Prepping for college in a pandemic

If this were a normal year, the Johnson family would have spent the summer touring colleges in the Upper Midwest.

But this is 2020. Thanks to the pandemic, there was no summer road trip. And Emma Johnson, 17, a senior at Forest Hills Eastern High School in Ada, Mich., no longer wants to study far from home. She and her mother, Michelle Johnson, have agreed that if school continues to stay online next year, she may start at a community college.

“Everything has shifted in what’s important,” Michelle Johnson said.

As if applying to college weren’t stressful enough, this year’s crop of seniors and their families has to grapple with existential questions as well, such as what does it even mean to go to college when classes are mostly or completely conducted online? Will you be considered an accomplished candidate for higher education when you spent the pandemic cooped up at home, unable to do much of anything that wasn’t on Zoom?

From standardized tests that can’t be taken to campuses that can’t be toured and activities that can’t be done via Zoom, key elements of the college-admissions process are suddenly either irrelevant or significantly altered. Parents of high-school students — particularly seniors but also juniors and, to a lesser extent, sophomores — may find themselves unsure about how to proceed.

That’s true for the experts as well. Some college-admissions consultants urge parents to push their teens to find creative ways to engage with activities, even if the usual channels of sports teams or in-person gatherings are shut down. Others suggest backing off during this stressful time. Some advise parents to go to great lengths to ensure their seniors sit for an SAT or ACT exam. Others say test scores aren’t that important anyway.

They all, however, agree on one thing: Pay attention to what your child wants and needs in this moment of swirling, shifting demands.

“Listen to what your kid is saying — really listen — before delivering a lecture,” said Dr. Cara Natterson, a pediatrician and author of “The Care and Keeping of You,” a series of books about the changing adolescent body. “And then maybe skip the lecture.” one: more than 20% of Harvard University’s incoming freshman class chose to defer admission this fall.

Numbers like this can trouble the parents of the high-school Class of 2021.

“I think parents are extremely stressed that last year’s seniors who deferred admission will be taking spots away from the current seniors,” Kamins said.

But this may only apply to competitive, wealthy schools like Harvard, with its deep waiting list and sizable endowment, said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.