Yesterday Dr. Debra wrote about teenagers making plans to go to college. I agree with her college does not mean you have to seek an Ivy League University. There are so many options. If you missed her blog please refer back to it. In keeping with this college theme I want to address something else.
As parents you need to determine what is reasonable for you as a family to contribute toward college. This should be determined before the decision of which college is made. If you really can't afford NYU don't put it on the table. There are scholarships available but not all kids will get or find scholarships or enough scholarships to pay for any college of their choosing. Some colleges provide more scholarships than others. You and your teen need to be well informed about this process.
This being said, then comes the difficult work of deciding which college and applying. These two tasks belong to your teenager. Taking college tours should be a family event. It helps when decisions are being made to have seen the schools together. It seems to me that most high schools are pretty good about letting teens know about college and keeping them apprised about the process. The teenager may need to be proactive. I knew of a teenager recently that was accepted to a big name state school. It came time to leave for school and she had not gone to registration or orientation and although the family thought they knew what benefits were available but they had not checked this out and in addition to not having registered for class she did not have her funding nailed down. This should not occur today. The parents might not have known but the teenager, when all her friends were registering etc. should have been checking into her own plans. When the decision is being made you and your teenager should be discussing this but the decision is the teenagers to make; this hold true for the choice of college and the classes to be taken. Colleges provide advisors to help guide the students and they are best equipped to determine what your teen needs to sign up for.
Hopefully you have been slowly turning decision making over to your teen for years but if not this is still one that they should be making. These are decisions about the rest of their life and it should be what is best for them not what is best for us. So, good luck. It is exciting (and a bit sad) to watch your teen go off to college but celebrate with them as they endorse this process.
Sherri
My son is closing on his graduation from high school and has been looking at Occupational Therapy Colleges. There are a few things that I think many parents overlook when researching a school. They include, does the school look like it would give my son or daughter a new perspective on life? Does it have the necessary tools to boost his or her confidence? Lastly, will the end result instill an infinite want to continue to learn after he or she graduates? This is something that I continuously think about when looking at schools. It definitely helps me in deciding what is right for my child.
Posted by: Mike Cornelia | 10/15/2012 at 09:50 AM
Super article! I really thank you for taking the time to share this. Thank you!
Posted by: or maybe long or short shop herve leger12 | 05/20/2013 at 02:59 PM