<p>With the exception of the few upper/upper-middle class Upper East siders, the vast majority of my high school classmates…including yours truly managed the college application process by themselves. This was especially true of recent immigrants and first-generation American students like myself whose parents have little to no idea of how to navigate through the American college admissions process. </p>
<p>Other than asking my parents to fill out parts of the FAFSA and other financial aid related information, I did everything myself from choosing schools to ensuring everything was done before the deadline…and this was the common expectation of the vast majority of my classmates. </p>
<p>In fact, for most of us…to expect parents to “push us” and to “keep us on task” regarding college admissions stuff would be red flags that someone was either not really interested to go on to college(99% of my class went off to a 4 year college) or wasn’t mature enough to go away for school.</p>