I thought that we freely express our opinions here based on our own experiences. What is the point of arguing who had whatever experiences and what opinion they formed based on them? Isn’t it great that we all have it differently and as a result formed different opinions. Otherwise life in general would be boring…
Going back to the topic. Some relied on GS’s (in most cases, I say, “poor souls”, which is MY opinion, I am not expressing anybody else’s). Others relied on their own research based on their personal criteria for choosing the college. GS will disregard most of the personal criteria, GC absolutely cannot deal with such personal details while he has so many kids. And I am basing my opinion on my experience when GC dealing only with 33 kids in the senior class (my second kid), which in vast majority of cases is way higher. GS has to be “in a loop” because he has certin responsibilities during application cycle. That is how WE looked at it.
“They go to schools that don’t have hard courses or extra-curriculars. They don’t know anyone that ever went to college so have no clue what they need to do to get there.” - No American HS, including best of the best, have hard courses. None. Again, I am familiar with the HS curriculum abroad and that is how I formed my opinion. You can disagree with it, but you have different experiences so, you cannot say who is right and who is wrong. Another point is that if my S., average caliber student was able to research everything when he was about 14-15 in the middle school and in the era when internet did not exist (yes, I am ancient), then I assume that all those 10 - 18 year olds who know internet much better than any adult (good luck arguing this one), can research ANYTHING their heart desires. My S’s research ended up with him attending the college that he had as his #1 choice. He was not helped by anybody, we had no idea what he was after and how in a world he accomplished that. He even overcame the obstacle of being put on the waiting list initially. Again, he did everything all by himself, average student with average scores coming from the crowded public HS. Trust in your kids, they can do much more than you imagine, that is if they desire to do so! And when they do it because they want it, the results will be beyond expectations. The kid may turn from the average student to the one who deeply cares about his academics at college, who cares to supplement his college education on his own if he sees that something is missing. And this again was based on my personal experience with my S. who was much better student at college than he ever was in HS.
Everybody is different, nobody can do anything about it!