<p>Interesting - I do make my younger son’s airline reservations for travel to and from college and it never occured to me to have him take this on. The reservations are the easy part! He’s had to learn how to navigate missing a flight, flying standby, getting to and from the airport, do I check a bag or not, etc. and what happens when I leave my coat behind on the plane.</p>
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<p>So, the colleges expect them to be autonomous, mature and responsible, and the high school is treating them like little kids who can’t decide when to use their phone?</p>
<p>My HS finally relented and “allows” us to carry our cells now. I’m not sure that I can purchase an airline ticket next year since I probably won’t have a credit card. Not sure that I can build a credit report that fast.</p>
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<p>Yes, that’s what every single high school around here does. Prohibits cell phone use at all, for any reason, during school hours / when in school. That hardly seems unusual.</p>
<p>^^ I’ve never heard of a HS that lets kids use their phones during school hours. Some of them (but very few) allow them during breaks and lunch and when class is out of session, but most/many do allow them at all during school hours. </p>
<p>When they get to colleg,e the get to be semi-autnomous, but when in HS, it’s reasonable to expect that they have trouble controlling those texting impulses.</p>
<p>This thread has been picked up by Jacques Steinberg’s blog: [Is</a> There a Danger in Pestering an Admissions Officer? - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/pester/]Is”>Is There a Danger in Pestering an Admissions Officer? - The New York Times) Interesting comments from quite a few Admissions Officers, most notably one from Dartmouth in the 25 November posting.</p>
<p>We’re famous!</p>
<p>The Dartmouth Admissions office has now weighed in as well:
[Perspectives</a> from Dartmouth Admissions: Thoughts on AO Contact](<a href=“http://dartmouthperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/11/thoughts-on-ao-contact.html]Perspectives”>Perspectives from Dartmouth Admissions: Thoughts on AO Contact)</p>
<p>I found this comment on the NYTimes site particularly offensive. </p>
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<p>Maybe Mr. Liberal Arts Basher would have done well to have learned proper hyphenation.</p>
<p>I thought that comment about liberal arts moms was stupid.</p>
<p>“stereo-typical over-active mother” Haha! Does that mean you have an overactive mother on each side?</p>
<p>To me there has always been too much emphasis on “training” our kids to be independent. Whether you or kid makes the travel or tour arrangement is not going to make her more or less independent. I have always made travel arrangements in our family. When D1 went abroad to Australia, she just went ahead and booked trips by herself. Because we’ve traveled so much, she knew exactly what to do at immigration or transportation from an airport. She did fine with no pushing or training from me. They will know what to do when they have to.</p>
<p>D1 has never cooked, she will be living off campus next semester and she will need to cook for herself. I am not worried.</p>
<p>As far as on college tours, we were right there with D1. Even though it was D1 who was going to college, we were paying. I wanted to know their safety record, drinking policy, town/gown relationship. I also noticed things D1 didn’t. We gave her a different perspective. No, when it comes to 200000 expenditure, I wouldn’t leave it to a 17 year old. I don’t see it as a badge of honor to let a HS kid to visit a school by herself.</p>
<p>Oldfort, either DH or I visited every school either of our kids considered. When it came down to final trips in April, though, we let S1 (and will let S2) go visit solo. Part of it was trying to save $$, part of it was to let them experience it without the parental safety net.</p>
<p>Both have spent a lot of time creating lists that reflected who they are and what they want, so we were confident in their thought processes and decision making. S1 was foruntate in that he was accepted at exactly the four schools he wanted and that were clearly the best fits from a financial, acedemic and social perspective. There were no bad decisions for him to make, though each had its own pros and cons. </p>
<p>We hope for similar results for S2. If he wants us to go on an April trip because he’s really unsure, of course we’ll join him. We’ve already committed to making things work financially, so the bulk of the decision truly rets in his hands. We have an ongoing conversation about his goals, what he wants, etc., so I don’t think there will be much ground to cover come April that we haven’t already hashed over the past year - year and a half.</p>
<p>I saw this thread start and thought it would end pretty quickly. I guess I was wrong!</p>
<p>Admission office staff members are used to answering questions. I don’t think you should worry about bothering us unless you are calling repeatedly during the reading season, when we’re swamped.</p>
<p>As for calling for your students, the basic questions are handled by the front office staff members and they aren’t taking notes on conversations. As for more advanced questions, many admission officers are resigned to the fact that we’ll talk to the parents of applicants more than we’ll talk to applicants. It’s refreshing when a student calls us, though. Most high schools are out by 2-3 PM, so I think students are capable of carving out five minutes between school and practices/meetings to make a call if they have a question. What’s more, most colleges offer multiple options for asking questions after hours (email, blogs, message boards, Twitter, IM, and chats).</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving, all. I hope you aren’t worrying about this too, too much!</p>
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<p>Yes. For one if there are questions about the college it should really be your daughter that’s asking these questions.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- when you say your kids can’t use cell phones during the day, is it because you have it restricted? If so, you may want to relax that for a bit. My D was heavily involved in after school activities so she couldn’t make calls then either, but she found that she could go to the Guidance Office in her HS and use their phone-or use her own- during study halls, between classes,etc to contact colleges if she had to get information.
Also, I completely agree with those who suggest that parents keep a low profile during college visits; there’s nothing wrong with going along on the tour, but let your daughter or son go in for the interview alone. If you’re concerned about their ability to handle an interview suggest that they make an appt with their HS Guidance Counselor (or College Counselor, if there is one ), and go through a “practice interview”. Remind them not to say “ummmmm” or “like” a dozen times, send them in and go have a cup of coffee!
The best part of it is…at this time next year, it will all be over and your student will be settled at college!</p>
<p>No, Mezzo, as I indicated upthread the school prohibits cell phone use during the day. Not me.</p>
<p>Our school prohibits cell phones too, but I bet if you went into the guidance office and told them you wanted to call xyz college, they would give you permission to use your phone or let you use theirs. They aren’t unreasonable. </p>
<p>We recently called Georgetown to find out if they were planning on telling us they had received all the application materials. (They e-mailed when Part 1 of their application was sent.) By “we” I mean, I told son what to say and he made the call. I consider this part of my job as a parent, learning how to make these sorts of calls. I don’t think it would have mattered if I made the call, as far as I know he talked to a secretary, I just think it’s good practice. If he were truly too busy, I could have done it.</p>
<p>mathmom, yup. I don’t have a problem teaching my guys how to approach these kinds of calls (it’s good practice for talking to profs, potential employers and cute girls), but as far as the actual calling – it’s all on them. There’s a learning curve, of course, but they do get more comfortable with it. (For those with natually gregarious and chatty offspring, I offer congratulations!)</p>
<p>S2 has to call URoch tomorrow – they sent an email in August saying they had his Part 1, but he got an email the other day saying it’s missing. Hmmm… Guess he needs to add Gerogetown to the list to call, too, since we haven’t heard if anything’s missing there, either.</p>