Having access to a computer doesn’t mean you know how to use it for college. They don’t know what they don’t know.
For example, at a low-performing school, all kids know about the SAT is that it’s a test they’ll take senior year if they intend to go to college. They’re given the official booklet a week before the test. Period. (The school’s average was about 1100 CR+M+W). How can they mgically guess there’s khan academy and they could be using it starting after sophomore year in order to prepare thoroughly? That, in other town, there are such things are prep classes and tutors? Or that you can buy books and can spend a long time preparing for this test, when their teachers and counselors tell them “it’s a week from now” and that’s it? Should they second guess everything teachers and adults tell them? How can they imagine upper-middle class lives with professional parents - at best from films and from TV shows, and we all know how accurate these are.
These kids wouldn’t know the timeline. They may start searching for information in September senior year. They may not now where to look, what to look for. They may end up on nich, or reddit, and find useless crap. You probably don’t know there’s such a thing as Fly-ins, “request info forms” that count for “interest”, (or what “interest” is), that you may need recommendations, that subject tests exist (especially in ACT-territory but not only), that you have to write essays or what’s a good essay, that some colleges meet need and others don’t…
How many EDUCATED PARENTS stumble on this website and ask questions?
The magnitude of what applying to college entails, especially for lower income, first gen youth, is staggering.