The time has come at last for your kids to fly the coop and head off to college. It’s a bittersweet time, but likely not one for which you’re unprepared. If you’re like most parents with children in their final years of high school, you’ve spent hours upon hours advising and encouraging them (to put it mildly) to make decisions about college enrollment, degree plans, class schedules, and so on. Indeed, college counselors and representatives unilaterally recommend a proactive approach to college admissions, so it’s no wonder that parents begin talking to their children about it at such an early age. If you want your child to have a successful career (and by extension a fruitful life) then you must prepare them for the challenges and huge decisions faced on a college campus.
But there’s another side to college preparation, one that receives little attention from parents and their children. Parents who constantly encourage their children to map out the general layout of their forthcoming college experience often (by accident) beget a sense of anxiety in them. College bound students too often worry over the implications of their school and class choices on future careers at the expense of their own personal college experience. In all the time spent deciding a “perfect” degree program, parents risk compromising their children’s formative years in academia. Here are some reassuring words for your stressed out college bound kids who might feel lost amidst one of the most important times of their lives.
They’re not alone
If your kid expresses exasperation at the prospect of choosing and sticking to a single major as an undergraduate, they’re not alone. In 2005 MSNBC ran a story that confirmed the frequency which with college undergraduates switched their areas of study. The story mentions a study that claims at least half of college students entering college haven’t chosen a major, and even more students change their major time and time again over the course of their undergraduate experience. The reason for the constant shifts in undergraduate majors is pretty clear: the plurality of courses offered by most colleges can intrigue any student unsure of their degree path.
Most students have few degree choices in mind when they enter college. Usually the most general majors—English, government, biology, engineering, and so on—dominate their list of potential majors. But then they enter colleges that offer completely novel classes that have the power to completely reshape the way a student shapes their undergraduate career. A biology student may become smitten by a class in modern feminist poetry, or a government major completely fascinated by the nuances of organic chemistry.
Indecision is normal
It’s critically important that students take courses outside their comfort zone. To use the above example, the biology student would never have discovered their hidden passion for poetry had they strictly stuck to courses in sciences. This person found their course by branching out from their previously assumed collegiate path. Admittedly, it’s easier said than done to encourage students to take random classes in the hopes that they happen upon an intellectually stimulating subject. Many college freshmen feel they’re in trouble if they haven’t planned their full course load in its entirety. They’re told that the road to collegiate successes is paved with decisive class choices, planning out not only the proper courses, but the right teachers and class schedules.
What students rarely hear are the success stories promulgated by indecision and a willingness to try something new. Just because a student has planned to become a chemical engineering major two years before attending college doesn’t mean that they’ll enjoy the major. So tell your kids to keep an open mind for potential degree focuses. They might come from the least expected sources.
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This is a guest post by Kimberly Wilson. Kimberly is from accredited online colleges, she writes on topics including career, education, student life, college life, home improvement, time management etc.
