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When is the right time to start thinking about and working toward attending college? Is there something harmful about elementary school students considering whether or not they want to attend college or discussing possible majors? Should middle school students be thinking about the relative merits of attending an Ivy League college vs. a state university? Should high school freshmen be actively engaged in a college search?
I often hear from parents and educators who worry that we've stopped letting kids be kids, and instead place tremendous pressure on very young children to start developing the resume that will eventually get them into Harvard. [Note that as a Yale graduate I believe they should set their sights higher than Harvard, but the marketing geniuses running the Harvard brand have successfully corrupted many of the nation's youth.] If you share that view, it is probably because you assume that thinking about or working toward attending college automatically means thinking about how to get into the most competitive college possible. But what if students were encouraged to think about college without fear? What if they were told that there are over 4,000 accredited colleges in the country, and that they had an excellent chance of finding a great college that would be happy to admit them and would work to help make college affordable? If young people knew college would be there when they were ready, then thinking about college would be trying to answer the question, "Ready for what?" When my nine year old daughter tells me she thinks she wants to be lawyer who defends poor people when she grows up, it is a good time for her to start thinking about college. She may change her mind about careers a hundred times before she enrolls in college, but teaching her how college relates to realizing her current dream helps her understand how she can work to turn her dream, whatever it may be, into a workable plan of action. Of course she has the luxury of time, and can consider these issues without any sense of urgency. What about the high school senior who still doesn't see a need to attend college? Is she too late? If you believe college must happen right after high school, she may have trouble making a smooth transition into a college that helps her get to the post graduation life she hopes to live. However, if she suddenly hits upon a goal that college will help her reach, she is by no means too late. Even if she hasn't applied herself in high school in order to be competitive for college admissions she isn't too late. Many students have started at an open enrollment two year college, applied themselves with purpose to their studies, transferred to a college that fit their goals, and walked across a graduation stage and into a successful career. If she knows why college matters to her, she can find the means to join that honorable company. So when is the right time to think about college? When thinking about your future makes it clear that college is a means to reach the future you want to live. Until you have a purpose, thinking about college is purely an academic exercise. As soon as you have a purpose, the right time to start thinking about college is now. [Note: If you want some resources to help you do some thinking about college, I shamelessly recommend picking up a copy of my book. If you are in middle school or high school, I also recommend checking out the KnowHow2Go.org website.] |
