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July College Search Guide: The Road to College
Arcadia Weekly Jun 30, 2015
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Artwork by Jorge Arroyo
By May S. Ruiz
Aaah, the long, hot days of summer. They couldn’t come soon enough for your children, even as you have been dreading their arrival! While you would like them to take it easy and recharge, you wouldn’t want them to play Wii all summer long either (unless they’re like my daughter, who actually did play Wii for three months!).
Fortunately, there are many activities available for children of all ages. Schools and organizations in our communities offer day camps and classes catering to children’s interests and needs. The Summer Camps Industry in the United States is seeing some growth after the last recession. According to IBISWorld, there are 2,736 companies offering camps with themes like academics, acting, and outdoor adventure retreats. These businesses saw a 2.4% annual growth from 2009 to 2014, employing 21,935 people and bringing in $3 billion in revenues.
The American Camp Association cites several advantages for children to attend summer camps. The experience helps children develop their social skills as they participate in activities, communicate with other kids, and lead groups. Children build character and gain self-respect when they take on responsibility, rely on their resourcefulness to solve problems, and become resilient when faced with failures. Summer camps advance children’s community living and service skills like caring, fairness, citizenship, and trustworthiness.
And then there are the test-prep courses children can take during summer to get them ready for all the standardized exams required for their college application. In a Washington Post story published in March last year, the College Board announced a revamp of the SAT college admission test and would offer the test prep free. But that announcement was not expected to affect the $840 million test-preparation industry because today’s high school kids want to be as good as, if not better than, their classmates. Nowhere is this cutthroat competition more apparent than in the western San Gabriel Valley where a record number of students are getting perfect scores on the APs, ACTs, and SATs.
There is an abundance of things to do during the summer months. There is absolutely no excuse for boredom and inertia.
Rising Freshman: Middle school is behind them. If your children have not shown much interest in reading, you need to encourage them to spend this month reading for pleasure. If, on the other hand, they enjoyed the Harry Potter books growing up, then they have been exposed to the joys of reading. Persuade them to look for different authors and genres; reading various styles and themes would help them find their own voice. Reading will expand their vocabulary as they gain maturity in their writing and that would help prepare them for writing their college application essay.
Rising Sophomore: As mentioned above, summer is an opportune time for reading. Encourage your children to spend part of their day to this pleasurable and educational pursuit.
Your children should find a community service activity they actually enjoy, since they should continue doing this, or a variation of it, during the next three summers. They should also attend an enrichment program or find an internship opportunity related to something they are passionate about.
If your children are so inclined, they can start researching colleges. Nowadays, they can go online and get virtual campus tours of most colleges or universities.
Rising Junior: Your children should be preparing themselves for one of the busiest years of their high school career. They should be immersed in community service work, internships, and enrichment programs. Some children enroll in test-prep courses during the summer months to get them ready for PSAT and SAT. They can attend one of the many schools offering these courses with some of their friends to make it less of a chore.
They can also start researching colleges and going online to get virtual college campus tours. This would also give your children some idea about the college application process.
This is likewise the time to read extensively to expand their vocabulary and prepare them for writing their essay for the college application.
College-Bound Seniors: Wow! Your children must be so excited to have completed high school and are anxiously looking forward to the next phase of their education. By this time, they should have put in the deposit on the college they plan to attend. Some colleges would be sending out the procedures for class registrations, information on housing, meal specifics, and such other details to the incoming class.
Let your children take the lead on the college moving arrangements and only offer guidance when they ask for it. In all likelihood, your children would be moving away from home, maybe going to the other side of the country. They would need to practice being independent and the preparations for moving would be a good place to start.
In some cases, your children could be going across the Atlantic, as my daughter did. In which case, there will be a whole set of preparations that need to be seen to. There is the visa application, which has to be a priority as it could take a month to secure. You and your college-bound student need to communicate closely with the school as their requirements may differ greatly from those of American universities.
Email or call the university to know when to send the tuition and other college fees. Make sure your student has the information on how to register for classes, how to apply for housing, what essentials to bring to school, where to find items that your student would need.
Going to school in another country would take more preparation so make sure you have enough time to spend helping your student settle into his or her new environment.
At this juncture, let me address another situation. If your children weren’t accepted to any school they applied to, then they would need to decide if they want to attend a community college. Most of these institutions will accept new students close to enrollment time. Some of them have arrangements with the UC system so graduates can attend a UC school for their junior and senior year. This has the double advantage of ensuring your children get a college diploma from a four-year university and saving on the cost of their education.
Your children could also opt to take a gap year. Some college applicants who are on waitlist on their dream university ask to be admitted one year later (this would only work if your children met all the academic qualifications for admission to the school with only the problem of the university not having the space for your student this year).
There could also be some instances when your children could gain admission during the spring term to their first-choice school (this scenario happens if the school wants to keep their school ranking and your children did not receive a perfect SAT score but they met all the other requirements for admission. If your children have highly desirable qualities that will enhance their student body, they will wait until after they have been ranked so your kids’ SAT scores will no longer affect their place). Confer with your children’s college counselor about how to accomplish this.
Of course, there is the option to take a gap year after high school. This is a growing trend among American high school graduates. One of my daughter’s classmates took a gap year and spent it performing charity work in Africa. Several universities see this as a major boost in an applicant’s resume. They tend to see the applicant in better light – this person has some tangible experience to bring in and, therefore, adds to the school make-up.
So whether your high school graduate is going directly to college, going by the community college route, or taking a gap year, recognize their decision as a first step to their independence.
