{"id":15710,"date":"2020-06-01T09:20:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T14:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/?p=15710"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:39:49","slug":"how-involved-should-i-be-in-my-childs-college-admission-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/pre-college\/how-involved-should-i-be-in-my-childs-college-admission-process\/","title":{"rendered":"How Involved Should I Be In My Child&#039;s College Admission Process?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a parent of a future college applicant, or your child is about to start hearing back from the colleges to which he or she applied, college admission officers have some advice for you: Let your child sit in the driver\u2019s seat. In a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of admissions officers from over 350 colleges, 75 percent say parents should only be \u201csomewhat involved\u201d in the admissions process, stepping in only when their child asks them*.<br \/>\nJust one in five (18 percent) recommend parents be \u201cvery involved,\u201d guiding their child every step of the way; just one percent say be \u201cextremely involved,\u201d suggesting parents take care of everything themselves.<br \/>\nOn the flip side, only six percent say parents should be \u201cnot very involved,\u201d and less than one percent say \u201cnot involved at all.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div  class='avia-video avia-video-16-9   av-lazyload-immediate  av-lazyload-video-embed  '   itemprop=\"video\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"  data-original_url='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mzYeX8Jj6Rw&amp;feature=youtu.be' ><script type='text\/html' class='av-video-tmpl'><div class='avia-iframe-wrap'><iframe title=\"College Admissions Tips: Dos and Don&#039;ts from College Admissions Officers | Kaplan SAT &amp; ACT Prep\" width=\"1500\" height=\"844\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mzYeX8Jj6Rw?feature=oembed&autoplay=0&loop=0&controls=1&mute=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/script><div class='av-click-to-play-overlay'><div class=\"avia_playpause_icon\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nHere is some advice for parents trying to strike the right balance in helping with their child\u2019s college admission process:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h3    avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_video  el_before_av_heading  '><h3 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >What role should parents play in college admission?<\/h3><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div><br \/>\nWe dug a little deeper to get college admission officers\u2019 experiences and perspectives on ways parents can be constructive players in the college admission process. Here are a few things they told us:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cParents should be very involved in coaching and advising in the actual decision-making, but it\u2019s also important for students to be the ones most engaged in the process and in contact with the admissions officers.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cStudents need to make the transition into college, where they\u2019re going to need to be independent, so we appreciate when students take ownership.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cParents need to be most involved, especially when it comes to the financial aid process. Students are not knowledgeable in this area and need the most guidance with this.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cParents should be there for support, but the child should be driving. Like learning to drive, you can be a back seat driver, but let kids steer.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cParents should guide the student in thinking about certain aspects of the application and provide a sounding board for the students as they are considering their choices.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h3    avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_heading  el_before_av_heading  '><h3 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >How much parent involvement is too much?<\/h3><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div><br \/>\nWhen has a parent overstepped their bounds or violated norms in the college admission process? Admissions officers offered several scenarios they\u2019ve experienced that can loosely be put in the category of \u201cdon\u2019ts\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI once had a parent call pretending to be the student, but I had met the student before so I knew how their voice sounds. I called the student\u2019s cell phone after to suggest that her mom not pretend to be her and call other schools, because that\u2019s fraud.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe\u2019ve had parents make their students sign waivers so that the parent can speak to anyone on campus regarding them.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe have plenty of \u2018helicopter parents\u2019 who are overly involved. We\u2019ve had parents who wouldn\u2019t let the student speak in meetings even when we tried to engage the student specifically.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThere have been parents who\u2019ve called requesting to change their child\u2019s major because they don\u2019t want their child in that major.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn some cases we\u2019d get duplicate records due to parents and students both trying to complete parts of the application without talking to each other.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h3    avia-builder-el-3  el_after_av_heading  el_before_av_sidebar  '><h3 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >How can parents strike the right balance?<\/h3><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div><br \/>\nAt Kaplan Test Prep, we believe parents can play a constructive role in their child\u2019s college admission process, whether accompanying on-campus visits, making sure they meet application deadlines, or helping them fill out financial aid paperwork. In other areas, it\u2019s most beneficial for parents to let their child to take the lead, including deciding where to apply, letting them speak for themselves when talking with admissions officers, writing their own admissions essays, and the most important decision of all\u2014choosing where to enroll.<br \/>\nKeep this in mind: The college admission process will have its ups and downs, so it\u2019s crucial that parents and their kids establish good communication with each other, which could result in better outcomes and even turn it into a fun, bonding experience.<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><div  class='avia-builder-widget-area clearfix  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_heading  avia-builder-el-last '><div id=\"text-74\" class=\"widget clearfix widget_text\">\t\t\t<div class=\"textwidget\"><p><span data-sumome-listbuilder-embed-id=\"abcf7e42f95202964683adf111250b7472e96ead15100d520b72eb4609e079e8\"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><div id=\"text-75\" class=\"widget clearfix widget_text\">\t\t\t<div class=\"textwidget\"><p><span data-sumome-listbuilder-embed-id=\"8fdc0a662abaec34c4fe4aec6c26b99c898b65c7c231689a40e329ebfaf6a105\"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a parent of a future college applicant, or your child is about to start hearing back from the colleges to which he or she applied, college admission officers have some advice for you: Let your child sit in the driver\u2019s seat. In a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of admissions officers from over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[129],"tags":[128,190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48082,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15710\/revisions\/48082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}