Hello fellow parents, and welcome!
If the holiday spirit moves you, please consider giving the gift of calm (AKA: College Admissions Cracked) to other parents who could use support as they begin their college admissions journey. If you take a moment to leave a review or stars on Amazon and Goodreads, the dreary winter clouds will part and sunshine will pour down upon you (in the form of sincere vibes of gratitude from this author).
Fear is a part of chill parenting.
Here in Massachusetts, snow coats the tree branches outside my window. It’s silent out there, yet the quiet belies what’s going on inside the homes that line my street. One neighbor’s daughter began her first year of college remotely this year. A family across the street includes two kids in virtual school and two professors teaching on Zoom. There are tiny tots on my block weaving in and out of their parents’ business Zoom calls. We have a captive college student bumping around in our finished basement, doing his post-plane-flight quarantine time (like prison, only with better food, he says).
While the Amazon and UPS trucks seem to be the only vehicles chugging on the streets outside, our insides are NOISY this winter. We are continuing to live, to learn, to hope, and to hunker down through (hopefully) the tail end of this surreal landscape in which we find ourselves unable to recognize our masked neighbors, trying to navigate modality changes in education, and of course, contending with the upended pieces of the college admissions process. One thing that hasn’t changed (that possibly will never change, and that’s okay) is our fear.
I want you to know that if you have a “freak out” every now and then, you are not alone. In the grand tradition of parents going through the college admissions process with their teenagers, the outside may look tranquil, but inside the hearts of other parents, they are experiencing exactly the same fears that you are. Will the last-minute essays my kid whipped up be okay? (According to the former Director of Admission at Smith College, 40% of applicants write their essays within 24 hours of the application deadline.) Are the colleges I’ve heard of realistic for my child? (I offer ways to assess that in College Admissions Cracked.) Will the standardized test my child is signed up for get cancelled? (This website should help allay your worries: hooray for test optional!) What if my kid was just rejected from her dream school, or I’m afraid she’s about to be? (Gloria Gaynor has all the answers.)
I’m posting links to articles about how COVID-19 has changed college admissions and we’re talking each other down from “anxiety cliff” on our CPR Facebook group. Join us for free advice and comfort! Have a wonderful holiday celebration in your own way during this year that requires innovation. You’ve got this. And The Chill Parents’ Revolution has got your back.
Warmly,
Jill
