Thinking About Junior Year

  I have two goals for all the 11th graders I counsel. The first of those is to begin taking standardized tests, their SAT and ACT if college is the goal for them. My second goal is to think. By that, I mean I want them to begin the mental homework and emotional preparation that is needed to support the biggest decision most of them will make in their young lives. That is, what do I want to do after graduation.

I don’t mean “what do you want to be when you grow up” here. I mean students just need to determine what the next step is for them. Generally that means enlist in the military, immediately join the workforce, or pursue a skill through college or trade school or whatever. That decision is pretty weighty in its own right but truthfully, many students arrive at their junior year with this basic decision already made. However, there is more thinking to do.

If a student chooses the workforce, they are likely to continue working in their high school job. If they choose the military they need to decide which branch they want to join and perhaps think about the timing of enlistment, but if they choose college there is a lot to think about.

This means students really need to put some deep thought into where they might want to go to college. Perhaps they’ve always wanted to go to a given school, but now is the time to consider whether they can actually get into or afford that college. If their dream school isn’t feasible, what is? Where can they really see themselves? 

This line of thought is going to lead to a million more questions. Do I want to stay close to home or go far away? How does college affordability work into my decision? What colleges excel or even offer the degrees I am interested in? How do my grades and test scores stack up to other students admitted to this college? Students and their families need to do some legitimate research to answer these questions and others. 

Once students have done some thinking and some research, it’s time to start taking some college tours. There’s a huge difference in seeing a campus in person and just doing that research. There’s also a difference in taking a formal tour of a campus and just going to some football games on Saturday afternoons. Campus tours are critical parts of the research and thinking students need to do before they are in position to make their final decision during their senior year.

Skipping ahead to senior year, students will apply in the fall, wait for their decisions, then commit to their schools in the winter or spring of their senior year. It all starts with the mental preparation that should happen during junior year. Junior year is the research, senior year is when you’re at the dealership and buying the car.

Don't Waste Important Years of Productivity

 I ran into a former student not long ago who was working at a restaurant. We chatted, and the student informed me that finally, eight years after high school graduation, he was in his last semester of college and was going to graduate in a couple of months with a degree in accounting. I congratulated the student and am proud of him for sticking it out and reaching the finish line, but I was also struck by the lost opportunity and time this young person might have let slip through his fingers.

To be fair, I’m not sure what, if any, significant challenges this person had faced in the past eight years that might have delayed him. However, I do know there are many young people in a similar situation and many don’t have the best reasons or excuses for a drawn out college experience. Extending college in this way presents several inefficiencies and some of those aren’t immediately visible.

What I mean by this is lost earning years. One of the reasons people retire is that as we get on in years, our health might not support our ability to work any longer. So, a person who languishes in college and gets a late start on their career is missing out on their earning potential in those first few years. Let’s say that this student is making $25,000 a year at his restaurant job, but could start out making $50,000 a year as an accountant. Well, that’s a net of $100,000 this person has let slip his fingers. And, this is before we talk about additional student loans he might have taken in those additional college years or other “hidden” financial boons that extra $100,000 could have brought through things like compounding interest, buying a home instead of renting, etc. It probably translates to a lot more than $100,000 in the long run.

Even if you simply say, “Well he can just work an extra four years,” we don’t know if that will be possible 30 or 40 years down the road. Or, he just might not want to. Either way, I think you can certainly at least make the argument that he might have squandered four productive years in his twenties at the expense of facets of his life in his 60s or 70s.

I guess what this really boils down to is the following question; Is it better to move slowly through college, perhaps working and earning enough to keep you afloat along the way, or is better to try to move through college quickly and efficiently even if that means borrowing some money to get you through? To me, there is a clean answer to this question. 

Of course, it must be feasible for a student to do this.  It’s never wise for a college student to live beyond their means and borrow to do that. Life brings about differences in circumstances or throws us curve balls. Those things could understandably slow down a college experience. However, all things being equal, a young person’s twenties or the early part of their career can be an important and productive part of their career as a whole.

The Advantages of Online Learning

      Right now is an unprecedented time for parents as they struggle to make decisions about the educational future of their children in a way they never have before. Parents must choose whether sending their child to school is a safe choice and the alternative is online schooling that is new to many families. So, let's take a moment to dispel some rumors and discuss the advantages online school can have.

First, online learning is not an autonomous process for the student. They don’t just turn on a computer and read in silence all day long, intermittently answering questions that are graded by a machine. It’s anything but that. Online learning is a robust process that includes collaboration with other students, teachers, and a broader digital community. There is content there to read (there most certainly should be) and there are opportunities for students to check their level of understanding by answering questions their teacher might not ever see, but online learning includes so much more.

The teacher of an online course is a person who might not even live in the same town as the student, but they are no less available to assist a student and provide structured learning. Depending on the teacher, the school, and the age of the student, they might be able to call, text, email, or video chat with the teacher as well as watch videos the teacher produced or other videos supplied by the teacher that feature other educators. 

Collaboration with other students is also easier than ever. All educational formats including brick and mortar have moved away from students working quietly by themselves in desks. In fact, if you walk in any brick and mortar classroom today you’ll see students trying to mimic what happens in a digital classroom naturally. Students with computers can instantly share work, comments, and ideas (in a good way) with fellow students and work in a collaborative manner that is more efficient than it used to be. 

The information they are working with might also be more current and relevant. Textbooks, for example, are never any more current than the day they were printed. However, In a digital classroom, information is much more likely to be fluid and constantly changing. Students can easily link to current events in printed or video formats and learn with a sense of immediate relevance that can be difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom.

Lastly, scheduling and timing is a big advantage of online learning. Instead of having to sit through English every day at exactly 10:05 and only until 10:55, students can choose when and for how long a class lasts. This empowers students and families to be more efficient with the time they spend learning. They can also have more flexibility in the school to better adapt to busy lifestyles including travel.

Of course in these times, online learning can be a means of staying safe from illness, and perhaps today that is its biggest advantage.

Enrollment and Moving Over the Summer

Even though class is not in session, there is a

lot happening at schools over the summer. One of those activities is the

enrollment of new students. When possible, families often make their moves

during the summer months. This is logical for obvious reasons and is something

I recommend for reasons I’ll explain below. Of course, moving schools

inevitably comes with some hardships that you should be prepared for.

         The social piece is one that needs consideration.

I don’t encounter many students who are excited to leave their old friends

behind and start at a new school. Then again, there are cases in which social

reasons are a motivating factor behind a move. Especially, if the student is

moving to a school-based on a digital platform. Regardless, encourage your

student to look at their move as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to start

with a clean slate and rebuild who they want to be. There is tremendous

potential in that and it’s not an opportunity everyone has. 

         The academics are also crucial here. Summer really

is the best time to move. Schools operate in a very cyclical way and starting

at the beginning of a new school year allows a student to start at the

beginning of that cycle. I know moves are often caused by a change in a

parent’s employment and I have worked with many families where one parent gets

a new job in the middle of the school year and moves on to the new place while

the other parent stays behind with the kids and lets them finish the school

year at their old school. This isn’t always feasible but if it is, it’s worth

considering. 

         Anytime you change schools, especially when you

move across state lines, there are likely to be speed bumps. What I mean is

that policies and requirements can vary. So, a student might be required to

take four sciences at their new school whereas their old school only required

three. Or freshman take US government at the new school but it’s usually a

senior-level course at the out school. Little hiccups like these generally are

nothing major but they are issues that have to be rectified. It’s usually the

job of a counselor, enrollment officer, or administrator to make a plan for

this, but families should understand these possibilities.

         Lastly, if college is in the plan, families need

to familiarize themselves with state colleges and scholarships right away.

These institutions may not make concessions for students who move late in high

school so there might be some catching up to do. If you have a pre-paid plan in

your previous state, you’ll need to investigate what happens in the case of a

move right away. 

         One last point here is that communication is

always key. Reach out to the school you’ll be moving to and your current school

to make sure everything is in place and there are no surprises. Doing this can

save you a lot of headaches and put you in the best position to make the

transfer from one school to the next seamless.

College Admission Rescission

Over the course of senior year, high school students apply to college, and hopefully, are accepted. As colleges evaluate those students, they are using data from the students’ high school career thus far. The academic portion of this is usually cut off at the end of junior year. However, high school seniors are still going to school and they are still being, you know, teenagers. There’s a lot that can still happen, good or bad, in that senior year and when it comes to the bad, it’s always important to remember that from a technical standpoint, the offer of acceptance to a college or university is provisional.


This brings us to the concept of rescission. That is when a college offers a student acceptance and then comes back later and rescinds that acceptance. Rescission often comes over the summer or sometimes even into the fall semester, but it is not a pleasant experience. Imagine telling everyone at your graduation party that you’ll be headed off to State U. in the fall, you start buying things for your dorm coordinated with your school’s colors, then you get a letter in the mail that says, “on second thought, you’re no longer welcome here.”


Before your panic, I should say that letters of rescission from colleges are relatively rare. If you’ve been a straight A student your whole life and AP Calculus brought you to your knees during your senior year and you made your first B, it is highly unlikely, inconceivable really, that you’re going to see your offer rescinded. Academics are a primary cause of rescission, but only in egregious cases. Let’s say you were an A-B student when you got accepted, then in senior year you failed an elective here or there and only passed the things you needed to graduate with Ds. That looks more like falling off the deep end and is a much more likely scenario to see rescission come into play.


Remember, colleges do require a final transcript upon graduation so they are going to look at your senior year grades. Another academic pitfall relates to colleges that use a self-reported academic record at admissions. This is an increasingly popular practice where colleges ask students to supply their academic history themselves rather than receiving it from the high school. This relies solely on the honor system but colleges will require the final transcript from the high school at the end of the year. If you accidentally said you got an A in your art class your freshman year, when you actually got a B, it’s probably not a huge deal. However, if you forgot about all eight of your Cs and the fact that none of those classes were AP level like you said they were, that’s bad.



Lastly, there’s discipline. This is the other very common impetus of letters of recission. Your first-ever detention for sending a text message in class is a non-issue, but a felony charge for drug possession is a different story. Colleges will discover these significant lapses in judgment and might feel that your presence on campus is more trouble than it’s worth. Whatever the case, make good decisions during your senior year and don’t do anything that makes you even need to read this!!

COVID-19 Points to Remember for High School Students

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, things are obviously not running as smoothly as normal. As students wind down one academic year and begin to look ahead to another, there is the opportunity for a lot of things to fall through the cracks. So, rather than my traditional piece, I thought I’d just review a handful of miscellaneous points that students and families need to keep in consideration.





For students with more high school left to go:


--Take time to consider the courses you want to take next year and make sure you have conveyed those thoughts to your school.


--Make sure that you finish this school year strong, even if school feels different right now.


--Inquire about any fees or fines you might have at your school and clear those prior to the end of the school year.


--Make an effort to return things like books or technology you might have borrowed from your school to avoid fines in the future.


--Maintain good study habits. These days, schedules are altered, different people are home at different times and with those changes it might be easier to put school work on the back burner. Don’t let this happen. Developing poor academic habits now will make it harder to approach school the right way down the road.


--In addition to habits, think about skills. Watch out for the summer slide. If ever there was a summer to read a book or find some games involving math online, this is it.





For students headed to college:


--Ensure your final transcripts make it to your college. If you mentioned to your counselor in February that you might be headed to State College, that doesn’t count. Most schools have a formal way, close to graduation, where you tell them where you want your final transcript sent. Be sure to follow up on this.


--Stay in communication with your college. Teenagers are notoriously bad at checking email regularly but this is likely a primary way colleges will communicate with you.


--Be aware of changes that could impact an orientation you might be scheduled for over the summer.


--Familiarize yourself with your intended major’s course sequencing guides. You should be able to find this somewhere on your college’s website. Reviewing this would likely be an emphasis of your orientation, but it is unclear what orientations will look like right now.


--Make some decisions about housing. If you planned to start school in the summer and all summer classes are going to be online anyways, do you really need to pay for housing if you’re able to continue to stay with your parents? What if school doesn’t start back in the fall?


--Make an effort to get along with your parents. There’s a chance both of you were looking forward to a break from each other. You might be spending even more time together right now. You guys might even have more time together going forward if you were supposed to be headed to college, but campus is closed indefinitely. Make the best of it, and both of you will do better if you can reach compromises and try to keep the peace.

Is Your Child a Futue College Dropout?

I recently read an article in a magazine title, “Is College Still a Good Investment?” The article got me thinking about the concept. Does the lifetime earning a college degree provides still make up for the money spent on the rising cost of college attendance? I personally think it does and the article agrees claiming that college graduates earn an average of $900,000 more over their lifetime than people who only have a high school diploma.

However, the article didn’t fully address a segment of the population that I want to discuss; college dropouts. Students who begin college, but do not finish get the worst of both worlds. They spend a lot of money on college, they probably accrue debt in the process, and they don’t leave with a diploma that can lead to a better job and more earnings. That’s a double whammy.

In my job, it’s not hard to spot the potential future college dropouts. They have poor high school attendance, their grades lag, they have discipline issues at school and at home. Yet, Mom is in my office every week asking me about how to get into their dream school and where to look for scholarships (Insert eye roll emoji here).

From the parent perspective, I do understand. Parents envision their children going to college and to great things beyond from the moment they’re born. It’s hard to pump the breaks on that. Plus, some parents believe that if they can just get their high school student out of town and away from the high school friends that drag them down, maybe they’ll mature and get it together and start to realize their potential. I think there are circumstances in which that happens. It’s not the most common outcome, but it happens.

I’m usually a big fan of starting college right after high school and carrying forward the academic momentum, but there are circumstances where that just doesn’t make sense. Parents need to consider whether starting college right away is a good financial decision as well as a good decision for the social and emotional dynamics of their family.

There are plenty of students who I might have thought would have struggled in college who have done very well. I’ve seen outstanding high school students who have floundered in college and didn’t make it too. More than those though, are the students who are really struck with the bad “school habits” listed above and who are pushed into college before they are ready. They burn through thousands of dollars and end up right back at home and their high school job in a few months’ time.

Is your student really ready? Make them prove that they are. Hold them accountable and say, “No more absences, As and Bs, home by curfew every night. If you can do that, you can go. If you can’t, why should we spend the money?” Then ask yourself, why should you spend the money today? You can still spend it tomorrow when your child is ready.