Parents, you get to decide how you approach the college admissions process. But before you make the decision, remember that you’ll only get to do this once.
You may get to repeat the process with your other kids, but in most cases, you only get to go through the college application process one time with each of them.
So it’s up to you. You can get caught up in the academic arms race and make the entire process about GPAs, test scores and whether or not one dream college will say yes. You can spend more time trying to fix your kid’s perceived college admissions weaknesses and less time celebrating her natural strengths. You can listen to the other parents who want to turn this into a status competition and base the success or failure on the prestige of the college your student attends (or doesn’t attend).
Or you can decide that you’re going to enjoy this time together as a family.
You can celebrate just how many great colleges there are from which to choose. You can encourage your student to try her best and reward the effort rather than the outcome. You can find the fun in learning about colleges and taking the campus tours. You can enjoy this time together, knowing the name of the particular college your student goes to will be much less important than what he or she does while there.
Please don’t tell me you’re forced to choose the first approach because “the process has gotten so competitive.” There are about 1900 colleges that still accept almost everyone who applies, so nobody is forcing your hand. You get to decide how to approach this.
But you only get to make that decision once with each of your kids.