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I literally began talking about college with my kids when they were in grade school. I have emphasized what it has done for my DW and I both in terms of income, job satisfaction, and having a job that does not physically beat you up. My son is currently attending college at the major state university where I live and studying computer engineering. I fully expect my eleven year old daughter to attend as well. Although her gifts appear to be in fields emphasizing language arts as opposed mathematics. My kids are lucky in that if they show aptitude and willingness to learn than Mom and Dad are willing to finance their college education.
I don't think you can begin talking about college early enough with your children.
I agree that talking ABOUT college (as a general concept) early is a good thing, but my impression was that the original poster was wondering about when to start investigating or considering specific colleges for application purposes. Grade school, or even junior high, would be (I believe) far too early to start talking about specific colleges.
Good reminder golfgal. I think it's also become much more common for kids to take the PSAT as a practice run as sophomores (my three kids did that too) and then for real as Juniors. For those in the states where ACT is the main test I understand they take the PLAN as a pre-ACT.
One thing we told all our kids when they started looking at colleges was the importance of merit aid and how they should try not to fall in love with any one college unless it was both an academic and financial safety. And that's something you don't know until all the fin aid packages are in.
Our kids just got done taking both-they had them scheduled about 4 days apart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist
We live in an ACT state but took the PSAT, not the PLAN (although perhaps others do?); then again, most of us also ended up having to take BOTH the ACT and SAT. The PSAT is totally worth it though (even if a student doesn't have to take the SAT), since it does come with the possibility of scholarship money. You don't even have to be a finalist to benefit, since some schools will offer funding even for commended students.
Someone also mentioned the college recruiters' high school visits; I agree that those are a great opportunity, and would also encourage students to attend some of those, including for schools that are not immediately of interest. I sat in a few for schools I had no intention of attending (because I went along with a friend who was interested, or because the parent volunteer asked us to consider going -- I think they felt bad if not enough kids showed up!) and it was actually pretty useful to hear different takes on the topic. Sometimes hearing about the schools you don't want to attend will help clarify what it is that you do want in a school, or what your priorities are. With so many great colleges out there it can be a bit overwhelming to figure out how to wade through all that information and focus in on what really matters, versus things that are really nice but not essential.
The PLAN is the PSAT version of the ACT. It's relatively new. All the schools I know of around here have college bound sophomores take this now-actually I think they took it in 8th grade too but that might have been something else too-all the alphabet tests start jumbling together after a while.
Like the OP, our kids were exposed to many different universities, including our alma maters, throughout their lives. So they were familiar with different types of schools. DH attended one of the largest public universities in the country, while I graduated from a very small private school university after my kids were already in grade school. So they really got to see the whole spectrum. We got serious with the college search at the beginning of DS1's junior year and DS2 was a sophomore, although they did attend a college fair during the year before. We did a lot of looking!
DS1 got a general feel for what he wanted, and then he started applying. We ended up repeating several visits, as he was finalizing his choices. The time DS2 spent tagging along as a sophomore seemed to be a waste. At that point he just wasn't interested or just couldn't remember what he saw by the time he was ready to start applying. So we had to revisit a few schools for him when he actually got serious. There were several schools they wanted to visit that were really far from home. Our rule was, go ahead and apply and if you get in/get offered a good scholarship, we would go visit before they accepted any offers, which is what we did.
Also I forgot to mention, that we found visiting over the summer and holidays was pretty useless for us. We discovered that just looking at buildings was not a good indicator. The campus of the school DS1 ended up choosing was not as impressive as many we looked at, and he really didn't think he wanted to go there, but when we finally got a chance to visit campus during a school day it made all the difference. He was trying to decide between his two final choices and by just going and sitting on campus, and watching the students go about their daily activities he realized that's where he wanted to be. This was DH's alma mater that DS1 had been to many times before, but never during class time, always on a weekend or holiday. Conversely, DS2 thought he knew where he wanted to go, so he applied and got a good scholarship offer. We went and visited, and at first he fell in love with it. Beautiful campus and all, but once he met the people, especially the students, he decided it was not for him at all. He found the students to be rude and unwelcoming, and definitely not his style. I am so glad we spent the money and went for a visit after he received the offer, otherwise he would have accepted the offer and been 14 hours from home and been miserable.
A tiny rant. Do people really like "DH," "DW", "DS1," etc. Do you say that because it is cute?
But back on the thread topic.
I have two kids in college now, and a junior in high school. My kids were introduced to the idea of college at an early age. They knew we expected them to have the grades and test scores to go to a good school. Although we fully expected them to want to go to college, if for some reason one of our kids wanted to be a welder, that would have been OK too.
Our kids also knew that college was expensive. We never said how much money we could spend, but we wanted them to recognize that college is a privilege for most people and that some of their friends won't be able to afford it.
My wife and I have our preferences (or biases) about specific colleges, which are unimportant here. So we gently nudged our kids to be thinking about certain things. They knew we would never help them pay for a fraternity for example.
But the biggest issue and difficult overall was choosing a field or major. I knew from an early age what I wanted to study. My kids, somehow, so far have not developed a clear idea what they wanted to do. So we ended up far more engaged on this than I thought we would.
One of my college kids also was an athlete - so that impacted his decision a bit. My high school junior might very well earn an athletic scholarship - but she knows that academics comes first.
When should parents begin seriously discussing college choices with their children and what type of college/university they may want to go to? At what gage/grade should you take them to college fairs?
My husband and I both went to college and graduate school and our oldest is now in 9th grade. All of our kids have been on the college campuses of our alma maters, local colleges and a couple of other schools they have seen when we travel. The oldest has the thought that she would like a big school, outside of our immediate city and in or near another large city. That is about it. She also has attended Parochial school and thinks that she might like to continue at a Catholic University or College. Still, she really has had limited exposure.
When/where do you begin? Apparently, at their school some talks begin in 10th grade and visits in 11th. Is this time enough? Obviously the focus now is academics so she can get IN a good college. We don't want her stressing about college choices, but we do want her aware of the various types of schools so that she later can make an informed and not rushed choice. DH went the first place that gave him a free ride. He hated the school and looking back was not at all cut out for the small liberal arts place he went to. So, he is particularly wanting the kids to be happy with their choice and have a sense of types of schools.
I think I can navigate what level of schools our kids have a shot of getting in. So my question is: When do you begin seriously exposing them to college campuses and thoughts of what type of place they see themselves in?
From what I'm reading here, the last paragraph is the important one. The expectation is already there that the kids are going to college for the OP, the question is the last sentence.
(side note about the DH, DS stuff. I'm no fan and prefer to spell out husband, son etc. I don't refer to them IRL as "dear" and find it weird to do so on-line.)
When should parents begin seriously discussing college choices with their children and what type of college/university they may want to go to? At what gage/grade should you take them to college fairs?
My husband and I both went to college and graduate school and our oldest is now in 9th grade. All of our kids have been on the college campuses of our alma maters, local colleges and a couple of other schools they have seen when we travel. The oldest has the thought that she would like a big school, outside of our immediate city and in or near another large city. That is about it. She also has attended Parochial school and thinks that she might like to continue at a Catholic University or College. Still, she really has had limited exposure.
When/where do you begin? Apparently, at their school some talks begin in 10th grade and visits in 11th. Is this time enough? Obviously the focus now is academics so she can get IN a good college. We don't want her stressing about college choices, but we do want her aware of the various types of schools so that she later can make an informed and not rushed choice. DH went the first place that gave him a free ride. He hated the school and looking back was not at all cut out for the small liberal arts place he went to. So, he is particularly wanting the kids to be happy with their choice and have a sense of types of schools.
I think I can navigate what level of schools our kids have a shot of getting in. So my question is: When do you begin seriously exposing them to college campuses and thoughts of what type of place they see themselves in?
I think it make sense to start the conversation as a child begins high school. At our school all kids attend the college fair with their English classes starting in their freshman year. It gets more serious as a child enters his junior year.
I am very glad that you are thinking about your child being happy instead of worrying about getting in the "best" school. There are thousands of schools in this country and most of them will give young people the education they need to be successful. They have to live with their choice for four years. That is a large chunk of time for people to be unhappy.
Our guidance department has a saying that I love "College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won."
A tiny rant. Do people really like "DH," "DW", "DS1," etc. Do you say that because it is cute?
DH=Dear/Darling Husband
DW=Dear/Darling Wife
I don't use them but I see them on the forums such as these to abbreviate a word or phrase.
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