Is Naviance useful in monitoring the status of her applications? Our HS uses it, but I'm just getting familiar with it now. **YES...it is also good in seeing how she would match with her scores to different schools**
Should I set up a dedicated email address for her to use (and us to share) throughout the application process? I'm fairly sure she doesn't want me reading her personal email, and my thought was this gives me a way to see all the relevant communications. **YES...we did this. I could help her monitor for college emails. ALso she created a "professional" sounding email address to use.**
Are we supposed to share a CollegeBoard ID? I really don't want her to have to enter all the financial details in the CSS. **YES - we did.**
Should I leave everything for her to manage, and assume she'll take care of everything? I don't consider myself a helicopter parent, and she's a pretty responsible kid, but I'd hate for anything to fall through the cracks. **NO- Try to get them to do as much as possible...but to me, this is not the thing to let them sink or swim on.**
Any other tips, or things to be careful of? ** Deadlines...they may think "I have until Dec 5" but are not thinking how early you need to ask for recommendations or if there is a rolling deadline how much better it is to do it early.**
**-College LIst: With my oldest, I said give me a list of colleges to visit and she came up with one. With my younger I took her college “must haves” and helped her make a list. We visited the school I that was the “parent pick” first and she compared them all to her. Also before we made the list we visited the school I thought would be good for her and our State Flagship so she could get an idea of Medium and Large sized schools. Quickly large schools were eliminated. Then we came up with the list based on her preferences.
Scholarships - I was much more interested in finding scholarships than she was…I looked for reasonable opportunities and had her apply to them.
Never say “This is the last essay you have to write for college” as there was always another scholarship popping up! :-)**
Both my kids ended up going to the Parent Pick…I helped them find good value schools that met the requirements they had. One was a big school and one was a medium school. One would do better getting lost in the crowd and one would do better with more interaction with professors. One wanted to be 3-4 hours away, and one wanted to be 1-2 hours away. One applied to many schools and one applied ED to one. The ED kid was a child who has trouble making decisions, so I said if you really like it, why not just apply to one so you don’t have to choose later.
The point is to know your kid and help guide them. They may initially come up with schools they have heard of instead of ones that will meet their needs.
You can compile a list of colleges based on your child personal criteria and presented it to them. Do not expect that it would be accepted, basically you do it for your own entertainment…and then, just back off…
…“But he HATES to shop, and looking at schools is shopping.” - then he is used to be in situations where he does not fit. Everything is shopping, decision about HS sometime is much harder decision than college. If person is not taking time making somewhat intelligent guesses (it is still a guess even after spending ton of time researching with multiple visits), then his guess may be way off, much more than he can tolerate, or maybe the guy is just relying on his superior ability to adjust. Some people are much more sensitive to surroundings than others. And on a flip side, there are many who do research and still transfer soon. Why? Mostly because they overlooked their own most important criteria for choosing.
Without a clear criteria list, there is no reason to spend time “shopping” for the best fit place. Those who do not like “shopping” usually do not create any personal criteria list with the weights attached to every criteria. They operate on trial / error basis. How you can change that?
My piece of advice would be to help your kids to understand that just because they sent their application materials does not mean that it was logged as received by the school. The same goes for recommendations etc. They can be noted as sent on Naviance but for one reason or another lost or misfiled at the colleges. Check the college portals to be sure they have all the material noted as received. Keep copies of all the emails etc you send in case there is need to follow up. I know it seems obvious to adults but kids don’t always have the life experience to think that this is necessary.
I would like to echo the advice that you need to be brutally honest with yourself and with your kid about how much you are able–and willing–to pay towards a college education.
One corollary to this that I think it’s important to mention: if your kid is looking at highly selective colleges (and has the credentials to be a reasonable candidate for them), he or she will definitely be able to attend a good college for substantially less money, and possibly for nothing. You need to consider and discuss IN ADVANCE what you will do when this decision is presented to you. So if you really will insist that your kid take the full ride to the state flagship over the full-pay at an Ivy League school, your kid needs to know that up front. Also, discussing it now will save you from the kind of remorse that we see each year (usually from dads) who promised the kid that he or she could go anywhere–but now there’s this free ride offer from a perfectly good school!
One of the usual things that gets mentioned around here is to have the money talk with the student before she makes her application list; make it clear that your parental contribution is limited to $X, and that there is only a limited amount of money that she can borrow on her own (federal direct loans) plus realistically contribute by work earnings to add to that. That way, she will know what the target net price is, and know that, for some colleges, she may have to aim for a large enough scholarship rather than just admission. For both you and her, remember that admission to a school that is too expensive (including not enough financial aid or scholarships) is the same as a rejection.
Also, you need to give her enough family financial information to use the net price calculators on college web sites, or be willing to run the net price calculators yourself when she indicates interest in the college. These generally show need-based financial aid, although some may show stats-based merit scholarships as well. If a school’s net price calculator does not indicate an affordable price, she needs to aim for a large enough merit scholarship to make the net price affordable. But note that need-based aid and merit scholarships can mix in various ways, not always favorable to the student and family (a common method is to replace unmet need, student loans, and work study first, then need-based grants, then lastly expected family contribution).
@bjkmom just to be clear, I have no doubt that he wants this and will get things done. I am just trying to comment upon how I have had to set my expectations with my own DS so that I would stay sane through this process. I was letting his style get to me a bit and I had to find another way. I realized it would be similar to my DS’s approach to food, if I let it. He wants dinner but the shopping, planning and cooking thereof is all handled before he gets involved much. He really appreciates it all but the eating part is where he excels. In terms of the college process, I have to do enough shopping and planning to feel like it is all moving forward but allow him to do some, on his timing, as well. The cooking is the ap process and it is time he learned to do that himself. I will provide support on technique and timing so nothing “burns” but it it is his job to cook.
I completely echo what the other parents on this thread have said. You need to be very clear from the onset about how much you can afford to pay. Don’t promise the world unless you can afford the world. Run the NPCs.
Our HS used Naviance, but the only thing my D used it for was to o request an official transcript and the see if her GC sent the letters of rec. She also used it to see the scattergrams and history of applicants at her high school.
I filled out all FAFSA, CSS, and IDOC uploading.
Make a spreadsheet on excel or google docs to keep track of deadlines etc (as others have said).
Try not to nag, although at times it’s difficult not to!
Another tip: just because the app is done and submitted doesn’t mean that the process is over yet. Be mindful of Financial Aid deadlines. If applying ED, make sure all testing is done by the required deadline so your Ds file won’t be incomplete.
Have your D keep track of all log in and password info on “check your status” portals.
Naviance is VERY helpful. Naviance is used to submit requests for teacher recommendations and is also used to keep track of where you submitted your application, and find out whether or not your guidance counselor sent out your transcript and letter of recommendation.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but try to have your kiddo submit apps/essays, etc., well ahead of deadlines. My D got mono in October of her senior year, and she had a number of apps due by November 1 and that was rough. Also, there are the usual computer glitches, server overloads, power outages, etc. to take into account. (I know this is almost impossible to do with a kid who is a procrastinator - like mine - but even a few days wiggle room helps.)
<<< - Are we supposed to share a CollegeBoard ID? I really don’t want her to have to enter all the financial details in the CSS. >>>
@NUwildcat92 I don’t know what we’re actually supposed to do, but I set up my own CollegeBoard ID, for the financial inputs into the NP calculators of the CollegeBoard member schools. D prefers that we not stalk her account (look up test scores before she does, for example) and I just feel a little better firewalling the financial data from the info in her CollegeBoard profile that’s tied to colleges contacting her. The system let me do that, using my own HS graduation date (from the Jurassic era), and so far it hasn’t been an issue. If it becomes one, we’ll port everything over to her profile.
@Themommymommy I agree, but when checking the schools’ portals, kids need to know that their application info doesn’t just instantly appear once they hit submit. It may take the school a day, or up to a week during the height of the application season, to update their portals. Most portals have some kind of fine print on their website that tells applicants when the last update was and how often they are updating, (at least at the school’s my D was applying to). My D checked every few days to see her app’s status re: tests scored received, transcript, recs, supplement, etc. and once all boxes were checked, then the waiting game begins!
@bjkmom - no, you are not alone. I feel like I’m the President of College Search here at our house. I’m trying to get demoted to administrative assistant. My son knows what he wants to study as well, and has been dual enrolling at community college. Sometimes I think we should just stick with that and transfer. On the other hand it’s important that he at least consider the 4 year experience, imho.
Actually, I’m hoping that all the research I’m doing now will help in 2 years, then 3 years after that, when his sisters come along. Sure, their majors and preferences will be different, but at least I’ll have a starting place.
@bjkmom You are right. Even with different majors, whatever you learn now will be useful later…just keep your hand on the pulse for any changes in aid or merit formulas or acceptance rates.
One thing I did early on was make sure my two kids got on various college campuses early enough to feel the experience and get them thinking about their future. Our nephew was studying at LSU, and we took a spring break to visit him and see the campus (we live in AL). Both kids did several summer music programs at Univ of WI, so have been on several ‘flagship’ state school campuses. IMHO LSU is a lot like AU and in some ways like some other schools. Kids had some activities at other various colleges. On days our HS was off but colleges were not, we took day trips to see area schools - so we saw all the likely choices early. That was even more helpful for our family because I started treatment for stage III cancer when older DD was in 10th grade, and was really debilitated for a very long period of time (thankfully I survived and am cancer free 5 years now). DDs both ‘knew’ their first choice early, and knew what ACT scores they needed to hit to improve their scholarship at those schools. Both kids have admission to local university if they ever wanted to take summer courses, or needed to be home a semester. We spent very little time on the admission process. Our students spent the time on raising standardized test score (ACT).
A friend of DD2 really spent a lot of time an energy on the application process for a lot of OOS schools; ACT 33. Sometimes kids/parents feel they need to do this (parents knew she didn’t, but she wanted to do it) - after the entire process, she is at the same school as DD2 with same major scholarship.
However also know students that have won a major award at a smaller private college which made that choice a good one financially and educationally.
One’s state or area higher ed choices may be high enough cost-wise that one does need to look a lot harder out of the area than we had to for our students’ academic choices/field of study.
One thing I’m learning, thanks to friends, is something I’ve read here numerous times: don’t automatically discount private colleges because of finances.
In looking at the institutional grants offered (to, say, 98% or 99% of the student body), I’m finding lots of privates that will end up very close to the state universities.
My problem is that I feel like - with my son - the college step is just a continuation of homeschooling (yes, sounds crazy). I’m struggling to get him to take ownership, if that makes any sense. And because he’s been dual enrolling, I think he thinks, “OK, I’ve got this college stuff down. What is mom worried about?”
I liked another parent’s suggestion, here, to keep college search talk down to set times per week. What seems very exciting and interesting to me . . . my son, not so much.
This next year I want to hand him the reins of his life, and step back some. Yet I don’t want to let this completely “go” either.
I’m trying to get demoted to administrative assistant. My son knows what he wants to study as well, and has been dual enrolling at community college. Sometimes I think we should just stick with that and transfer. On the other hand it’s important that he at least consider the 4 year experience, imho.