Dec 3, 2019, 2:19 PM
(from Inside Higher Ed) A new book explores the role of parents and students in the college admissions process. "The Truth About College Admission" was authored by Brennan Barnard, director of college counseling at the Derryfield School, and Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admissions at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"While most books about admission are either written by journalists looking in briefly at a limited number of colleges or students, we have both worked in this profession for two decades at a variety of colleges and high schools," said the authors in an interview. "Having a front-row seat and watching this cycle repeat itself over and over, we have come to appreciate the truth -- at its core, college admission is about family. And unfortunately too many families focus on 'getting in' (something they cannot fully control) when they should be committed to staying together."
"Parents of high school students should talk to fewer parents of high school students about college admission," they said. "Those conversations are typically unhelpful, inaccurate echo chambers that foster anxiety and misinformation. Instead, they should talk with more parents of current college students -- folks who have been through it before. They never say, 'We wished we’d stressed more.' Instead, they’ll inevitably respond, 'While we could not have predicted exactly how it would go, it all worked out for the best.'”
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