Helping Your Child Plan for College

Many parents feel like they need a crystal ball when it comes to figuring out how to prepare their children for college and careers after they leave the nest. Naturally, you want your child to find a job in a field that will provide successful, long-term employment. But there's no way to predict the future, and there's no formula for figuring out how college + graduation - tuition x years enrolled = lucrative career + happy life.

A degree in four years?

Remember that there's no guarantee that your child will graduate in four years. In fact, a longer time in college is much more usual than in the past. That means added expense. But private universities, even though their tuition is higher, provide more services like tutoring and counseling that can steer a student toward earning the degree in four years. So maybe the expense of a private university and graduation in four years evens out the cheaper tuition of a state university where your child could be a student for six years.

Will they get a job?

Every new "hot topic" for jobs has also had its down time, so when sitting down to plan for college, encourage your child to think in broad terms. When checking out the universities, you want to examine the school’s job-placement rates. You can take a trip to the school's career center to find out what employers from which fields are on-site interviewing students. Press the university for information on graduation rates and job-placement rates.

Keep in mind your child's birthday. Sure, you remember well when your son or daughter was born. But the child who’s planning for college is making decisions out of a 17- or 18-year old mentality.

Life and college, and even self-awareness, change, and with that change can come new insights into what they really want to be when they grow up. Reassuring your child that they haven't missed the deadline for figuring out the future may prevent many headaches over the course of time.

Many high school grads even benefit from taking a ‘gap’ year, and deferring their freshman year at college, while working and learning life skills that can give them a solid reality check.