This Sunday on Father’s Day we want to celebrate all the great dads of College Confidential.
We’ll be doing a special feature on our channels, so we want to hear from you on **“What’s the best college advice that you (as a dad) gave your kid?”
Best advice: Apply early to two state flagships with rolling admissions. Had two acceptances & one full scholarship very early in the Fall.
Worst advice: Not to apply to one of HYPSM at which student was very well liked & repeatedly encouraged to apply.
P.S. Second best advice = fire the elite prep boarding school counselor & to proceed on our own.
Third best advice = Write your own essays & self edit. Do not spend any more than 45 minutes writing per essay in order to preserve student’s voice & genuine thoughts.
Best advice: throughout that interview series, don’t try to be what they want, but present who you are and if it matches what they want, great, and if not, it isn’t a good fit. Secondary: other applicants are partners for networking, not competitors to beat.
Worst advice - drop an EC in which nothing was happening and not to try and fix something that was broken (luckily, that advice was ignored).
Second best advice: do not use the “how I persevered over difficulties” theme in your college essay - it’s about showing who you are, not about telling about what you did, or what happened to you.
This isn’t so much advice as it is expectation. I told them I was proud of the their effort, perseverance, and attitude. If they put their best into those things then the outcome made no difference. If they were successful I’d celebrate with them if they weren’t I’d be sad with them. Either way I’d be proud of them.
Best advice - start early. Being accepted into her #1 school by the end of October made Senior year so much easier.