Is your child ready for college?
Is Your Child Really Ready to go away to College??
As a student's last year of high school begins, both students and parents consider where they will be attending college next year. Parents are eager for their child to pursue higher education, to make plans for a career, and students are eager to leave home and experience for the first time what it's like being their own person and making their own decisions. It seems like a win-win situation, what parents have spent the last 18 years preparing for. But is your child ready to take on all the responsibilities and challenges of being away from home for the first time? Many parents and students mistakenly believe that graduating from high school necessarily means leaving home for college. Some things to consider:
- does your child have the maturity to be away from home, unsupervised 24-7
- has you child established effective study skills that do not require you hovering over them
- does your child have self-discipline
- has the child developed good social skills for interacting with students unlike themselves
- can your child manage stress, pressure and the demands of a college curriculum
- can you child resist peer pressure; are his or her values firmly established
- was your child a conscientious student demonstrating a genuine commitment to academics
- was your child able to balance studying with extracurricular activities
- to what extent does the student actually know what he or she wants to do as a career
These are some of the questions that need to be answered before a student is given the go ahead to leave home without your guidance and protection. Perhaps starting at a local junior college is an option to be considered.