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The Baltimore Sun

After the SAT coach, the SAT shrink by Gadi Dechter June 12, 2007

On June 21, a big chunk of the 2.2 million students who take the SAT every year, will be receiving their test scores. In anticipation, New York neuropsychologist and college admissions coach Jacqueline LoBosco is taking “emergency calls,” she recently announced this week in an email touting “7 Easy Tips to Help Kids Handle their SAT Results!”

Among LoBosco’s advice for parents whose kids get lower-than-hoped-for scores: “Create a safe space for your child to communicate his or her feelings” and “Congratulate your child for taking the test!” 

While the notion of post-SAT therapy may strike some as evidence of an over-coddled, over-coached generation of families who place too much currency in admission to elite colleges, it’s no joke, says Steven Roy Goodman, a private admissions coach who practices in Towson and Washington. “The admissions process as a whole causes an incredible amount of stress in living rooms across America,” Goodman said. “And tests are a component of that.”Goodman, who co-wrote his coming book College Admissions Together: It Takes a Family, with a psychologist, says he refers about 5 to 10 of his clients every year to professional counseling.   

A few years ago, Goodman was working with a student whose father, a Harvard University graduate, couldn’t conceive of his daughter enrolling anywhere else, though she was a mediocre student with little chance of admission.  ”She was a mess,” Goodman said of the daughter. “The family was paralyzed. The mother thought the father was putting too much pressure on the daughter and it became clear to that I needed to refer this to a psychologist to help them overcome this impasse.”

Goodman doesn’t think SAT results or the college-admissions process causes psychological trauma so much as brings to the surface underlying issues that already exist. “Normally the stress associated with the college-admission process is a metpahor for broader issue that are affecting the child and the family,” he said.

Know of anyone in (or contemplating) counseling for a college-prep crisis? Drop me a line at gadi.dechter@baltsun.com and let’s talk about it.

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