Spring of senior year is a critical time in the college admissions process, in some sense, more pivotal than the application period, for a strategic blunder can be costly: misallocating 17 years of preparation for higher education, malinvestment of tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, and economic malaise that could last a lifetime.
Seniors and their families are selecting—carefully choosing as being the best or most suitable—a college from among those to which they have been admitted. Yet, to be careful, individuals need calm. But, in the Spring of senior year at the crest of the college admissions process, emotions can often supersede reason. Thus, the potential for mis-choosing a college is great.
Desiring to curb the emotion associated with receiving denials and acceptances, as well as waitlists, sometimes from one click to the next, families can wing the decision, rationalizing, “At least, I will know where I’ll be next year.” And, every year, I meet with first year college students who are considering leaving their four year college, amongst the 33% nationwide who don’t enroll for their second years at the same college, according to the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
Leaving a college after a year is expensive, both emotionally and financially: tuition, housing, books, travel, moving expenses, lost time to network elsewhere. Plus, students who are still determined to attend another college, must redo the whole application process a second time, albeit hopefully tempered with wisdom garnered from experience.
Thus, without faith in a high school senior’s choice of college borne from a thorough investigation grounded in a confident understanding of oneself, room for buyer’s remorse is great and the risk of an investment in the tens of thousands of dollars going awry only increases.
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.
