<p>personally, my parents have always supported my passions and education but have never known much about the admissions process or SAT's or any of that. they want me to go to college wherever i want, and are only concerned about costs. i was really surprised when i came on this board and saw soo many parents that knew much more than i did :\ i dunno, i just can't see my parents ever being up on college information like that.</p>
<p>My dad is sort of involved in the process, but I always have to remind him about deadlines. I'm having a flashback to the CSS profile late night cram session. :D He would never show up here either.</p>
<p>My parents are pretty involved, although they aren't exactly helicopter parents. My dad asked to proofread all my application material, and he took over planning visits (for which I was very grateful). And, of course, he filled out all the financial aid application forms.</p>
<p>My parents also had a lot of input in where I applied. To be perfectly honest, a lot of the schools on my list were their schools, not mine. But I figured that as long as the schools I was interested in were on that list, I didn't really care where they made me apply. The good thing is that they "approved" of my first choice school.</p>
<p>My dad reads all my posts on College Confidential. He stalks me every day, and is always there to remind me of why Caltech is perfect and infinitely superior to MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, or any of those other "soft options." :/ Thankfully he regards me as my own person and will not yell at me for writing this post.
His name is "inverse."</p>
<p>My mother is very involved (she actually got me onto CC), but my dad really doesn't know much about it.</p>
<p>My parents aren't involved at all. My dad got mad at me when I applied for some scholarships...because he has saved the money for me to spend on an education, and he'd like to do that (although Id rather use that money for other things...Im not going to argue). My mom only knows what my sister went through...and she didnt take any AP or writing SAT and things like that. So...the credit policy, and honors college thing will be different. Im not too worried though.</p>
<p>do you guys like the constant help from your parents in the admissions process? it's frustrating to be on my own at times, but at the same time it feels really satisfying that i've come so far.</p>
<p>My mom was lurking in the CC forums before I ever came here. She reads my posts, I'm sure--at least, I asked her how to get to the list of my recent posts, and she knew right off-hand (and my mom hardly knows anything "off-hand" when it comes to computers). "Ahhh. So you do this often, do you, Mom?" :p That's okay. I don't post anything scandalous. ;)</p>
<p>But as for the college application process... my mom proofread everything I wrote... I talked with her endlessly about colleges... she gave me advice... when I went on my college trip with my dad (Mom had to work) she kind of twisted my arm to visit Williams and Brown, but she didn't object when I called home and told her I didn't like them much. She's been very supportive all through the college search and application process. She read up on lots and lots of colleges, and found out things about them that I hadn't known--and found out about colleges I'd never heard of. But then, she's also a high school teacher with students who come to her for advice about colleges, so she's got to know about a wide variety of schools. </p>
<p>But she's not a helicopter parent. I've been in charge of the applications, I made the phone calls to the admissions offices (though Mom had to make me do it... I get serious anxiety over making phone calls), I've decided what I've written about on my essays, and all that. Mom's just in charge of financial aid. </p>
<p>...And my dad...? Well, he reads stuff on the internet about the colleges. He warned me about the right-wing think tank at Stanford, but he's otherwise perfectly supportive. :p :D</p>
<p>I have good parents. :)</p>
<p>i'm assuming helicopter parents are those that hover over their kids' every move...but what are they exactly?</p>
<p>nice...i had always wished for someone who would just simply tell me what to do and i can relax and just do whatever they say =D that would be great...envy you guys...
edit: percent wise my parents are 0% involved lol...my classmates are more involved in my college app than my parents =D lol</p>
<p>wow. i thought people on CC were more self-motivated and independent.</p>
<p>i wish my parents had nothing better to do than to lurk on forums. jeez. my parents haven't even read my essays! ..let alone give me advice.</p>
<p>i guess these are the kinds of parents who pay for education consultants and essay editing services, etc. what a shame.. idk, i personally think that it's a bit unfair.</p>
<p>darkhope - where in SoCal? I'm between SB and LA.</p>
<p>My parents know where I'm applying and my mom knows the characteristics of each school but my dad doesnt. I gave him a list of the places I'm applying to and he emailed it to his FRIEND and asked him if they were good colleges :/</p>
<p>They haven't read any of my essays (i didn't want them to). They haven't seen my online apps.</p>
<p>My mom looks at my report card (dad doesnt... he thinks I'm the salutorian when I'm actually like in the bottom of the top10% hehe).</p>
<p>My dad likes prestige but since none of my schools are HYPSM, he now likes my cheap schools.</p>
<p>And I like them this way - involved but not really :)</p>
<p>My parents don't know anything that I don't tell them. xD If I didn't make up a list of colleges that I wanted to visit, we probably wouldn't have visited any.</p>
<p>They have always wanted me to go to college, but when it comes to being involved in the process... they don't do anything that I couldn't do myself.</p>
<p>My parents really aren't that involved. My siblings go to a school thats decent I guess, but you have to have pretty awful grades to get turned away from there. I'm the only one in my entire extended family who is planning to go out of state for school. Plus, I live with my mom and she didn't go to college, so she really has no idea what she's doing. They are going with me to visit schools...but this is after I've done all of the tedious admissions things, gotten accepted to numerous schools, and have my heart set on one.</p>
<p>So really, they just nod and hand over the credit card. I'm pretty thankful though. I don't have to pay for any of my tuition, or my room and board as long as I'm in a dorm. If that's all they do to help me out in the next four years, I'm AOK with that. I mean, they even offered to pay for grad school if I go.</p>
<p>She yells at me to apply for scholarships, and she filled out my FAFSA. That's about it.</p>
<p>I use her credit cards to pay for college applications.</p>
<p>We were fairly involved, mainly because there was alot to do. Final choice was always the kid's. However, we also played a bit of devils advocate on occasion. I know that sucks because we only want to think of how good or how much fun a place is going to be, but it is important to never want something more than your common sense will allow. That is, keep an open mind up to the final decision and be willing to walk away if the vibe isn't right. </p>
<p>Both ended up at one of their top threes and are quite happy. Their #1's in some cases it came down to those schools "knowing" they were first choice and then becoming inflexible finanically cause they "had" us. Never go into a deal you can't walk away from.</p>
<p>My parents don't care as long as I go to some 4 year college, they used to think I wasn't even going to college a few years ago.</p>
<p>They're somewhat involved- my parents read my essays for me and gave me feedback, which is more than some of my friends' parents have done. But as someone else said, basically I just ask them for the credit card when I have to pay for fees. I think they're being sort of carefree about the whole college-application process because they think I'm brilliant and I'm going to get in everywhere... but neither one of them applied to super-competitive colleges back in their day and I'm their first kid to go through the process, so I don't think they have any idea how fierce the competition is.</p>
<p>not involved at all; I'll be a first generation highschool graduate, let alone college graduate. And that is on every side of the family. </p>
<p>Hey, if they're not paying for it than they can mind their own business.</p>