How to Suggest a College that is Right for Your Teenager

Everyone, admissions counselors, experts and parents are always hot to trot with advice on how to choose a college. Most of it is good advice, but we adults tend to steer teenagers away from our own mistakes. At seventeen or eighteen (or sixteen now as college interventions are trending younger) teenagers fail, sometimes impressively, to see the bigger picture.

And that's why, instead of bogging them down with a lot of self-reflection and soul searching, it is a better tactic to get your teenager thinking about the practical side of college and beyond. As a place to start, you can suggest these steps:

1. Do your homework

The internet is too robust and accessible these days to not encourage your teen to find a computer (even at the library) and start looking at college websites. You can find out a lot about a college just by reading the student newspaper online and going to the clubs and activities page. It's hard to imagine life in college before you get there, but at least your teen can get a sense of whether the activities and events listed on the college's website have some general appeal. And teens who are particularly informed and opinionated must read the student newspaper's editorial section to get an idea of how students think on that campus.

Visiting a college can be helpful, but only in comparison to other colleges. Otherwise, what's your teen's basis of evaluation? Schedule a couple of trips to campuses high on your teen's list, with or without your teen's explicit consent. Force the issue and as much as possible, give your teen an idea of the different kinds of college and university experiences out there.

2. Don't listen to the experts

It never fails to get mentioned in any article about choosing a college; the importance of the size of the student population and whether the college is considered a brand name. The experts have the right idea, but you can put a practical spin on it.

Just remember, as far as size of the school goes, only the on-campus population matters for teens planning on living on campus. Their interactions with other students is going to center around other kids living on campus, especially during their first year, and commuter populations rarely add a significant social factor outside of the classroom. Which is even more important to remember if your teen is living at home during college.

National universities can offer a wonderful college experience but for most teenagers, the national recognition on its own doesn't matter. There is a subset of teens who care very much about the national recognition of their school (or they think you do. Do you know the difference?) But those teens are also the ones who already know they have a better than average chance of getting into a national university as one of their top three choices.

Even teens who are dead-set on a "brand name" college need to think about what campus living will be like. Of the two considerations, size of the on-campus population is a more significant indicator of your teen's first-year experience.

3. Cost of attendance should not be a reason to choose or to not choose a college.

As a parent, it might be hard to swallow this line, but do not let cost rule how your teen picks a college. After they have selected a list of schools to apply to, that is the time to talk about cost of attendance, financial aid, and applying for other aid.

The conversation needs to happen, and it should be early in the application process to make sure your teen is eligible for any priority deadlines. But this diligence is not the same thing as making a decision based on the sticker price of attendance. A lot of schools will offer financial aid with the acceptance package, only then making the real cost of attendance evident. And it can also depend on whether the schools your teen is applying to offer academic merit scholarships, athletic scholarships, or other forms of financial aid besides loans.

It is nice to tell your teen that college is all about fit, but the truth of that is you cannot judge fit as well as you would like until your teen is on campus, living the life of a college student. No admissions counselor, education expert, or parent is going to be able to represent that experience accurately; all of the self-reflection you encourage them to do can only reward them with approximate measures. For that reason, when your teen is looking at choosing a college, steer them towards practical considerations first. Plenty of time for soul searching when the acceptance letters reach your mailbox.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

--- Andrew Marx writes a daily column on current events published at news.smartremarx.com/ Every week, he writes in-depth features on topics including personal finance and higher education. Read more of his work at features.smartremarx.com/

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