Should parents accompany students on their second visit to college?

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Jerome A. Cole, MA
Director of College Counseling, The Edmund Burke School
coleecs.googlepages.com/home  
(301) 625-5066

Jerome A. Cole, M.A., is the Director of College Counseling for the Edmund Burke school in Washington, D.C. and the founder of Cole Educational Consulting Services (Cole ECS.) He has worked with students and families for over seven years to help them plan and strategize for college. As a college counselor at Burke, an independent college preparatory high school founded in 1968, Mr. Cole oversees a program that is designed to support students and families as they go through the selection and admission process for college. Mr. Cole advises over 100 students each year in a small academically challenging environment where every senior is expected to apply to and enroll in college. Prior to Burke, he was a school counselor at Bethesda-Chevy Chase high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has successfully counseled hundreds of students and helped them prepare for admission to a variety of schools such as: American University, Clark-Atlanta University, Davidson College, George Washington University, Harvard University, Pitzer College, Stanford University, Temple University, and the University of Maryland at College Park, to highlight just a few. He established the consulting firm Cole ECS to provide students and families with the necessary information and support to make the best choice for college. Cole ECS defines the best choice as the optimal learning and social environment to ensure a student’s holistic success, culminating in on-time or early graduation and desirable post-graduate options. Mr. Cole earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Catholic University, and then went on to obtain a Master of Arts in Education and Human Development from George Washington University. He is certified as a school counselor and is a member of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC).

Should parents accompany students on their second visit to college?

In this video, Jerome Cole tells you everything you need to know to complete the perfect college application and have a great college interview.

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Speaker: Should parents accompany students on their second visit to college?

Jerome Cole: This is a easy question. The answer is no. You can take Johnny to the college or university, but you drop him off; you let him go out; do his own research, do his own exploration. If you want to stay behind in a nearby hotel or if you want to go off on your own and do some research, that's fine, that's appropriate; but what you don't want to do is accompany a kid who has been admitted, who is a senior, it's spring; they are trying to make the decision on where they want to live for the next four years; where they want to attend college, the kind of kids that they want to hanging out with for the next for four year. That should be done by the student and the student alone. So my advice is for parents at this point, it's time for you to say to yourself, my kid is getting ready to go off to college. This one weekend that he is going to spend at this college, this is the beginning of this transition period. This is going to take place that I am looking forward to taking place and that I am going to help and the way that I am going to help is I am going to stay out of the way. So that's my advice to parents. Let your kids do that visit by themselves.

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