Now accepted to a variety of colleges, the complex work of building consensus toward a final choice begins. Families should seek to select the college with the most opportunities where a student to discover or gain confidence in an inherent aptitude. Thus, I strongly encourage families not to rush the college decision, so as to reduce the risk of malinvestment.
With additional time, families can more reasonably parlay 12 years of schooling and the numerous hours of completing homework, tutoring, test-prepping, play dates, and extracurricular activities, as well as parents coordinating and driving carpools, financing activities, and moral support, not to mention everyone managing the stress of such a modern childhood into both economic success and a lasting piece of mind.
Complicating the need to choose a college by the unofficial May 1st national decision deadline is the emotion both parents and students are wading through given that a seventeen year old is preparing to leave home for the first time, but also making a significant financial investment in the expectation laden future of the child, evolving the parent-kid dynamic, not a simple shift.
Consensus decision making between parents and students when the stakes seem so high along with the emotions may require a moderator without skin in the game, as they say. An objective voice can be useful to both mediate conversations, counseling each party separately and together to address unique concerns, then with their educational expertise and experience can efficiently devise a decision making matrix unique for each family.
Lastly, families have leverage over the university, as students’ tuition is revenue the university needs. With such buying power, families should ask as many questions of admissions officers and any other college staff academic as well as current and former students, as well as scour the internet for information needed to be confident in their final selection.
For over twenty years, Creative Marbles experts have moderated family conversations regarding complex educational decisions, lending our expertise to reduce the risk of malinvestment. For more information, contact us.
