When Amanda Shettlesworth sent the School of Public and Environment Affairs' students a mass e-mail last spring describing a competitive internship opportunity, she got an unlikely reply -- from a student's mother.
"She called me up and asked that her son be given a leg up in the process," Shettlesworth said. Confused by the mother's involvement, Shettlesworth, an assistant director in SPEA's career-services office, said she couldn't do anything to help.
"This is your son's responsibility," she told the mother, "and hopefully he will write the essay well and apply."
But the mother fought back, arguing that the school should help him get ahead.
"It's almost like she didn't hear me at all," Shettlesworth said. Some say her situation underscores a growing trend across the country.
An upward trend
In what's been called the age of the "helicopter parents" -- those who hover over their children's lives -- school officials say parents are becoming increasingly involved in their children's career searches, doing everything from writing students' resumes to accompanying them at career fairs.