The Early Decision Decision

With autumn rapidly spinning by, the college application process is ramping up for high school seniors. Most of you are finalizing your college lists, completing application forms, and fine tuning essays. And, with November fast approaching many of you are trying to decide whether or not to apply early decision to your top choice school.

There is a lot of information out in the ether about early decision that can be both confusing and anxiety producing. So let me offer a few thoughts that may help to illuminate the salient issues regarding early decision for you. Continue reading “The Early Decision Decision”

Something for Everyone: Sophomore Slump, Care Packages, and Adolescent Brain Development

Here are a few crumbs of college knowledge for the first weekend in October.

  • As the leaves begin to turn and the nights get decidedly cooler, we are moving into the height of parent/family weekend season at colleges across the US. If you’re visiting your first-year student on campus for the first time since the start of the year, my advice is to be cautious not to over-plan or be too rigid in your approach to the weekend’s activities. For sure, you should go ahead and make a dinner reservation if you are set on going to a particular restaurant or worried about the crowds on a busy weekend. But be prepared to take your cues from your student on how to spend most of your time with them. He may want you to join up with a number of his friends (and their families) for meals, the soccer game, or an a cappella concert. None of those things may be what you had in mind. But even if it’s not your thing, try to go along. Your student is trying to invite you into her life at college so you should suck it up and do what she wants. Conversely, you may want to bust out your new “College” hoodie and head to the football game, but your student suggests a walk in the campus arboretum or getting lunch off campus. There will be plenty of football games. If your student wants to spend alone time with you, make sure you pay attention and make it happen. You’ll find that there are lots of ways to enjoy parent/family weekend and what really matters is the time with your student.

Continue reading “Something for Everyone: Sophomore Slump, Care Packages, and Adolescent Brain Development”

The College Parent Trap – Rantings and Advice About Parenting College Students

Okay this is for my fellow parents of college students. Can we talk about mixed messages for a minute? From the moment our children sprang forth into the world we have been told in every way imaginable to be attentive to and engaged in their education and development.

Read to them. Get the right mobile to hang over the crib. Read to them. Get toys and games that help them to learn. Read to them. Get to know their teachers. Be a classroom volunteer (read to them and other people’s kids). Coach youth sports. Chaperone field trips. Follow what they are learning and partner with their teachers. Encourage them to read. Be involved with their school community. Continue reading “The College Parent Trap – Rantings and Advice About Parenting College Students”

The Definitive All-Time College Playlist

Friday afternoon in mid-September. Classes are done until Monday. No exams or papers due for at least a couple more weeks. The library and the debate club and calculus help sessions can all wait. It’s time to punch out, kick back, and have some fun with friends.

So in the spirit of having fun with friends, I am taking a break from my usual practice of dispensing counsel and sage advice to seekers of college wisdom, to invite any and all interested parties (pun definitely intended) to contribute to the First Annual My College Wisdom All-Time Definitive College Playlist. Continue reading “The Definitive All-Time College Playlist”

Wit, Candor, and a Free Toothbrush: Thoughts on Writing a Great College Admissions Essay

Alright high school seniors, it’s time to get serious about your college admissions essay.

Yes, the dreaded college admissions essay:

  • The most important writing assignment you will ever have.
  • The 250-plus words that will determine your college fate and dictate the course of your entire life.
  • Your opportunity to wow admissions committees with wit and candor and a vocabulary of Olympian proportions.
  • Get it right and you will be on the path to health, happiness, and a future full success and riches beyond your wildest imagination. Get it wrong and… well, let’s not even go there.

Whatever. Continue reading “Wit, Candor, and a Free Toothbrush: Thoughts on Writing a Great College Admissions Essay”

Four Dos and a Don’t: 5 Keys to College Success

It’s go time. Finally. After all the college talk and the endless onslaught of direct mail from every college under the sun. After the campus visits and the standardized tests and the application essays. After the financial aid forms and the housing forms and the health forms. After the icebreakers and orientation trips and alcohol programs and speeches from presidents and deans and too many other people to keep straight. After all the stuff that came before and paved the way for you to go to college. At long last, classes are starting.

Oh yeah, classes. Remember classes? Continue reading “Four Dos and a Don’t: 5 Keys to College Success”

More of This and That: A Few Tips for First Year of College Success

We are right smack in the middle of college opening season and I know that most of you are incredibly busy with all that entails so I’ll be brief. Here are a few thoughts to consider as you (or your child) starts college.

  • There was an interesting piece by Lisa Heffernan and Jennifer Breheney Wallace in the New York Times last week about risks that new college students face. No doubt, personal health and safety is a fertile topic for discussion. While the tone of the piece is a bit foreboding and heavy-handed for my taste, every one of the subjects highlighted in the article is important. And, I enthusiastically second Heffernan and Wallace’s recommendation that students and families discuss these issues both now and throughout their college experience.

Continue reading “More of This and That: A Few Tips for First Year of College Success”

On Starting College: Reinventing You

One of the most exciting aspects of beginning college is the opportunity to reinvent yourself. It is a chance to start over in a setting where you aren’t limited by preexisting perceptions about who you are as a student, as a friend, or as a person. No one knows about the embarrassing nickname that got pasted to you after that unfortunate lunchroom mishap in ninth grade. Or the poem you wrote to Suzy on your two-week anniversary during junior year that went viral on Facebook after she broke up with you a day before your three-week anniversary. When you go to college, you get to hit the reset button and redefine yourself in a way that is consistent with who you are now – and who you want to be. Continue reading “On Starting College: Reinventing You”

On Starting College: The First Day Parts I & II

Prologue

With the first day of college fast approaching for members of the Class of 2020 I wanted to share a few thoughts that I hope will prove helpful to both students and parents.

To begin, I would encourage you to go into that day understanding that it is going to be hectic and emotionally charged. Students are excited and nervous. Parents and families are excited and nervous. You’re navigating a new place in an overcrowded car that you’ve been wedged into for too long. Someone is yelling that you missed the entrance to the parking lot. Someone else is looking at his watch and sighing audibly because he knew you should have left a half hour earlier. Another someone almost certainly has to go to the bathroom – again. And the guest of honor is rolling his/her eyes because you people are SO embarrassing. Continue reading “On Starting College: The First Day Parts I & II”

On Starting College: You’re Supposed to Make Mistakes

You’re about to start college and you’re excited.

There is a whole new and exciting world that is about to open up for you. You’ll be living in a new place and taking fascinating classes and making new friends. It’s going to be awesome and you’re going crush it.

Really.

But here’s the thing…

You’re also going to make mistakes.

You’re going to do stupid things.

You’re going to do poorly on a homework assignment or a paper or an exam. Continue reading “On Starting College: You’re Supposed to Make Mistakes”