The New Year of Fear and and Loathing

Most people greet the New Year with a sense of optimism and vigor; they see it as a chance to start over, break bad habits, build new ones.

But when you are the mother of a junior in high school who turns into a senior in the fall, the year is completely predictable, and there is nothing pretty about it. As you may have read in my Washingtonian article it is the year when you must sign up for a job that pays nothing, that requires extensive travel and expense, and whose end goal is something you don't really want..

Here's how it goes:

January--Enroll client in SAT prep class
February--First possible tour date--President's weekend
March--Client takes the SAT
April--Dedicate your spring break to schlepping around college campuses
May--Possible supplementary tutoring to improve client's SAT test scores
June--Client takes the SAT again plus the damn subject tests
July and August--Sacrifice part of your summer to more college trips and/or send child on impressive community service trip to add to the "resume."
September--Meet with the counselor for the dreaded "It's Time" meeting,show up with a list of 9 colleges, three reach, three targets, three safeties
October--Start harassing client to write common app essay
November--Some of the first application deadlines appear now, hammer the client to write the supplements, get the transcript office to send; much paperwork and spreadsheet activity.  If smart, apply for at least one school early action or the even more heavenly early decision.
December--Finish apps, most are due now if not in January. Worry and fret until April 1st.

Every day of the year, expect to experience stress and anxiety, push back and procrastination from the client.

Happy New Year Everyone! I will keep you posted month by month to let you know if it gets any easier the second time around. Like childbirth however, I bet it's much the same.