Tips for Parents: College Admissions for the Unconventional Student - Looking at Both Brand-Name Colleges and Beyond

Tips for Parents:

1) Realize that your children are exceptional in several ways, but that their strengths will need to be documented and their stories told to colleges when the time comes. Try to imagine what a college admissions officer will want to know about your child.

2) It is a good idea to ask several colleges how they would like the information presented: a narrative, a transcript, or both (probably). Notice how different types of colleges: public vs. private, big vs. small, and selective vs. not so selective may have different priorities.

3) Be prepared to meet the colleges at least halfway. They basically like young people, and they want to help, but they are also risk-averse about unusually young students. They will appreciate it a great deal if you can anticipate their questions and allay their concerns from the beginning.

4) You are both fortunate and unfortunate in having children in this age cohort. On the one hand, homeschooling and its variants are no longer new and do not need to be as thoroughly justified as they once had to be. At the same time, such students no longer automatically stand out in many admissions offices. In addition, the age group is at its peak over the next few years, and competition for admission to very selective schools is similarly intense and promises to remain so.

5) Be flexible about what is a good college for your child. The brandname on the windshield sticker may draw admiration from the car behind you, but it may not have the best learning situation for your child. Prestige and fame can have value in the real world, let’s not deny it, but they are also not the only factors that make for a successful college experience, and they may not be the most important ones either. There is more than one good college out there.

5) In general, small colleges offer more of an intellectual community, more personal attention (which may be important to a child with special needs due to age or other factors), and plenty of available courses even in the math and hard science areas of the curriculum.

6) Your children have a great and relatively rare advantage among teen-agers in America. They are genuinely intellectually curious and love to learn, but this needs to be shown in detail to the colleges, not just proclaimed.

7) Expense is a legitimate concern, and there is nothing wrong with spending less money if it is a factor to you. College is a family decision.

8) Being honest and straightforward with colleges will pay off in the long run. You will sleep better, and you will also have their respect, and you will get honest answers in return. Avoid deception and gimmicks. This may involve presenting what may seem like potentially harmful information, such as a learning difference or a psychological condition. There is no perfect answer on how to do this, of course.

9) In the end, it is your child’s education, not yours, but if he or she is younger than normal age for college, he or she may not have the judgment to evaluate colleges as carefully as a more independent and older child may be able to do.

10) The entire college admissions process is just that, a process. There are discreet steps to follow; every decision does not have to be made at the beginning. Children change during the process, and you need to anticipate this, even welcome it.

11) A sense of humor about it all is helpful. It is a stressful time in many people’s lives, but the destination is often not as important as the journey. Keep things in perspective, and learn to ride the bumps in the road.