Parent Involvement in College Planning
High school students want parents to be more involved in college planning
Helicopter parents, so named because they hover like a helicopter over their children's lives, were the focus of the first issue of studentPOLL published jointly in a new collaboration between the College Board and Art & Science Group. The findings of a national online survey of high school seniors conducted by the two organizations show that high school seniors are generally satisfied with the current level of their parents' involvement in the college planning process. Ninety-five percent of students indicated that their parents were either "very involved" or "involved" in their college plans but, contrary to anecdotal suggestions, the students reported very little unwanted, intrusive behavior on the part of their parents. In fact, nearly 30 percent of students want more, not less, parental involvement.
This issue of studentPOLL reports on the responses of more than 1,700 students to questions regarding parental involvement in their lives. The survey measured the level of involvement of parents in a wide range of college-related plans and activities such as the campus visit, the application essay, assessing college costs, and preparing for the SAT®.
Read the full report: High school students want parents to be more involved in college planning, studentPOLL Volume 6, Issue 1, March 7, 2007.