If you’re like most parents of tweens and teens right now you’re either celebrating their near return to school or you’re already beginning to miss them badly. Whatever you may be feeling, your son or daughter is probably psyched to be free and get back to school, if only to spend more time with friends.
So what’s different this year from last? Aside from starting a new grade, your child may also be moving up to the middle school or high school, navigating new hallways, meeting new students or changing schools entirely. Then there are all the academic changes. Harder classes, tougher teachers, more tests and a heavier homework load. Combine all of that with extracurricular activities and a social life and your child has a lot to handle.
It’s easy to think of how fun it would be to hand over our responsibilities and step back in time to live life as a care-free student again. But, really, they have a lot to think about this school year and every school year. Soon they’ll have to make some of the biggest decisions of their lives.
Isn’t it a bit strange that students have to decide where they’ll go to college, what they’ll study and what career path they’ll follow, all before they’re 20 years old? We learn so much about life after college, which is when we also have some regrets. Any of these sound familiar?
- “If only I’d studied more in high school!”
- “Why didn’t I give that major a chance?”
- “I remember being so good at that – why didn’t I follow through?”
- “I wished I’d traveled in college.”
Of course hindsight is 20/20 for us. So I hope your child will ask questions that I know I personally didn’t think to ask anyone when I was in middle school or high school. The more they explore their interests and work hard in class this school year, the better prepared they’ll be to make those big decisions when 11th and 12th grade rolls around — if it hasn’t already!
The team here wishes you and your student a very successful new school year! Remember to let us know how we can help along the way.
Paying for college is a stressful and enormous task for many families. So enormous in fact that some parents are cracking open their nest eggs to pay for their child’s education.
About 6% of parents dipped into their 401(k) or IRA for their child’s college expenses in 2010, according to a Sallie Mae and Gallup survey of 801 college students age 18 to 24 and 823 parents of college students. Parents are not only withdrawing money, but they’re withdrawing more money year over year. A $5,318 dip did the trick in 2009, but $8,554 was needed in 2010.
For additional context, here is a breakdown of how families are paying for college today.
Read full survey details at SallieMae.com.
Would you consider using retirement funds to pay for your child’s college education? Does this pie chart seem about right to you?
When you were a teen, did you know what career path you would follow? Maybe you had aspirations to become a doctor, a lawyer or the President of the United States. Chances are you didn’t follow through on that career path. (If you did, hello Mr. President!) So you understand how difficult it is for tweens and teens to know what they’ll be when they grow up. They can’t even think beyond middle school or high school, let alone imagine a full-blown career.
Unfortunately, fewer kids are thinking ahead to the future today, and as a result they’re entering college completely unprepared. Exploring their interests and goals in middle school and high school can help them choose a career path. It can also help them determine what they need to do to succeed in that career before they get to college. For instance, your child will have a tough time passing college-level science and math courses without taking more advanced science and math in high school.
So what can you do to help your child choose a career path? We’ve created a career resource guide for tweens and teens on Skipping Breakfast. Check it out and share it with your child.
This career resource guide for tweens and teens covers:
1. Figuring out your personality type
2. Exploring your interests
3. Talking to career professionals
4. Exploring careers
5. Finding out what it takes to get careers
Has your child shown interest in any specific careers?
While spending the weekend in New York visiting family, I happened to grab a copy of the Sunday New York Post. This week’s cover spotlighted the best high schools in New York City – and just how hard it is to get into each of them. Whether you hail from a big city like New York or reside in the most rural of towns, you’ll appreciate the struggles students go through to score a seat in one of the top high schools. Keep in mind this is high schools, not colleges.
Getting into the top three New York City high schools:
- Townsend Harris High School: This #1 ranked high school accepts just 270 from a pool of 5,000 applicants every year. A gifted few are selected based on merit, but once they’re in the sky’s the limit. After all, every class is either AP, honors or college level.
- Stuyvesant High School: Ranked at #2, this high school gets 27,000 applicants every year. 27,000! That’s for just 800 openings. A quarter of the kids who graduate from Stuyvesant go on to the Ivy League, so I guess it’s no wonder why it’s so popular. The only way in is to test very well in the SHSAT.
- NYC Lab School For Collaborative Studies: At #3, the NYC Lab School is a smaller school with a focus on projects and dynamic teaching rather than traditional curriculum. That doesn’t make it easier. Last year’s students hosted a Model UN conference and Shakespeare play! Admission is merit based.
That’s just three of the top schools in the New York Post’s special edition. The students who get into any of these top schools have to work hard to do so. To be selected students must:
- Test well in performance and standardized tests
- Get great grades on their middle school report cards
- Never miss school or be late
- Demonstrate successful essays and projects
- Show community service and civic responsibility
- Prove that they’re self-starters
- Have a record of ongoing activities
- Ask the admissions officers LOTS of questions
While I’m excited to hear about the students who work hard and succeed at getting into these top schools (they are almost guaranteed a path to success), I can’t help but wonder what happens to all the thousands of others who don’t.
What do you think? Should all students have an opportunity to get into schools like these? Would you want to see your student in a school like this or is your school doing a good job? Let us know.
1. Should Your Teen Keep Her Summer Job Into the School Year? (The Globe and Mail)
As someone who works with interns, I struggle with the decision to invite our merry group of college students to turn their summer internships into year-round internships. I love my interns. I spent most of Friday afternoon with a Kleenex handy as they each said goodbye before leaving on their next college adventure. The truth is I’d love to continue working with every one of them, but I feel that’s a bit selfish of me. I think internships are important to learning, part-time jobs are often a necessity for earning but academic growth should be top priority. That’s probably why I decided to spotlight this article. It speaks directly to the impact of part-time jobs on high schoolers’ success. What are your thoughts on this topic?
2. Should College Students Be Borrowing More? (The Huffington Post)
Massive amounts of student loan debt is terrible. Credit card debt is worse. This commentary states that while kids are graduating college with a median of $20,000 in student loans to pay back, the vast majority are suffering far more with credit card balances and finance charges. His word of advice: Borrow more, use credit less.
3. No Parents Allowed: College-Exclusive Social Network Launches (Mashable)
Counting on keeping tabs on your kids when they leave for college. No shot if they join CollegeOnly. CollegeOnly gets back to Facebook’s original intention: to create a place where friends can meet friends, who are college students only. But, seriously, this site won’t let you in.
4. Sleep and Your Student’s Success (Skipping Dinner commentary)
Did you see our top Tweeted story of the week? Read our commentary of The New York Times article Later Start Times and ZZZs to A’s and learn just how important it is for your teen to get more sleep.
5. The USA’s Best Ice Cream Parlors (USA Today)
Ok, I know this doesn’t have much to do with college prep, but summer is quickly coming to a close. Get out and grab a cone this weekend with your teen. Before you know it, he or she will be off to college and you’ll wish you had the quality time.
Vanessa Van Petten, youthologist, teen author, manager of RadicalParenting.com and a contributing blogger (phew!), recently shared her 11 college prep steps for middle school students and high school students on our sister site Skipping Breakfast. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out and encourage your teen to follow her every step. Here are the steps in a nutshell.
1. Begin recording thoughts and ideas about college.
2. Get organized.
3. Learn how to do laundry.
4. Do online research about colleges.
5. Visit colleges, even virtually.
6. Buy some tools, college planning tools.
7. Find what you love.
8. Start a schedule.
9. Invest in stationery.
10. Take pictures.
11. Practice writing.
Want to learn more about Vanessa? Visit her at RadicalParenting.com!
As a tough economy forces many Americans to penny pinch, others have begun or continue to invest in private tutoring, according to The New York Times article As Private Tutoring Booms, Parents Look at Returns.
Tutoring is no longer viewed purely as a fix for kids who are struggling in mathematics. Now many parents see tutoring as the road to college and even Ivy league schools specifically. While that kind of high-end tutoring exists (and costs a boatload of money) it’s not always in the student’s best interest. Here are some tutoring tips I gleaned from the article. I’d also love to hear from parents who have experience selecting and working with tutors.
Tutoring Tips: What to Look for in Tutors
Pros. According to the article, good tutors should help kids improve:
- Class grades
- SAT scores
- College readiness
- Attitude
- Self-confidence
- Willingness to do homework
- Communication skills (Kids may talk to tutors about things they don’t want parents to know.)
Cons. Also according to the article, tutors should not be:
- Writing college essays
- Thinking for the student
- Doing the homework assignments
- Helping kids who don’t need the help (Kids should work through problems on their own whenever possible.)
Cost. Some tutors charge $250 to $400 per hour, according to the article. The good news is that you have options. Just keep in mind that tutoring is still an investment. You can find tutors for closer to $50 per hour or check out online services like TutorVista for $99 per month.
Hannah Nyren
Student Blogger |
STUDENT COMMENTARY
In response to “Students, Welcome to College; Parents, Go Home” from The New York Times.
Parents of college freshmen are finally getting the boot. According to this article, a few colleges have started using stealthy tactics to get their fresh students’ parents to leave after move-in. Some schools perform a special ceremony, while others emphasize student only orientation activities. My thoughts? If only I had this when I was a college freshman.
As a student, I feel like I can’t rag on parents too much. After all, I’ve never had a child. I don’t know what it’s like to take care of someone for 18 years and then drop them off with a bunch of strangers. I do know that when I was a college freshman, all I wanted was to explore on my own. And when mom and dad wouldn’t leave orientation, that was a little hard to do.
I am the child of a hover mom, so I might be a little biased. In high school, my teachers never called my parents. My mom called them. She was at my high school more often than some of my classmates. Granted, I was a little scared to bring her to college (mostly because she joked about moving in). I imagined her hanging out in classes, trying to befriend my roommates and filling her phone book with professors. That was so not gonna happen.
So when I left home in Texas for school in Boston, I did the unthinkable. I asked my mom to stay home. It might sound cruel, but I wanted to guarantee that she wouldn’t live on my couch!
Hopefully, you’re not quite as ready to move into the dorms. But the transition still might be hard. My advice? Come prepared with tissues, a camera and a brave face. Then take the hint and leave. Your kid doesn’t want to hurt your feelings, but it’s hard to make new friends with your parents in tow.
You may not be ready for them to leave, but do you think they’re ready to take you to college?
You may not think much about math, let alone talk numbers with your teen. Unfortunately, reports show that kids are not developing their math skills fast enough to succeed in high school, college and careers. So what can we do? Bring math down to earth. The more your child relates to this seemingly scary subject, the easier it becomes. So get started – at the grocery store!
Grocery Store Math for Your Teen
Budgeting. Does your teen always want to buy random snacks when you go grocery shopping? Before you leave the house, create a grocery list together and estimate a budget. Be clear that you will not go over that budget. If your teen chooses to pick up some other snack as your walking the aisles, something gets cut.
Price comparisons. My mom tortured me with this as a kid, but I’m grateful to have learned it then. Encourage your son or daughter to look at unit prices. What’s the cost of a product compared to the ounces in that product? For instance, compare an 18-ounce jar of peanut butter for $3.45 with a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter for $2.85. Which is the better deal? Ask your child to do the math.
Sales. Are sale items really a better deal? Are you sacrificing value? Do you even need the product? Have your teen consider the price of the sale item against a) whether or not you need it, b) its price compared to a similar item you’d normally buy and c) its nutrition facts.
Nutrition facts. Which products are healthiest? Ask your teen to compare fat, calories, sodium, sugar, carbs or anything that’s important to you. Give him or her the responsibility of making sure you get healthy products.
Coupons. Have your teen clip coupons before you go. As you pick up the products, ask him or her to calculate the savings to the cent. It doesn’t go in the basket until your teen does the math.
How do you teach your teen about math? Share with other parents here.
College Readiness Blog for Parents
