To American sports fans, there’s no better month than October. We get mid-season football 5 days each week, MLB playoffs, and even the beginning of both NBA and NHL schedules. This year, even NY Mets fans get another week or so of hope before their team’s inevitable plunge into despair, and for anyone interested in politics and elections, October 2024 is like the Super Bowl wrapped in bacon and dipped in chocolate fondue.
Eventually, the sports and campaign schedules run their course, and by sometime in mid-February we’ve all found ourselves watching trick bowling. Such is winter. But October sure is action packed, which reminds me about…
…college applications! To high school seniors and their parents (I’m one of them), October is not really October anymore. The real foliage for the year is a series of tasks and reminders and Byzantine, Rube Goldberg processes. Even for kids working diligently on all this, the process fraught with traps and deadlines and tasks and some other tasks and some other deadlines oh and there’s that form or was it on the app but which app? At each step of which either parent or student can permanently and inalterably damage the student’s life, wellbeing, and economic status. That’s not true, but the stress and strain are evident in parents of seniors in public.
You can spot us parents by our eyes, which sometimes spin in opposite directions. If not, we may have uniquely frenzied, rapidly greying hair, harrowed looks and often enough we can be seen muttering to ourselves, that is when we aren’t reflexively nagging our seniors about this essay, that other essay statement thing, references, the common app, and getting help understanding that incomprehensible question on the common app.
Fortunately, Dr. Matthew Greene of Greene Educational Consulting is here to help. Matt joined the American Unfiltered podcast to offer his timely, unique and valuable insights as a student advisor and college admissions guru. Matt knows all the nooks and crannies, has many years of experience advising students and families around the world, and fortunately he is based in my town of Wilton, Connecticut. Matt and I were able to talk for over an hour, and Matt provided great and valuable perspectives about college prep, early decisions, the past, present and future of SATs, applications, gap years, financial aid, many other related topics, and detoxifying the process. Enjoy!
