<p>S2 was not the least bit interested in college as a jr. At the beginning of senior yr. he decided he should apply somewhere. He was not a star student in h.s. so his options were limited to the directional state u’s in our state. He applied to two state u’s and was accepted to both by mid-Dec. He had never visited either of them prior to applying. We went to visit his favorite in Feb. of senior year. He really liked it and decided it was the place for him. Never even saw option #2. He’s a happy junior now and doesn’t have any regrets.</p>
<p>My nephew applied to Iowa State the day before Thanksgiving, and got his acceptance in the mail two weeks later. One and done. He only took the ACT once, and based on that and his GPA he knew he would be admitted. He refused to even think of any place where he would have to write an essay.</p>
<p>His sister read all the college books, took her ACT multiple times, dragged my sister on several college road trips, applied through Questbridge but didn’t get a match, applied to maybe five or six others, wrote a million essays, and visited (for the first time) the place that offered her the best financial aid package before accepting that offer.</p>
<p>These two grew up in the same house with the same parents and their approaches could not have been more different. Both of them are flourishing at their college of choice You have to look at your own kid, and think about their personality. If yours is like my nephew, maybe her list will be short, and the experience will be almost painless.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of these posts. It helps to know that some parents are in similar situations. We have a short list of 4 schools. I would like to add a couple more to be safe. Since friends play an important part of her life, the good news is that one of her friends noted his upcoming college visits on Facebook. This has increased her interest. We need more kids to list their college preferences on Facebook.</p>
<p>I agree with Amy and others, some kids do need at least a little help to get the ball rolling. I have one daughter that is in 10th grade and already searching schools on her own, and I have a son that will be heading off to college this fall. He definitely needing some guidance, and in our case his school counselor was hardly any help at all. He’s in a school of 1700 students and we could not rely on the GC advising. I did what others have already suggested. I did loads of research on my own and gave him a very long list to narrow down. I did schedule college visits and I highly rec. that you do. One of the best things I did was take him to UNC chapel Hill for a tour and info. session. He came away from that visit fully involved —it changed everything. He started to get very focused on what he needed to do from there on and that was right before Junior year in August. I can not tell you how important it is for them to hear directly from an admissions officer that mom was right! lol! Good luck and forget the notion that “they should do it all on their own”. That was back in the dinosaur age when kids were only needing to apply to 3-5 schools and didn’t even prep for the SAT’s. I have personally known a girl that had a nervous breakdown because her mom refused to help her at all. I’m not saying to do more than just guide, but come on! Is that really worth it for a kid to find their breaking point so that mom can tell all her friends that her daughter is “doing it all on her own”? It’s absurd to think they don’t need a little help. If I were under a ton of stress, I would hope that my family wouldn’t think of me as a failure because I needed some help from others. It’s absurd what we ask of these kids with the competativeness being what it is.</p>