Parent Alert!!! What’s Your Child’s College Readiness & Graduation Score
Apr 16, 2020
2020: The Year We Rethought College Readiness & Graduation Aftermath
According to National Center for Education Statistics, the average full-time college student takes five years to graduate. This unfortunate statistic leads to many more expenses or debt accumulation for parents or students. There is a way to avoid this problem.
Parents can help, and we have been working on a tool to help parents increase the chances of their child's success in college and in their careers. The Student College Readiness and Graduation Assessment helps parents and students see opportunities to help the student. It is a 15-Question assessment of a student’s experience in preparation for and graduating from college. There is so much parents can do to help their children, but a Google search misses much of the mark, or at least the top ten results do…
What the Readiness Score System Assumes
As you can tell by our name, Unstatus Your Quo®, we don’t delve much in the obvious. However, here is a list of some assumptions we have made that parents and students are already doing or know to do: 1) study hard and earlier than the night before a test, 2) take good notes in class, 3) watch how you spend your time and use it more productively, 4) volunteer for at least a day in the community to enhance your resume or college application, 5) take Advance Placement Courses if student is eligible, and more. All good stuff, but this advice is everywhere.
Issues Addressed by the College Readiness and Graduation Score Tool
Sample Issue #1: What’s More Important – Student’s Choice of College or Major?
Most people would say that the college is more important, primarily for prestige and the network that one can make. The better the school, the more powerful the network for fostering a great career. Makes sense, right? Well, sort of.
As it turns out, the major selection is more important. First, about 80 percent of students in the United States end up changing their major at least once, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. On average, college students change their major at least three times over the course of their college career, and the switching is limited to the majors offered. The change rate would be even higher if parents were willing to pay for more college semesters.
What if the school originally selected does not have a major in the field of study desired? I chose to go to one of the most prestigious liberal arts colleges in the country, but we did not even have an accounting course. Liberal arts schools tend not to have majors in some of the Key In-Demand Industries of 2020.
It turns out that the wrong major leads to the wrong career which leads to a derailed life. Spending time early on in major selection is key. The newer assessment science can help make this decision more successful and precise than the older science that is common today.
Sample Issue #2: Go to College to Major in a Subject Leading to a Fulfilling Career
In the long run, what is more valuable, a summer traveling through Europe learning about the world, fun places to go and more or getting a summer job showing your child what a job is like and how to manage money?
The summer job student has a big heads up with the Admissions Department on likely maturity. Also, the applicant has experienced some careers that may lead to a better major selection and career success. Back to Issue #1, focusing on major selection in this way plays right into the summer job student’s advantage.
Sample Issue #3: Is Your Child Experienced at Being Interviewed?
One easy way you can help your child with college, summer jobs and post-college interviews is to practice being interviewed. If you, as a parent, don’t have experience being interviewed or interviewing people for jobs, seek a friend. Also, work with your student on how he is going to answer questions about items on his college application, online job application or live job interview.
Practice answering why the student wants to attend that particular school and how she investigated the majors she will explore at the college. In addition, make sure the summer job employer hears something like, “I want to do well at this job because I hope to return next summer, go part-time while in college, or have a good reference for college or another job for which I am applying. A young person, polished in the interview, can easily stand out with this simple suggestion for parents.
Conclusion
There is so much more that we parents don’t often hear that we can do to prepare our child for a successful high school and college experience. A lot of it boils down to extremely high self-awareness in the areas of aptitude, personality, approach to work, and basic interests. This last is not asking the child what their job interests are. It is something called the Strong Interest Inventory – much more sophisticated and reliable source for deep interest. Having this awareness also is a sign of maturity which will stick out to the child’s advantage.
Armed with all of this, the student in college can test courses in two or three majors in the first year or two and move confidently forward in picking the right major. Remember: wrong major=wrong career=derailed life.
Charlie Haines
