Hello , I was lurking here for some time . Now it is time to ask questions. My S19 is a raising senior and he started to fill out his profile in Common App. I feel that I should have access to his profile , but he refused it. He is not the best in his organization skills and can easily miss deadline . Besides it , I want to be familiar with the process itself and be able to help if something goes wrong. I do not have time to oversee the process in any case. What would you suggest ?
Neither of these requires access to the Common Application. You and he can easily put together a flowchart listing key dates. All key dates are listed on the college websites, and may also be included in information from the HS counselling office.
You can certainly set-up your own Common App account, so you can see all the university specific questions/supplements; add the school and it’s displayed in the checklist. The only way to see your son’s info though is through his account. Your son can add you as an advisor which will allow you to monitor progress on a read-only basis.
https://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/application-updates/two-new-features-students-inviting-advisors-sharing-progress
You should also look through the information for parents on the Common App:
https://www.commonapp.org/parents
As a parent, you can create a mock account to get in there to see what it looks like. He can also add up to 3 people on the common app as an adviser that can log in and view his account info. I guess if you’re a parent that is going to be involved financially, I’d have problem requiring this so at least you know what is coming down in terms of deadlines and application fees.
We homeschool/dual enroll so I unfortunately have given myself a common app crash course since Aug 1.
I’m confused. If you don’t have time to oversee the process, why would having access to the common application make any difference?
Here is my suggestion. Ask your son for a 15 minute update ONE time a week. Pick a time that is mutually agreeable and go from there.
Ask HIM to create a spreadsheet or something with all of the colleges he is applying to, and make sure he includes the DEADLINES for admissions AND financial aid materials.
If you have financial limitations, he needs to clearly have those communicated to him…sooner the better.
Tell him you will sit with him and do the net price calculators for schools of interest to see if they come in at your price point or below.
We insisted that each of our kids apply to an ultimate safety school and we were active in helping them find that choice.
Now is a good time to work on his organizational skills because he’ll need to fend for himself at college!
Thank you all for your responses. Good to know that I have options to oversee the process partially without a big battle for independence. ( @Thumper1 , I meant , I do not have time the oversee the process fully, but at least be sure that he completes the steps required.) @momofsenior1 , he is working on his organization skills , but still not everything is done on time.
You can ask him to print an application before sending it. Maybe he does not want you to see his essays — you could suggest he have some other adult look at them if that is the case. But it isn’t a bad idea to check the demographic info, etc. if he will let you.
My DDs all had a family friend who worked in her college’s admission office review their common app. It was a great compromise. They also shared some things with me, but having an objective third party proofreading took a lot of pressure of me.
Been there, done that with son. Never got to see applications or essays. Just made sure they got done in time (midnight CALIFORNIA time in one case- well past midnight on a school night, later determined he wasn’t that enthusiastic about that school). One app he never finished. No Common App for him back then.
Reminding kids of deadlines is a good thing. I like that weekly update idea. Busy HS seniors can forget until the last minute or be insecure about doing a good job and procrastinate.
You did your best in raising your kid to get this far. Now he needs to handle his life. btw- now is when you realize those many habits picked up from your spouse that you wish your child had instead picked up your version.
No, you should NOT have access to his profile. It would be nice if he let you proofread some of the data (we parents get asked all sorts of questions about ourselves that they never cared about in the past- colleges attended etc). This is his game, not yours.
Here’s how I handled my, at the time, disorganized boy: I put up two dry erase, 3 month calendars on the wall of our living room where DS had to pass it every morning to leave the house. On it I marked in color coded markers dates for ACT/SAT tests, application deadlines for various schools, and important high school events that might conflict with college related deadlines.
I mentioned (just once) that it was fine if he missed these deadlines. Community college to UC or a gap year were perfectly reasonable paths.
Then I stepped back and let him decide what to do and when. He let one test date sneak up on him. After that, he didn’t miss any other deadlines and started asking me for feedback on his application and essays. He even started adding his own events and deadlines to the calendar.