Admission Counselors Unite

Helicopter Parents

First Responder — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:37:22 +0000

The long and short of it is this: Helicopter Parents are folks who are well intentioned, but often destructive as their children move through the admission process. See CNN’s article HERE.

As the Millennials grow up, the Helicopter Parents hover nearby (this is not to say that all Millennials have Helicopter Parents, but the two are most often coupled together). The most recent phenomenon is buying internships for their children. Naturally this is dangerous for a generation that already feels as though everything is entitled to them.

At some point the Helicopter Parents need to see that some of the behavior is unethical, and in many cases stunts the maturity and growth of their children. What will happen on the day that the parents are no longer around to provide every little thing to their children? Frankly, the situation reminds me a bit of a twenty year old who is not off breastfeeding yet (pardon the somewhat graphic analogy).

::more to come on this topic::

First Impressions

First Responder — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:06:11 +0000

Most High School students don’t realize that the person standing behind the table at the college fair is the very person that is later going to be reading their application. If they did, they would not ask embarrassing questions like “… uh… so… what does this college do?” Beyond looking lazy and un-involved in their college selection process, they’ve missed an opportunity to ask a meaningful question. Imagine going into a job interview and the interview panel saying “now, do you have any questions for us?” We can all agree that “… uh… so… what do you guys do” sounds completely uneducated. The way most college and universities divide their “Road Warrior” resources up is geographically.

: Some guy at a college fair in AZ

One important consideration on any student’s file is where they are coming from. Thus, it is helpful for a representative from the admission committee to be able to have actually seen the school, interacted with the post graduate or counseling department, and most importantly meet the students. Many colleges and universities are not able to offer personal interviews – this process is even more significant for them. The only option for a student to interact with the admission committee is to visit the campus, or meet the admission counselor while he or she is on the road. The best two ways to meet the admission counselor while they are on the road are these: high school visits and college fairs.

Both of these venues will be discussed in later chapters, but the essence of them is simple. A representative from a college or university is coming to visit you. You can handle this in one of two ways. You can look at is as an opportunity to use this person as a live version of google, or you can make take advantage of this situation and utilize it as an opportunity to make a significant and lasting impression; hopefully on that the counselor takes all the way back to the admission committee room. The individuals who choose the ladder are all the wiser.

-thefirstresponse@gmail.com

Hello world!

First Responder — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:01:57 +0000

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