I’m in 6th grade and I am considering what universities I want to attend and how to get there. (My parents say that I am obsessed.) Some people believe that it is unhealthy for me and I should wait until sophomore year of high school to think about college but others think that it is never too early to start thinking about college. What are your opinions?
You are way too early in the process. Enjoy your middle and high school years. Be the best you can be at academics and at the activities you enjoy. That’s how you can improve your chances of getting into a great school, whatever that be. Obsessing about colleges in 6th grade will not help you at all.
A lot will change in the next 5 years. What you think you want to do now may not be what you want to do when it’s time to apply. So don’t overthink things right now.
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I would actually say junior year of high school is a good time to start thinking seriously about college. The best thing to do right now is to get to know yourself better. The better you know yourself, the more ready you will be to put together a college list when the time comes. And this includes what subjects you like, what hobbies/sports/etc you want to pursue, whether you prefer cities or more rural areas, what kind of weather you like, whether you like being in big classes or small classes, all kinds of things. Discover yourself and your interests and desires and priorities. In high school, you will also get a sense of how strong your academics are and, by junior year, you will have a lot of information about yourself - as a person and as a college applicant - to put together a solid list of potential colleges you might want to attend. For now, enjoy being a kid and, through that, get to know who you are and who you want to be. College will be here in good time.
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Relax, just enjoy yourself. Like written above, explore and find out what your interests are. Don’t think “oh, I should join this club to become president so I can put it on my application”; join the club because you really like the subject and the people. Do you want to do research in a lab in the future? It’s great to keep in mind, but focus on reading about the topics that interest you so you can develop an organic interest that’s not all about college.
Yes, I work in a lab and I did put it on my college applications, but I started reading about the subject in middle school and came to a lab because I wanted to see how it worked. In middle school? Sleep, play, read (if that’s your jam), hang out… don’t think about it too much. Colleges also care about you being a well-balanced, interesting person with hobbies and a personality.
My opinion…stop thinking about college at all as a 6th grader. The landscape is likely to significantly change in the next 6 years…plus you have absolutely nothing you have done that any college would consider.
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I loved thinking about colleges when I was your age. I also loved to read, play music and with all sorts of things (toys, figurines, cards, board games), fly on a swing, sing, pretend to be robin hood/learning archery, figure out where when I’d go once a time machine would be invented, etc.
In short
1° don’t obssess
2° do lots and lots of fun things
If colleges interest you, don’t look at the names everyone knows.
On the contrary, go visit the universities and colleges within 50 miles, especially if unknown.
Draw the building you liked best, write up what you thought before you went, anything you noticed: a frieze on a stone, a color scheme, whether people look happy, if there’sa good place to see squirrels or other animals; don’t forget your conclusions, if it was fun or not, and lots of drawings.
Imagine yourself almost grown up, 18, and write up your adventures on your favorite campus. Or re enact adventures with playmobil/lego/dolls and/or make videos.
If you live in a college town, go walk your dog on the college campus and say hello to whoever you see more than once.
In short, use colleges as an imaginary place for future-you grown up adventures.
Once you’re in HS you’ll start thinking of college as a process. For now, make it a limitless horizon. 
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If you live near a college…go and see a play or a concert, or an art exhibit.
Thinking you might want to go to college some day is fine.
If you find it fun to also spend some time looking at specific colleges, OK, sure.
But you are old enough to realize that over the next six years, you will experience a lot of new things, and grow and change as a person. It would be really sad if you didn’t!
And so you can’t pick colleges now for that future version of you. Future you will need to do that for themselves.
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It’s okay to think about college, as in, “one day I will go to college.” It’s not healthy for a 6th grader to think, “how can I get into Wash U many years from now.”
You will apply to college in 6 years time. Can you remember what you were like as a 5 or 6 year old? Because that’s how different you are going to be by the time you apply to college.
You seem like a smart kid. As such, be aware that it’s not good for your mental health to dwell on the distant concept of college. The #1 most important thing you should do right now is have a lot of fun being 11 or 12 years old.
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I also always like to mention there are empirical studies that suggest kids who are focused on developing in a well-balanced way–including not just academically but creatively, socially, physically, and ethically–tend to end up performing better academically in the long run anyway.
So it is not like you have to choose between an active, happy childhood that helps you develop well as a person or becoming a person who is well-prepared for college admissions and success in college. The first is actually critical to the second.
Thank you this is very helpful information
That part is fine, as long as it’s more of a “fun thought exercise”, in the realm of “all of the countries I’d like to see if my parents win the lottery”. There’s nothing wrong with getting an idea of all the many ways, that colleges and universities can be different from one another – e.g., in size, location in the country, city/suburban/“middle of nowhere”, surrounding landscapes, etc.
That’s pointless. For any highly selective colleges where one would have to worry to “get there”, there is no “how” that you can figure out.
It works the other way around: You do the best you can in school, actively pursue passions and interests out of school, be a good person that works well with other people. Then, once in high school, you might have certain areas of study (things you’d never think of today) that you enjoy more than others.
That will help you figure out in 4 years or so, what colleges would suit you the best, and that will value the person you will have become by then.
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MIT calls this approach “applying sideways”:
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Ok I will read the article
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Reminds of an annual project by my daughter’s 6th (?) grade teacher. As an assignment, she had all of her students write a letter to themselves, in a self-addressed envelope, before they headed off to middle school. She vowed to post them in their senior year.
Those letters, in particularly the quickly penned content, were all since forgotten - and were that much more fun when they actually arrived. My daughter was surprised to read how “sassy self” had actually set herself a certain college goal/reach 
)
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In contrast, I’m sure neither of my kids had a single thought about college until probably sophomore year of high school, when I most likely said, “Hey kids, time to start thinking about college!” 
Both my kids are living their best lives. My eldest, the original “average” excellent student, ended up doing a master’s degree at a very famous university. I can vouch that 11 year old her is unrecognizable from 20+ year old her.
@Sumbuddy It’s probably fair to say that your path will be less stressful if you focus on doing things you enjoy, rather than plotting your youth away on how to get into college. The landscape is almost certainly going to change during the next six years, so best to enjoy the ride.
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At my daughter’s Senior year of HS her 6th grade teacher presented all the students who were still at the school (private K-12) with their essays about future aspirations. Her dream was to someday attend the University of Virginia…and guess what, she did.
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On the other hand, in 6th grade, neither my daughter nor I had even heard about the college she ended up attending.
They are wrong - sixth grade is too early to think about college. So is 7th grade, 8th grade, and even 9th grade, except in a very general sense.
You are going through middle school, and you should be focussed on middle school. You can also start thinking about high school next year, especially when discussing the classes that you take (those which you can choose).
The Sumbuddy who will attend college will be a very different Sumbuddy than you are today. In fact, the Sumbuddy who will start high school in two years will also be a very different person than you are today.
Since you don’t really know the Sumbuddy who will be attending college in six years, it’s really not worth your time and energy to make college plans for them.
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She was a third generation UVA attendee, with her grandmother being one of the first women to ever attend, so there was quite a significant amount of discussion about it thru the years
It is far too early for you to be obsessing over colleges.
However, I don’t see anything wrong with spending 5 minutes – and no more than that – learning about colleges each day.
So buy a Fiske college guide. Read about one school each day – about five minutes of reading.
Learn about all the schools. Then, in about 4-5 years, when it is time for you to be seriously considering your college applications, you will be armed with at least a little bit of knowledge about every school in that book. If you have forgotten – there is probably far too much knowledge in that book to retain for several years – you will still have the book to use as a reference/reminder.
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