[81alum]

Helicoptering isn't restricted to parents of kids aspiring to elite schools.  To think so is very narrow minded, almost elitist.  There is a larger world out there.  It applies to Boy Scout and Girl Scout advancement, who makes the drill team, beauty pageants, student body offices as low as primary schools, Little League and Lassie League, Girl Scout Cookie sales, Christmas wrap fund raisers, 4-H, you name it.  Elite school admissions has very little to do with it unless that is your only focus.  (I don't mean "your" personally but can think of a better way to say it just now, so please don't take offense.)

I'm not sure you are entirely correct about this.  I see almost no helicopter parents hovering over my CSU students.  They tend to be older and work part time to be able to afford their tuition.  Many of them are financially independent from their parents.  Many of them worked in high school too and could not have afforded all the college prep stuff or the time for some of the extracurriculars.  A number of them are veterans.  Many are the first from their family to attend college, and just going to college--any college--is a source of enormous pride.  Their parents often lack the language skills and the knowledge of "the system" to coach their kids on college, and they lack the money to shower on structured activities.  No, I don't often see helicopters over my working class students.

Furthermore, right here in Palo Alto, I can say that the really crazy behavior did begin among my kids' friends  in late middle school and high school, as parents began shifting their thinking from the perennial problem of living vicariously through their kids to the additional problem of promoting their kids into an elite college.  If you want to see the ultimate extreme, take a look at what is going on in South Korea, which proves that things can indeed get even worse.  And at times the South Korean education mania spills over here.  We know a number of Korean families who have set up a household here in Palo Alto just to give their kids a better chance of getting in to an elite university.  One parent stays in Korea, one here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gen...tory.html 

That said, I think I would agree with the thrust that this generation in general is more narcissistic and  self-centered--and this probably pertains to more than just the elite college crowd.  I wouldn't attribute this to a generation of Dr. Spock kids so much as the self-absorbed world of video and the internet.  But there is a very real difference in the level of excessive parental involvement for those families that are pushing their kids toward elite colleges.

[81alum]

Helicoptering isn't restricted to parents of kids aspiring to elite schools.  To think so is very narrow minded, almost elitist.  There is a larger world out there.  It applies to Boy Scout and Girl Scout advancement, who makes the drill team, beauty pageants, student body offices as low as primary schools, Little League and Lassie League, Girl Scout Cookie sales, Christmas wrap fund raisers, 4-H, you name it.  Elite school admissions has very little to do with it unless that is your only focus.  (I don't mean "your" personally but can think of a better way to say it just now, so please don't take offense.)

I'm not sure you are entirely correct about this.  I see almost no helicopter parents hovering over my CSU students.  They tend to be older and work part time to be able to afford their tuition.  Many of them are financially independent from their parents.  Many of them worked in high school too and could not have afforded all the college prep stuff or the time for some of the extracurriculars.  A number of them are veterans.  Many are the first from their family to attend college, and just going to college--any college--is a source of enormous pride.  Their parents often lack the language skills and the knowledge of "the system" to coach their kids on college, and they lack the money to shower on structured activities.  No, I don't often see helicopters over my working class students.

Furthermore, right here in Palo Alto, I can say that the really crazy behavior did begin among my kids' friends  in late middle school and high school, as parents began shifting their thinking from the perennial problem of living vicariously through their kids to the additional problem of promoting their kids into an elite college.  If you want to see the ultimate extreme, take a look at what is going on in South Korea, which proves that things can indeed get even worse.  And at times the South Korean education mania spills over here.  We know a number of Korean families who have set up a household here in Palo Alto just to give their kids a better chance of getting in to an elite university.  One parent stays in Korea, one here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gen...tory.html 

That said, I think I would agree with the thrust that this generation in general is more narcissistic and  self-centered--and this probably pertains to more than just the elite college crowd.  I wouldn't attribute this to a generation of Dr. Spock kids so much as the self-absorbed world of video and the internet.  But there is a very real difference in the level of excessive parental involvement for those families that are pushing their kids toward elite colleges.