1. “It’s hard to know what our
son is really thinking about
college. Does he just tell us what he thinks
we want to hear?” “Parents have the
responsibility to get this done right and on
time, but our kids are not as open with us
as needed to ensure we are on the right
track together. I’d like to discuss the
WHY behind certain preferences or
ideas.” “I need him to be more
responsive and willing to focus. “
“I need an objective tool to help
us, maybe with a timeline
we can move along with.”
She anticipated having completed
more research and pre-application work
by now. Thinks other families in this
position are much further along than
they are.
She is an engineering manager at
HP, and her husband is also a high tech
engineer. The father and son are both avid
ice hockey players. The son is a senior in
high school and is procrastinating on re-
searching colleges, studying for the SAT, etc.
She feels
frustration
about their
lack of progress, possibly running
out of time, and wondering what to
do to get her son more engaged in
their goal of finding 10-12 colleges
to apply to prior to the dead-
lines (in 3 months).
Mother of
college-bound
high school
senior, helping
her son research
colleges and
choose
where
to apply
Mother (and father) of
an only child entering his
senior year of high school
motivate/assist their son
in researching and apply-
ing to 4-year colleges in a
thorough and timely
manner,
(1) it is difficult to get him to share
his thoughts , (2) it is challenging to
gather college information, (3) she
doesn’t want to miss a deadline that
will negatively impact his future,
and (4) she doesn’t want to be the
‘bad guy’ in this process – she needs
an external guidance source.
Her son would like to attend a
college that has an ice hockey
team, and would prefer a
college out of state to
experience new things
(climate, culture,
communities, etc.) Their
challenge is that he has
dyslexia and has had to work
very hard to maintain decent
grades, with tutoring and
other outside help. He plays
ice hockey (a traveling team),
lacrosse, and football, does
winter and summer sports,
and is very successful in these
areas. Sometimes his sports
schedule reduces available
time for academics. She has
become used to worrying
about his academic status,
and has utilized additional
support to help him succeed
(tutors, etc.). Hopes he can
get into a good college AND
find good academic support
there so that he will be
successful in life after college.
Struggling to get him to spend
productive time on searching.