school guidance counselor has hundreds of students assigned to him or her and a host of responsibilities. As a parent you are focused on your one, two, or three kids, right? Okay, I know some of you have eight! Anyhow, yeah, make it your job to know the ins and outs, because the guidance counselor is going to do what they’re going to do. You have a lot more control over what <em>you</em> do.</p>
<p>“B is a good grade” might not be such a horrible thing for a totally stressed out kid with a lot of pressure on him to hear. Better a live student with a few Bs then a dead one with straight As.</p>
Well, that’s not so bad, as long as colleges understand that it’s a tough-grading school. What’s tough, in my opinion, is when the school has, say, two calculus teachers, and only one of them thinks a B is a good grade.</p>
<p>I don’t eye roll parents, as a rule, though I have heard some things that are down right wrong come out of a lot of mouths. Saying their kids are on athletic scholarships at schools that don’t give them is one an example. I give the merit/financial aid a pass as there is a lot of merit within need, but, yes, if a kid got money from Penn or other ivy there had to be some need component there.</p>
<p>Where I go ballistic is when professional guidance counselors make remarks. like not to worry about the money, that it would all work out, and encouraging kids to apply to expensive school with no idea where the parents financials are, insteadof stressing that payment is an issue too. WIth costs where they are for college, the reality is that they are an important part of college planning.</p>
Anyhow, yeah, make it your job to know the ins and outs, because the guidance counselor is going to do what they’re going to do. You have a lot more control over what <em>you</em> do.</p>