College entrance was so easy when I was young..Here's how mine worked

[SoCalDem]

I must have been a junior

1-I got excellent grades in hard subjects
2-My guidance counselor called me to her office.
3-She asked me which colleges I was interested in

4-Later in the year my friend & I showed up on a Saturday in the lunchroom for the SAT
( wore our swimsuits under our clothes because we were in a hurry to get out of there & head for the lake)..we raced thru the test and left as quickly as possible
5- Forgot about the whole thing for months (don't even know what my "score" was)
6- Months later letters started showing up.. I got 5 she got 4

I took the one with the most for me..

free ride scholarship at University of Kansas(tuition/books/lodging in the dorm/food) PLUS 2 renewing grants every quarter

I turned down Univ of Nebraska/Missouri/K-State/ & another I forgot

I cannot believe all the drama that's now hanging over kids' heads.

[madaboutharry]

1. Kind of the same for me.

Went to high school. Got good grades. Took the SAT in a classroom at my high school. Sent applications to two in state universities. Got in.
I went to UCLA. My dad was a salesman. No bribes.

These parents have caused their children a great deal of harm. This scandal will follow them and make every future achievement suspect. They have also caused them to suffer public humiliation. How awful.

[SoCalDem]

3. I signed ONE paper in her office

Never filled out individual applications..My parents brought in their tax forms & bank statements to the counselor's office..dropped them off..never even had an interview.

I also never had an interview, wrote an essay or even had a meeting..

[leftieNanner]

4. This seems to be the parenting choice of the day

I think the term is "helicopter parent", where they rush in to fix anything that isn't pristine and perfect in the child's life.

Don't get an A in a class? Go in and blame/trash the teacher.
Don't make it on to the sports team? Go in and harangue the coach.

I'm not patting myself on the back here that I didn't do that, but I thought that was way too much work! I had other things to attend to and my kids just needed to figure some of these things out on their own.

These parents don't seem to understand that the unconscious message that they are sending to their children is "you are not capable of handling this on your own". How in heaven's name do they expect these young people to become successful adults?

[blur256]

2. I had to take the ACT

5 times to get a 30. Oddly what kept my score at a 28 or 29 every single time was reading. Turns out I have adhd. Anyway, I had to do that and get a 4.0+ to get my free ride to college. Thank God my parents kept pushing me because they knew I was smart enough. I loved my college. It was a small private school and I got a great education. This whole thing pisses me off. There are so many kids working their asses off to try and better their lives And many of their parents don't have money. So fucked up.

[unblock]

5. some high schools have guidance counselors who make it all very easy. others don't.

and some guidance counselors do a great job helping students pursue their individual career path and others, not so much.


i'm not sure much has changed, not really. there's always been great competition for the select highly regarded schools or trendy schools of the day, and there have always been parents who sought an edge, usually by spending a ton of money and heaping a ton of pressure on the kids to be perfect.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Sounds about white.

[malaise]

7. Note - your parents were not involved

Today's parents are part of the problem. Our parents let us make our decisions and our mistakes.
We made these decisions among friends and guidance folks in school.

[RobinA]

10. I Had Zero Help

from anybody. Not that I asked for it. My parents weren’t involved AT ALL and my guidance counselor was a waste of space. During our one obligatory meeting he looked at my last marking period grades and made suggestions based on that. I could have used some help, I was a massive underachiever, but I didn’t know it at the time.

[dlk]

8. There is So Much Pressure on Students to Get into a Good School - It's Become Fairly Toxic

When my oldest son, who is now 33, had a birthday party in the first grade, I remember his friends arguing about which university was the best to attend - these were 7-year olds! The pressure on our children hasn't lessened any with the passage of time. I don't think it's healthy for them.

[albacore]

9. I failed out of college after the first semester....

Then I went into the Marine Corps.
Then some other stuff happened.
Then I got out and went to college.
For free. The state of Michigan paid my tuition
and books.
My grades before the Corps were B's.
My dear Uncle Sam paid me to go to college.
Every month.
I graduated With Honors.
I paid my Uncle back by earning more money than I would have without a degree ...and paying more taxes.
Of course, those were the old days when we wanted an educated citizenry with no huge debt load to keep them from contributing in our consumer society.
WTF is wrong with this country? Do we WANT a few educated elite and the rest of the people uneducated poor?

[gristy]

11. The day the letter showed up with my AP exam scores,

my Mom (I think - maybe it was my Dad) said to me "Hey Gristy, it looks like your AP scores showed up in the mail today."
Whaaa?? I said. She said, yeah the letter's on the counter. I ran over and tore it open and squealed in delight and looked up.

"All 5's!!!"

Never forget it. Sigh...

[GulfCoast66]

12. Yeah, pretty low drama for me as well.

Besides raising me to be a good student and being able to afford a Landgrant University(both of which I appreciate at 53 more than at 18) my parents had limited input.

Picked my school of choice, got accepted and went there alone. No parents involved. As my dad said, ‘ you are an adult now, figure it out’. I was cool with that.

First thing I did was find a job for beer money. After High School I got no allowance or anything like that.

I’m not sure I buy the whole idea that things are harder now about the process. More expensive and harder to get in, I agree. But I know from my work with interns that many college kids are super dependent on the parents for decisions. Not all, mind you. We still get a good many college interns that are doing their thing with no parents present. But they are the minority. They are the ones we hire full time.

It shocked me the first time I got a call from the parents of a legal adult working for me complaining about some a workplace thing. It’s not that uncommon now.

If a kid wants to guarantee they will not be given full time employment, all they need to do is have a parent call about an unfair workplace situation.