4Moms video chat: College counselors tell parents not to write students’ essays

The best role for parents in the anxious process of the college search is to help students discover their paths. That was one message Wednesday from two college counselors who say parents often hijack the process.

Colleges are trying to create a community, and a teenager’s application “provides a glimpse of what that student could be like” as a student there, says Jennifer Mandel, an independent college counselor in Los Angeles.

So a student who takes ambitious math classes or one who takes a six-week yoga class at a community college both offer something to a college, she says. “You no longer have to play four years of a varsity sport or cure cancer.”

Colleges want students to do what interests them, she says.

Another source of anxiety for students and parents are Advanced Placement classes: How many should they take? What if it’s a subject in which the student is not so proficient or interested?

“If a student is really interested in English and they do really well in writing, I would strongly encourage them to take the AP level in English language and literature,” says Marlene Garza, a counselor at Hamilton High School, part of the L.A. Unified district.

“But if they’re not interested in those classes, they’re going to have a hard time. It’s their schedule and their year, and if they are going to be miserable in AP physics, they might as well not take the class,” she says.

Mandel and Garza cautioned parents to let their teenagers write their own essays. Otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity for a student to tell a college who he or she really is. And the college will probably know the difference anyway.

mary.macvean@latimes.com

@mmacvean on Twitter