<p>Wow. I’m a lazy parent. We parents didn’t get involved at all other than to set some basic parameters for both boys:</p>
<ol>
<li> They HAD to apply to at least one instate public.</li>
<li> They had to do their applications as early as was humanly possible. One started working on his essays the summer before senior year, one started in September.</li>
<li> They had to let us look over the applications before they hit the “submit” button. We checked only for major problems, and edited for spelling, grammar and punctuation only.</li>
<li> They had to hit the “submit” button at least several days before the apps were “due”, in case of major computer failure, etc.</li>
<li> We also had some serious talk about college costs and “value”, etc., and had them try to visualize life at a school far, far, away vs. pretty close to home in terms of how often they’d be able to come home, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>How early did they start? The oldest visited a couple of colleges during spring of his junior year, a couple during the summer, and a couple during the fall of his senior year. He narrowed down his own list to 7 schools, but in the end only applied to 5, all of which were schools he would have been pretty happy to attend, and all of which accepted him.</p>
<p>Son #2 did a spring break tour of 4 schools his junior year, and visited another couple early in the fall of his senior year. His list was huge. We told him he had to cut it to 10, he ended up applying to 11. He did his own cutting. He was rejected by 3 of the usual suspects 
waitlisted by 1, and accepted by 7, all of which he would have been thrilled to attend.</p>
<p>Both boys did a lot of talking to friends, teachers, and us about colleges while they were working on “the list”, and once the SAT results came in during the winter of their junior year they spent a lot of time on the college board site. They did a pretty good job of figuring it out on their own. </p>
<p>(I did help more in the app process in terms of helping them keep track of what was due when, but not in terms of actually DOING the applications.)</p>