<p>and will probably post a streaming version tomorrow. The conversation covers admissions stress (for students and family), over-involved parents <grin>, admissions coaching, etc. It was good.</grin></p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Bill</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip. Just finished listening to the piece.</p>
<p>I listened this morning as I was packing up the last of the teacher rec's with their little 'return when you get this' cards. All I can say is that if the MIT dean had a boy instead of a girl she might not be so adamant about having the kids handle it all (please dont' flame me, my kid's a boy) themselves. I hope her point about having the kids write their own essays is well-taken, though.</p>
<p>I haven't listened to it cause I am listening to our superintendent discussing possible district bankruptcy in less than 2 years, closing possibly as many as 1/4 of the district schools, but whats this about students not writing their own essays?
I never even saw my daughter's, and I really didn't want to. Why add to the stress?</p>
<p>emerald,
sorry to hear about your district - that's really scary. However - good for your daughter and her essays. </p>
<p>I think that Marilee is tired of reading essays that are so groomed to perfection that the child's voice is gone. College essays are a good time to work on the concept that multiple editorial passes - with time to step back from the essay in between - can really improve the output.</p>
<p>emeraldkity--that is so depressing. I live near Oakland, CA, where several schools are being closed down--what a demoralizing mess.</p>
<p>I never saw S2's essays either, until I was throwing away the garbage he left behind when he went to school--then I found a rough draft of one. Why am I going through his garbage?-- hey, I found a $25.00 graduation check in there!</p>
<p>Welcome to the board, KYDad. I hope you find it as useful and enjoyable as I have.</p>
<p>Ohio_Mom:
(Cringing as I write this...) I must confess that I was strongly tempted to browse through the application essays of D1 and D2. You know - just to see what the kids were writing about themselves. Fortunately, both girls politely told me to go fly a kite - it was <em>their</em> application and <em>their</em> future, and it was up to them to write their own essays. If they wanted my help, they would ask for it - and they didn't.</p>
<p>I admit I was a bit peeved at the time, but in hindsight I'm glad things turned out the way they did. Both of them got into schools they really liked, and they're satisfied they did it without 'a little help from their friends..er..parents'.</p>
<p>With a kid at MIT who thinks Marilee Jones is trying to dumb down the place (even though she let him in), I listened to what she had to say very carefully. Twice (they reran the piece).</p>
<p>Marilee suffers from regional and socio-economic bias. I'm sure there are lots of driven kids applying to MIT (I hope they are--they'll need to succeed there) and to the other schools where she knows the admissions officers. I'm sure there are lots of driven kids in the (expensive) Boston suburb where she resides.</p>
<p>But I read in today's Seattle P-I that the University of Washington wants to increase its admission standards to require four years of high school math--and that parents are concerned about that, that it's "too hard." Oh please! It's not unreasonable to expect college students to attend a community college first if they haven't taken 4 years of math! So Marilee Jones knows lots of driven students: I've met lots of kids here in Washington who plan to attend UW or WSU and think they can slack off for most of high school.</p>
<p>My daughter has been a regular and has found a great deal of support here as well as meeting some folks who'll be likely attending the college she'll be at next year. I've lurked a couple of times but really didn't have much to contribute that others hadn't said.</p>
<p>Re: the program this morning. I thought it was good. I wish something like its content was sent out with the first mailing any college sends any prospect.</p>
<p>Thanks for the note.</p>
<p>Best wishes to all for a happy holiday.</p>
<p>Bill</p>