Taking the college admissions topic here.
My dad went to college in about 1941. (Enlisted in 1942, post Pearl Harbor, but that's a different discussion.) He was having too much fun to be doing well with studies & grades, so his parents received a letter from the dean, expressing concern and warning them that he was not likely to pass the semester. Those were the days of in loco parentis. Over the years, the age of majority has changed, such as for being able to vote. So now, it seems as though the parents have less contact with the college, etc., and the students have more.