<p>I was one of the hosts at a sending off party for the 09 parents. As expected parents talked about colleges.
People talked about distance, who is better suited for the quarter system ect. However, here are a few of the snippets of a conversation that caught my attention.
One parent steered her D away from a highly ranked school because the school was not “nurturing”.
One did not want her D to apply to a school that she feels is better suited for males.
While another did not want his S to apply to a school because advising is “do it yourself”, and fell that his S was not motivated enough.<br>
These are things that I never considered, when my oldest kids applied to college.
What do you think?</p>
<p>Depending on your kid, these can all be very legitimate concerns.</p>
<p>I think the parents know their children. You didn’t have to consider these things because they didn’t matter to your children.</p>
<p>Those are perfectly reasonable concerns, but most haven’t been issues for us - for either kid.</p>
<p>I was very much hands on in the college “decision” process with older D. She went on to tell me that she went only because we liked it, not because she did. So going forward, I left it up to S to make his own decisions. I didn’t steer or otherwise direct him to any particular school. He said he wanted small, I asked him why. He said he wanted to play his sport and I asked him why. The only thing important to me this time around was having the kid understand his own motivations for the decisions he would be making. Interestingly enough, those schools which I felt were the least good fit he wasn’t accepted, which confirms my belief that there is something to be said for the adcoms ability to see where a kid might fit best, even if not with them.</p>