Reply to Tell me your HS Senior is not ready for college, with saying your HS student is not ready for colleg

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Tell me your HS Senior is not ready for college, with saying your HS student is not ready for colleg"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]College prof here.  I've been teaching at the college level since 1997.  I have yet to meet a student who was actually ready for college.  The ones with great study habits have great study habits . . . for HS, and need to relearn them.  The ones with terrific academic preparation may have some personal growth catching-up to do; the ones who seem to have their social life (and their friends' social lives) totally together might need to rebalance their time; the ones who tried to do it all in HS probably need to come to terms with focusing and narrowing their interests (which is often more traumatic than people think).  And it's the ones who think they've got this all figured out (or whose families think they've got this all figured out) who tend to bottle it all up and not admit when they need help.

College is growth time, big time.  If the young people we bring in as students were all totally ready for launch in every possible regard, and already perfectly prepared to contribute in the careers to which they aspire, I'd be out of a job.  There's such an immense change between freshmen and seniors that they are almost unrecognizable.

Parents, please encourage your kids to admit when they *don't* have it all together and to ask for help when they need it.  It's totally OK not to be ready to conquer the world when you arrive at college.  What is important is knowing that imperfection and maybe even some actual failure is part of life, and that it is a mark of maturity and stability to be able to ask for help in order to grow.[/quote]

Excellent points!!!

Way back in the dark ages, when I attended a T20 school, at orientation they told the parents "for the first time in their lives, your kids will likely get something other than an A/A- at some point this year, likely fall semester.  Just look around--everyone here was in the top 10% of their HS class, most were in the top 2% and about 20% were valedictorians. The cream of the crop is here and college is different.  So support your kids and know that it's ok to get a B or a C.  Encourage them to get help if they struggle and set expectations that it's ok to not be perfect."

I'd argue that this is even more relevant in today's pressure cooker environment of academics for getting into colleges.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics