<p>As the 2014-2015 school year starts, we have the high school class of 2015 frantically applying for colleges. Some children will be applying to colleges that are less than a minute away from home, while others may be applying for colleges worlds away. But let’s have an honest discussion about why your child is applying to certain colleges.</p>
<p>I was in high school not too long ago, so I’ve already been through the whole process first-hand. I’ll admit, in hindsight, my college applications from high school were severely misguided (in my opinion). The reason why I claim this is something I’ve noticed time and time over again on this forum, as well as with friends from high school that graduated after me.</p>
<p>Parents: If your child is applying far away from home, why are they? From my experience, I feel like I burned waaaaayyyy too many bridges in high school and I just wanted to escape it all. I felt like moving far away from home would help me solve all my problems without having to face them ever again. No offense to the OP, but here’s a good example of what I mean: <a href=“Pretty disappointing to say the least - College Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1687338-pretty-disappointing-to-say-the-least.html</a>. A lot of my high school friends did this same thing where they were only interested in going to college to live in the dorms for the “college experience.” Many of my top 10% friends stayed for one year at their far away university and failed out and are back home at community college to raise their <1.0 GPA and try again. Even with my recent college predicament, many people who were rushing for a sorority/fraternity just dropped out in the first week because they couldn’t get into the sorority/fraternity they wanted to get into. Some girls I know of only went to some big-name universities to get their MRS degree (in other words, their degree specialization is looking for their future husband the entire time they’re there). Occasionally, I see people on here who say “I wanna major in XXXXXXXXX at YYYYYYYYY University!” but they either: 1) cannot spell the major correctly, 2) don’t know what their major is called, 3) don’t know that XXXXXXXX degree is not offered at YYYYYYYYY University, or 4) all of the above. Short and sweet, no real, clear ambitions–they just want to get away from home. I feel like this would be parents’ (hard-earned) money better spent if parents would actively discuss the child’s goals and ambitions to come to a collective decision and what’s best.</p>
<p>I’ll also admit that in high school, the only places that I applied to were big-name universities so that my degree would have better recognition. There is some truth in that rationale, but I also had no clear goals when applying to college other than to escape my problems at home. The purpose of this discussion is I wanted to bring the question to some parents’ attentions to help them spare their child the whole, “I thought Faraway University = guaranteed friends and happiness, so why am I not getting that?” I’m not saying every child does this or has this rationale their senior year, but I feel like too many kids don’t really have realistic expectations of what college/university actually is.</p>