Giving advice

homerdog
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:17:35 +0000

Our oldest isn’t graduating until 2019, but many of my local friends have 2018 graduates. Many of them were out touring schools with a vengeance this summer and many of them have very bright, high stats kids. It is only now that they are realizing that visiting all of their kids’ reaches and having the kids fall in love was a very bad idea. They are trying to find match and safety schools and the kids are turning their noses up at them. I even have friends who are already getting defensive and saying things like, “our son has worked so hard and deserves to go to x-school (Brown, Harvard, Tufts, you get the drift)”. Our school’s Naviance shows that last year was the worst year ever for kids to get shut out of all of their reaches and many families were very upset at the end of the 2017 school year. I’m not sure my friends understand that. Or, worse, they think it won’t happen to their child.

I was talking with some fellow 2019 friends the other day and they are also planning these crazy see all-of-the-best schools trips. I don’t want to seem like a know it all but I’ve known many of these ladies for a long time and I’ve known their children since they were born. I don’t want to see any of them disappointed and I want to tell them to start with safeties and matches for visits. I told one mom, though, and she thought I was somehow disparaging her daughter and saying she couldn’t get into x-school. I thought I was clear with her that I was just trying to explain the chances.

So, I’m throwing the question out there - do you all try to give advice? Or just keep it to yourself?