Reality sets in and application is unfinished

mom2collegekids
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:27:52 +0000

^I agree, with a small caveat: before you (as a parent) do a quick application for your kid, be sure they are willing to attend and at least LIKE the school, if not love it.

That can be true! That’s why I included the with kid’s permission mention (altho I should have also included the policy that some families have: that the children get to pick X number of schools to apply to, and the parents get to pick 2-3 schools (parent picks). :)

However, even if a child says at this point, “I wouldn’t ever go there,” unless the parent knows that the school has some aspect that would make it impossible for your child to tolerate (for instance: single sex or too religious), there are many kids who are happily attending safety schools suggested by parents that the kids NEVER thought that they would like and only applied because parents kind of insisted.

For many of these safety schools, the app are only about $30 (and sometimes free), so it’s not a huge investment loss if your child later rules it out when all acceptances/aid packages come in. I would much rather risk $30 on a school that has *decent possibilities *than have a sad spring with no safeties and a lot of rejections or unaffordable schools.