Parents shouldn’t call admissions offices on behalf of their kids. Counselors and colleges preach this advice loudly and regularly. Yet while many parents heed it, many others dismiss it and keep dialing the phone for their kids.
To help parents understand just how important it is to let kids make their own calls, Patrick O’Connor takes a different approach in this blog post by describing a hypothetical but realistic conversation between a parent and an admissions officer.
Parents, as you read that article, imagine you were the admissions officer on the other end of the line. Would this parent be helping or hurting her student’s chances?
There’s nothing wrong with a parent helping your student during the college admissions process. Be a calm, supportive voice of reason during a stressful time. Cheer from the sidelines. Encourage, guide, and support. But when you jump in and start taking that process over, you move from helping to hurting.