How to Stay in Your Lane during the Admissions Process

I recently had the pleasure of collaborating with admissions expert Sheila Akbar of Signet Education for a webinar on “The Changing Role of the Parent in the College Admissions Process.”

We both agree that the college admissions process is an opportunity for students to grow into successful, independent adults.

For a student to gain the full benefit, however, they’ll need to start taking ownership over their applications. This also means that parents will have to give them space and support to do so. 

Breaking Down the Application Process

We know that this is a particularly big ask, considering the high stakes and complexity of the process. To give you a framework, we’ve listed out all of the steps students will need to take to complete their applications in the image below.

To help transfer ownership of the process to students, we developed a set of cards that outlines concrete tasks for each one of these steps. Our goal is to clarify the tasks and roles involved in the application process and empower the student to feel confident in overseeing their applications.

Here is an example of just one of the cards we developed, which breaks down the creation of a college list into manageable (and delegate-able) chunks.

How to Use the Cards

For best results, we recommend that the student should start in charge of all of these tasks. It is their responsibility to delegate them as needed based on the expertise and availability of their support team.

To support your teen, you can mutually agree upon regular check-ins to see if the task assignments need adjustment. We recommend scheduling the check-ins in advance, perhaps weekly or bi-weekly.  If everything is on track, it’s an opportunity to celebrate progress. If not, it’s a perfect opportunity to adjust course.

And, finally, if you have not been assigned a task, do your best to stay out of it. Check-ins will provide an opportunity to assess progress, so do not feel the need to remind or nag. 

Are you ready to give our Stay in Your Lane cards a try?

You can also download the cards by clicking here.