College Admissions: Teaching Parents How to Help
For most people around the world, applying for admission to a college or university is a major event in their lives.
The competition and risk of rejection can create a lot of stress, and not just for the applicants.
Sometimes parents of high school students are even more invested in the application results than the students themselves.
Ffiona Rees is a senior associate director of international admissions office at the University of California in Los Angeles. She says most students in the United States would list their parents as the main influence on their college application decisions.
“Even when the students are appearing like they don’t want to listen to their parents, they clearly are,” Rees told VOA. “And so, it’s important for the parents to be supportive of the students.”
Parents should talk to their future college students, of course. But she says parents also must listen to them. In the end, Rees notes, it is the child who will be attending the college, not the parents, so the child should be the one who makes the final decision.
Students' independence is important when it comes to completing college applications as well. Parents may feel the urge to help their children write an essay or fill out a form. Rees advises parents to fight that urge.
Young people must learn to meet deadlines and take responsibility, she says.
Finally, Rees says, most students will likely be rejected by at least one college or university. Parents, she says, can greatly help their children move beyond such rejection in a healthy way.
