Crazy parents

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>So what are some crazy/weird/annoying/embarrassing things your parents have done throughout the college process?</p>

<p>Here's mine:
My dad is not too happy about the fact that I'm thinking of applying to a school in NC. The reason? His ex-wife lives in SC. He's trying all these weird tactics to try to discount it in my mind. For example, he purposely messes up the school's name to make it sound less appealing (i.e. X State instead of X University). Also, whenever we encounter something neat or unique about a specific school's program, he makes this snide comment like "I wonder if X has that?" It's quite agravating really.</p>

<p>So go on, share your stories!</p>

2

<p>My mom will make me apply to her alma mater, but that's about it.</p>

3

<p>My dad's worring about the money. He freaks out when we talk about a good school and says we can't go because we don't have the money when we do and have scholarships. It's really annoying.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, money is my parents' top priority too. I get where they're coming from but when it's the first thing they mention every time I bring up a school, it's really annoying.</p>

<p>My mom decided she didn't like Boston University because they spend a bunch of money on their hockey team (I think it was hockey) but then she wants me to go to USC, which probably spends a bunch more money on the football team.</p>

5

<p>My mother was disappointed in my report card.</p>

<p>My grades, you ask? 100,101, 99, 99, 98.</p>

<p>Arrgh.</p>

6

<p>you're totally joking snoopyiscool. Those were pretty much my grades first term. My combined average of all subjects of all three marking periods so far is a 96.25</p>

7

<p>my dad thinks getting 3 b's in ap classes will cause them to rescind my admission/prevent me from getting into med school, despite having no knowledge of the process whatsoever.</p>

8

<p>bobbo.... my dad thinks the EXACT same thing lol. it is absurd....</p>

9

<p>btw, my dad ALSO said:
"psssh the next 4 years of your life don't mean anything!"</p>

10

<p>hah, I hope most of your parents are joking? Especially swim's, I mean that's really shallow of your dad.</p>

11

<p>well two things from my well-meaning mom:
"I just wonder if ___ can get into college with these grades!" to my brother...
..I have a 98.6 average and a 108 weighted (I had two 97's and the rest 100's...yeah). </p>

<p>She apparently was just kidding, but still, I get no bennies for good grades ha</p>

<p>"Random vocab word means what?" <em>points to book I'm holding</em> "Um...Idk, but this is an SAT TWO World History book..."</p>

12

<p>My parents still do that.</p>

<p>Dad: Right, because you're expensive and you just have to go to PRICETON <em>cough</em> I mean, Princeton. I bet Berkeley would take you right now if you asked. So what say you? Want to transfer to Berkeley?</p>

13

<p>My parents don't want me to go to college that's too far for a daily commute. Yes, they insist I don't live in dorms and instead commute from our house daily.</p>

14

<p>mathwiz, don't you already go to Phillips Andover? Don't you already live away from home???</p>

15

<p>Arg...My mom just called up her "good friend" who happens to be the Director of Admissions at the business school at her alma mater asking him to "put in a good word" for me with the people at the art school. It's annoying really, the way she tries to control my life.</p>

16

<p>
[Quote]

mathwiz, don't you already go to Phillips Andover? Don't you already live away from home???

[/Quote]
</p>

<p>Yes, but I'm a day student.</p>

17

<p>When I was picking schools to apply to, she refused for me to apply to Rollins. I wasn't too sure about the school either, but I wanted a fallback school that I could also swim at, so I just added it on when I used her credit card to apply for a whole bunch of schools on commonapp. I pretty much did it to spite her. Turns out that will likely be the school I will be going to, and it is her first choice for me.</p>

<p>Over the past couple days, my parents have been getting annoyed with me because I have been stressing out about Ivy/Duke admissions even though I won't be able to afford any of them. They said they don't understand the importance of any of it, and that I don't deserve to go visit any of them. I finally got them to consider it, but they still don't see why it is such a big deal for me this Thursday. I worked this hard solely for Ivy/Duke/JHU admission, and even if I can't go, I still can't blow this off like they want me too.</p>

<p>Two years ago, I was signing up for junior year classes. Because of scheduling conflicts, I had the choice of either taking AP Literature, or AP Chemistry. Well, considering that the AP Chem teacher barely got anyone to pass, and the AP Lit teacher got the highest pass rate in the school, I logically chose Lit. My mom got so p*ssed because I am worse at English, and thought that I chose that class because all my friends did. Turns out AP Chem was dropped that year, screwing over people signed up for it, and I did so much better on SAT and ACT stuff b/c of AP Lit, and got a 4 on that test. Not to mention my writing got really good, and I got honorable mention for multiple national level essay contsts. My mom still insists that I should have taken AP Chem.</p>

<p>I can't seem to figure out how hard my parents want me to work. They get mad when I come home with a B on a progress report (always bring them up to A's) or when I try to blow off certain things like an honors band tryout (when I clearly have a schedule conflict). They always try to stay on top of me, worrying about me applying for every single scholarship known to man, when some I clearly don't have a chance at. But then again, they always say I stress out too much, and that I should take a break like skipping swimming for a night or dropping a hard class. This year especially, they worried that I had too much coming in with 7 AP classes, multiple leadership positions, blahblahblah but then they always got on me for not applying scholarships every ten seconds or dropping band for my senior year. </p>

<p>What gets me the most is how my parents complain that I should be happy because I have such great choices. Well, I do acknowledge that I have two decent schools I could go to for great prices. They say that they didn't have any choices, which is true for my dad since his parents forced him to go to a Christian school, but not true for my mom. And their parents made sure their colleges were financially feasible. While my parents will pay for the two aforementioned schools, they won't pay OOS even though our EFC is twice Ivy tuition. And recently, when I said I'm not sure where I'm going to school, they said that I was going to Rollins. That really ticked me off since not too long before they declared I was going to UF. I thought they were trying to give me the luxury of choice, but guess not.</p>

18

<p>^Hey there. I understand how you feel. I got very large scholarships at several schools and have worked very hard throughout highschool. My parents are loaded - our EFC was 999,999 (I sense that's the limit...haha). When I was applying to schools, I asked them what they could afford, and they said anything. Yet now they're telling me they will only send me to the state school, because they don't want to disrupt their lifestyle. </p>

<p>At first I was fuming. </p>

<p>Then I realized no matter how much money they had or how hard they had pushed me, they don't owe me anything. Nobody owes you anything. We're adults now and lucky our parents are paying for anything. And in four years, I'll be in a nice cushy job in my own home and far away from my folks ;). I'm not going to let their controlling, demanding nature ruin my college experience. As far as I'm concerned, the less money they pay for my college education, the more primed I am to set out on my own.</p>

<p>And lastly, we have to cut our parents a break. They're not really being unsympathetic - the college process was a lot different for them. They didn't have all of the pressure of ECs, of perfect test scores, of APs, all in the name of college, over and over again and day after day, from teachers and peers alike. They don't realize how we've conditioned ourselves to put so much weight and blood, sweat, and tears into this, and why taking choices away from us at the end is absolutely dream-crushing. But that's life. And in the end, you have to realize your logic was faulty all along.</p>

19

<p>My mom went to a small LAC and hated it, but loved grad school at the big Uni, so I wasn't allowed to apply to any LACs not called Swarthmore (it's the only small school she thinks is good). When I actually had straight As, my mom talked about how I wasn't going to get into our flagship state U and that I was going to CC (and she started listing names of mid range LACs that are apparently "bad" and she isn't going to pay for them). </p>

<p>Well, I got into that top college ED, and now she wishes I went to another top school that is closer to home (and is less of a fit). She is also telling me to keep my grades up because there is a chance I may want to transfer. While I recognize that no matter how much you research or how much of a "fit" any college is, there is a chance you may hate it for random reasons (or worse, you can't afford it due to unforeseen circumstances) you will want to transfer. However, is this a sane thing to be telling your child who just got into his #1 choice for college and is counting down the days till graduation? </p>

<p>O, and she also blew up when I told her that I never did NHS even though I had already gotten into college. Apparently she wants me to have a million tassels when I graduate :rolleyes:</p>

20

<p>I agree. My parents initially said they would let me go anywhere at any cost, since they can pay for anything. Now they've changed their minds and are trying to make me go to my state school. Which is their prerogative completely--it just makes me feel crappy because they've forked over 30K a year already in high school and up till now have told me that it's all going toward my Ivy League college education. Sucks that they built it up so much and are now denying it.</p>