How Can Parents Best Support Their Child Through The University Application Process?
The answer to this question is actually quite a simple one: by letting their child be in the driver's seat of the exploration and decision-making process, by respecting their child's choices, and by engaging in honest and mutually respectful conversations about any constraints (such as financial ones) that may limit the young person's range of options. Happily, universities around the world now offer a wide selection of courses or educational models (single subject, combination courses, liberal arts and sciences, and other variants) to enable students who do have cost, climate, family proximity, or other considerations to find options that would be a good fit for them.
Most importantly, we believe that parents should be 'a cheer squad, not a nag squad,' in their child's university application process, to quote renowned adolescent expert, Michael Carr-Gregg. Celebrate your child's aptitudes, abilities, and passions; understand your child's cultural and social preferences and values, or help him or her to explore what those may be; and allow these to shape your child's university selection process. Sadly, too many young people are made to feel that they simply don't match up to their parents' very high expectations, or even worse, to some external (and often highly questionable) measure of success - the name and fame or ranking of the universities they get into.
On this note, you may be interested to read a hard-hitting but powerful blog post written by a former ivy-league US university admissions officer and mother, titled 'Parents: let Harvard go.'
We would also encourage you to read a thought-provoking article written by our very own colleague, Johanna Fishbein, in the forthcoming edition of the College magazineDunia, titled 'Don't Take it Personally: Thought on the Holistic Admissions Process.'
Happy reading, and enjoy supporting your children as they begin the journey towards life beyond school - they're counting on it.
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