If Your Teen is Preparing for College, Read This First
Do you have a teenager who is getting ready to go to college? A lot is going on in your household right now, to be sure. From finishing up their final projects and exams for their senior year in high school to spending time with friends, their plates are full. And yet, they still have college applications to finalize and everything else that comes along with moving from one stage to another in life. For some helpful tips to make this transition easier, please keep reading.
Fund Their Dream
College is expensive. Full stop. Even with that knowledge before you, you should never let that stop your teen from pursuing their dream. Instead, you need to guide them and encourage them to take actionable steps to help fund their higher education pursuits.
Your teen should start learning about ways to pay for college while they are still in high school. Their guidance counselor or school career center should have a wealth of resources to help them understand where to look for financing options. If they do not have those resources at their school, you can contact the colleges they are interested in applying to. Call or email them together. Right now, they still need you to show them what to do and model these adult conversations.
Whether they use their high school or college resources, they should look for scholarships, grants, state student loans, and anything else that will help foot the bill. From there, you can fill the financial gaps with student loans with a cosigner.
There are a lot of resources available to help pay for college, and most of them take work. Your teen will need to write a variety of essays, and the two of you will need to fill out financial forms over and over again. Once you gather all of your information and fill out the first few, the rest will become much easier. This effort may be well worth your time, so do not put it off.
Teach Them Time Management
Most teens are not known for their time management acumen, while some do have it down to an art form. Regardless of where yours lies, it will be helpful to teach them some time management skills, just in case.
Start by getting them a planner. This can actually be the Google calendar on their phone, a traditional pen and paper pocket calendar, a calendar app, or a plain notebook. The point is that they need to find something that will work with their lifestyle and learning habits and that they will actually use.
Show them how to enter everything in their lives. Meetings, appointments, due dates, project check-ins, professor hours, and everything else should live on the calendar. When young adults can see how their time is being used, they will be better at managing it instead of putting off assignments. Procrastination can loom large in college when you are not there to ask them about whether they have done their homework or not. Let their newfound adulthood and time management skills help them accomplish their work and their goals.
Rethink Dorm Room Decor
If you are not yet privy to the world of dorm room interior design, get ready for an eye-popping moment. Some parents are hiring interior decorators to perfectly appoint their children’s dorm rooms. They are spending thousands of dollars to make everything just right.
College is not a time to look Instagram-perfect. It is a time to learn and grow, try new activities, and meet people that you may not have previously gravitated towards. Your kids do not need a professionally curated dorm room. They need the basics, and then whatever you and they agree on purchasing or bringing from home.
Encourage your rising college student to reach out to their new roommate. Have them review the college’s website for information on what is included in the dorm and what is recommended to bring. From there, they can discuss who will bring what and divide and conquer.
The new roommates can coordinate colors, if they so choose, and have fun decorating their new space, just as they did at home in their own bedrooms. Hopefully, they will not spend too much money on room decor or too much time in their rooms. They should be out experiencing everything their college has to offer, and studying, of course.
Establish Boundaries
Establishing boundaries is important for college students. This tip is aimed squarely at the parents. In today’s enmeshed society, the boundaries are blurred between student responsibilities and parents only wanting the best for their kids. Parents do not want their kids to fail or feel the sting of disappointment.
Unfortunately, that is not how life works. Setbacks will occur, opportunities will not arrive, and someone else will get the award sometimes. Learning to live with disappointment is a good thing.
When your teen goes off to college, you will have to honor their boundaries. You have raised them and instilled good values and a solid work ethic within them. Let them go and allow them to grow into adulthood. You are still there to guide them, but they need to be in the proverbial driver’s seat.
Let your new college student communicate with their professors. Let them get up on their own without you giving them a daily wakeup call. Establish boundaries and avoid calling them every day. You can still text them or send them a funny video, but not as much. They need to begin building their future on their own, while knowing you are still there to support them.
There is a lot going on in the life of a teen who is leaving the comfort and safety of high school to go out into the world and become a college student. They have one foot rooted in their childhood and are stepping into adulthood. It is your job to support and guide them along their chosen path. Help them find the resources they need to be successful and then pull back a bit. Watch them grow and be proud of what you both have accomplished.