Parents writing college emails for their kids are caught immediately by admissions officers. The formal vocabulary and polish scream adult authorship and cost students a chance to show independence, which colleges care about. Let your teen write it, then edit.
Admissions officers can tell almost instantly when an email lands in their inbox that was written by an adult pretending to be a teenager. The vocabulary is too formal. The sentences are too clean. There's a weird corporate politeness to it that no actual 17-year-old has ever possessed. And it's not just embarrassing, it actively undermines the student. Colleges are trying to admit a person who can survive independently away from their parents in about 18 months. Every email, every interview answer, every application question is a small audition for, can this kid function without an adult hovering over their shoulder? When mom writes the thank you for the tour email, the answer to that audition gives is apparently not. Parents, you can be the editor. But not the author. Ask good questions. Hand the keyboard back to your student.
