When you prepare your kids for college

[mama27]

are you preparing for 4 year university or community college?

[elegantlion]

Ds is only in 9th grade, but our expectation is he will get a 4 year degree. His current career aspirations will require it. Our closest college is a 4 year university, so even if he lived at home to do his general ed requirements, he'd still be a 4 year university (it doesn't offer the degrees he's currently interested in).

[NotSoObvious]

Preparing for a four year college but I'd be fine with them going to a community college first. I did that and it saved my parents a ton of money. A TON.

 

eTA: I guess it depends on where we live. I went to a community college that guaranteed me admission to the UC system as long as I got good grades. So, there would have to be a good reason, obviously.

[regentrude]

My kids will attend a four year university. That is what we prepare them for.

[Joani]

For ds14 and dd12, definitely four-year university. I'm less sure about dsd13, but for now we're aiming for a four-year university and will re-evaluate a year or two into high school.

[flmom]

Entering 9th grade this fall. Preparing for four year university.

[Candid]

Graduate school.

[CyndiLJ]

Lower level 4 year college or community college. We are looking at going the online route for at least some if not all of it. Our nearest college/university is an hour and a half away.

[Lori D.]

We worked to allow for as many options as possible, since neither DS really had an idea of what they wanted as a career throughout high school. (And, yes, we did do some career exploration and testing in 11th and 12th grades -- still no firm ideas.)

 

So, we made sure they would be prepared for entry at a 4-year college (state public university, or possible smaller private college) at high school graduation, but since neither had a firm idea of what they wanted, instead of paying the $$$ for university, along with most of the rest of the middle class homeschoolers we know, they are taking gen. ed. classes at the local CC and working towards an Associate Degree. The classes not only apply towards the AA, but also can transfer to the University through a special transfer agreement program the CC has with the University, so they would be able to finish a 4-year degree in 2 years at the university, should they so wish.

 

At this point, I don't foresee either needing/wanting a degree beyond a BA or BS for the areas they are currently interested in (Digital Arts/film & video production; and Interpretation for the Deaf), but if they suddenly got passionate about a field, I don't think they'd have a problem completing a bachelor's and a master's.

 

One thing I wish we could have worked out while they were in high school was some sort of trade/vocational certificate program, so they would have a "fall back" skill, or something that would pay at a higher rate to help them if they do decided to go the 4-year route.

 

BEST of luck, whatever your family decides! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Lolly]

Preparing for 4 year. Fine with community college. Many of the top students from our area are getting an associate degree from the cc before transferring to a 4 year school. It seems to be becoming the new norm. Our state schools are pricing themselves out of the market. At the CC, the "smart" kids are able to attend for free or almost free. It just makes financial sense. These aren't just kids from the lower income levels either. This is across the board finance wise. The CC has direct transfer paths to the state schools so that no credits are lost.

[creekland]

We prepare for 4 year colleges or universities. My older two are currently enrolled in them. Youngest is finally starting to get serious about looking (he's a ps junior). Part of our preparation had them taking a class (oldest) or three (middle) at our local cc, but we only planned on them as high school classes. Oldest's class transferred. None of middle's did (even though one was the same class oldest took). We're ok with either - it just depended upon the colleges my guys chose.

 

If they wanted a path that went a different direction, I'd probably be ok with it, but I'll also admit oldest would have had to do some convincing as, at that point, we just assumed all three of ours would go to our Alma mater. Oldest convinced us a different choice was better for him. We automatically looked at other places for middle and are doing the same for youngest. I'm now convinced the best path is the one that fits the student - not necessarily the one mom & dad (or anyone else) took.

 

But in short, we prepare for 4 year schools.

[jibaker103]

I planned for a 4 year degree at a university so ds options would be left open. He is now a junior and has let it be known for the past 6 months that he plans to attend the local CC and then transfer out of state. For this school year he has been saying pretty consistently he wants to double major in history and creative writing. He wants to be a historical novelist. However, just last year he wanted to be a producer in the music industry and before that a video game designer. I am self-designing a career and college planning course for him so he can really concentrate and research his interests. You just never know what a child is going to do so my advice is to avoid narrowing choices, courses, and options before the junior year.

[Gwen in VA]

4-year college.

 

I did have one son who decided his sophomore year that he wasn't going to college. After a long face-off, we compromised and he agreed to get an Associate's from the CC. We still insisted on giving him a ridiculously strong academic background, and we are SO thankful we did!

 

At the end of his junior year he had some encounters with older guys in his life that persuaded him that he wanted to go to one particular school and ONLY that school. The academic requirements of this school are high, but he was accepted because of the strong academics we forced on him.

 

Moral of the story -- If possible (and kids don't always cooperate), prepare for launching your kid to the moon, even if he says he only wants to go next door. If he changes his mind, he is prepared for launching!

[G5052]

Both. I work for a top-rated community college, so if the 4-year academic scholarships don't come through, that will be our fall-back because I know that the quality is there for both vocational and transfer degrees. The community college offers very little in the way of academic scholarships, but is very affordable. If you are thoughtful about it, there are guaranteed transfer agreements with a full range of state schools.

 

My most academic one has no idea of a major even though we're nearing that time, so we'll probably go with the community college initially.

[FaithManor]

University. The only community college near is has a very bad reputation - credit for not sleeping in class, all grades raised one letter grade over ANY complaint about the professor, very little work required for each class, plus limited course offerings, and their credits are virtually non-transferable because of their reputation (meaning that it is very hard to gain acceptance to any four year college except Crappy U about an hour from here) - so not worth a dime. Also, all of our kids are heading into STEM fields in which it's a ding against your application to have attended a CC since the assumption is that no CC teaches math and science courses to the level of rigor that the four year does. Of course, in the case of our local CC, this is absolutely true. However, I do think that there are couple in here in Michigan that actually do a fine job, but get lumped in with the bad ones - guilt by association.

 

Additionally, the University of Michigan - a top 50 school - has an extension campus that is a 70 minute drive from us and offers a huge array of courses. So, if I were going to start the kids out as commuters in high school or just after graduation, it would be there.

 

However, transferring out of U of M is still a hassle if one isn't going to transfer to the Ann Arbor campus. With the rivalry between U of M and MSU, and then MTU requiring research team participation beginning in the freshman year, it's dicey. Kids who transfer from U of M to MTU are behind if they are majoring in anything engineering or computer science related. Between the two big Ten schools, let's just say there is a lot of attitude! It's much easier to transfer out of one of the tier 1 schools to regional uni's such as Oakland U or Grand Valley than it is between the biggies. I have not checked into the realities of transferring out of state, but my guess is that if the Spartans and the Wolverines cannot place nice with each other on this subject, it would not be any better between say the Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes! :D Maybe it's not so bad between the uni's and the LAC's, but since the boys do not have a single LAC on their short lists, I haven't explored that option.

 

If at all possible, the best thing to do with a STEM major and in particular anything related to physics, medicine, or engineering, is to begin and end your program at the same institution. It's much less angst.

 

Faith

[mama27]

Thanks. This is interesting.

So far 4 year college is the plan for most of you.

[Nan in Mass]

Four year AND community college.

 

I hoped mine would be doing some community college in high school, as part of their high school, so I kept that in mind in 8th and 9th grade, mostly as far as trying to teach them scheduling, studying, and writing skills. To go to community college, they needed to pass the placement exam - reading, writing, and math. I wasn't too worried about the math, since they were where I wanted them to be and they were just going to do pre-calc (and for youngest, calc) at the cc. The only thing that worried me about the reading part was whether my sons would understand how to answer content questions, something they hadn't done before. The first time they ran across that sort of question, they did badly because they couldn't believe the questions were asking something so obvious lol. We did a few examples right before the test. The writing part was going to be hard for mine, since writing didn't come easily to them until later and neither will ever be good at spelling. We worked on paragraph structure and essay structure. All this would have been done in order to prepare for 4-year college, but I did it a bit earlier. I was highly motivated. I did NOT think it would be a good idea for me to teach chemistry lol. I took it in college but it was like water off a ducks back.

 

Once they were in community college taking non-stem classes, I worked on the study skills they would need to survive a textbook-based science class.

 

So - most of the preparation for four year college was done in order to go to community college. The one thing we did was keep an eye on the course requirements for four-year colleges. These mostly were the same as my own requirements, but if mine had planned to do community college only AFTER high school, I would have continued to do non-textbook-based science and continued to emphasize projects senior year. We chose not to do this for two reasons: in order to substitute cc classes for AP classes, and in order to provide classroom experience and make a bridge between homeschooling and college.

 

So to sum up - I thought mine needed cc classes in high school in order to prepare for university or four-year college - classroom experience and advanced classes. I had my own list of things I wanted my children to learn in my school and the list was bigger than the minimum four-year college requirements, so although I kept an eye on that, we didn't focus on it or use it as any sort of goal.

 

(I'm hoping now that it wasn't a mistake to ignore all the scary advice floating around about what selective college want to see from applicants, like extra curricular activities demonstrating leadership ability and a thousand AP classes and volunteer hours and original research and published papers and ... We ignored all that and focused on my list of educational goals plus whatever goals our sons themselves had. Now we've sent off the college applications and are waiting to see what happens. Ultimately, I think our strategy was a better one, especially as ours aren't trying to go anywhere very hard to get into, but it may be a bit painful in the short run if my son winds up doing the community college transfer program because no place he wants to go wants him. A bit painful. Not the end of the world, by any stretch of the imagination. We have a nice community college. It is just has some of the normal drawbacks of a community college.)

 

Nan

 

ETA the bit about selective colleges. Lots of colleges don't need anything off that scary list.

[Melissa B]

We prepare our children with the intention of each having an AA, AS or BA at the time of high school graduation.

[Mom22ns]

Preparing for 4 year. Fine with community college.

 

:iagree:

I have one child who will probably go CC first then University, although he will be starting dual enrollment at the local State U next fall, so I don't really know if he will ever attend a CC.

 

The other one has a university she REALLY wants to go to and probably grad school too.

 

I'm fine with whatever they want to do. I try to prep them for a somewhat competitive 4-year university so their choices aren't limited by high school, then they get to make the choices.

[Susan in TN]

We are preparing him for a 4 year college - he starts his first community college course next week; he will likely go to a state university for his undergraduate degree.

[Murphy101]

4 year, though they might transfer some cc too, the end goal is 4 year.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

When they were very young I listened to another homeschooler explain that her equally young kids wouldn't go to college so they never needed to learn a variety of subjects and then asked what I thought-I rather cavalierly (and probably rudely) replied that I was preparing mine for Harvard.

 

No, I'm not really preparing them with Harvard as a goal. My point was if I, to the best of my ability, prepare them for as much as possible then the opportunity is always there. So we prep for university and view that as opening a variety of other doors as well.

[ilanao]

We are preparing for a 4-year school. My oldest attended a 4-year school from the start. My second went the CC route and transferred to a CA state school. Now with the horrible budget cuts, it routinely takes 5-6 years to get an associate's degree at the local CC. I had originally planned to let my 15-year-old attend for science labs, but there is no way a high school student can get in. The UC and CSU system is not what is used to be, so we're probably going to go the WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) route. For those who aren't aware of it, it allows students from one of the participating states to attend another school in the system for a reduced tuition. Usually it's about 150% of resident tuition. The colleges I've looked at so far are equivalent in cost to the UC system. We always assumed that our kids would attend the state schools, but my two older kids had to put up with overcrowding and classes that were offered at super early/late times or not offered at all. Not to mention the constantly rising tuition. It's just not worth what they are charging anymore.

[TranquilMind]

are you preparing for 4 year university or community college?

 

 

At least Master's or Doctorate. This is my expectation based on their abilities.

[higginszoo]

Both. Our local community college has good programs for high school aged children that is part of our paid for public education. Those credits can be transferred to a 4 year state school and/or an AS is taken for credit toward a 4 year degree at the non-state run schools. Even with scholarship funds, the fact that we have three children in a 30 month span who will all be college-aged together, taking the free/cheap credits are worth it so that they can fund their education through the bachelor's or master's/doctorate level.

[Tullia]

Our focus was on keeping as many options open as possible and to help ds be competitive for merit aid. He chose to begin at community college and transfer to an in-state public university. If ds wants to attend graduate school, we will encourage him, but will expect him to provide a significant portion of the costs.

[Kareni]

We too planned for my daughter to attend a four year college. We did make use of the community college's resources in her 11th and 12th grade years to expand her knowledge and to expose her to more varied and difficult classes.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[ThisIsTheDay]

Four year, because I want to keep all options on the table. Last year at this time, I didn't know what my dd would do after graduating high school: join the military, join a long term overseas mission trip, go to CC, go to a 4 year school, participate in a study abroad program. She also mentioned cosmetology school, and I'd suggested that I would even be fine with her doing something like hiking the Appalachian Trail.

 

She's taken two classes each semester this year at CC, and she after applying early admission to several colleges, just decided which one she'll attend. If we'd prepared for something less than that, it wouldn't have been an option (or she'd have had to work a lot harder at the last minute to get there).

 

Although we prepared for a four year university, it wouldn't have been a "compromise" or a step down to do something different. There was just no reason for us to lower the bar on her education, regardless of what she chose to do after schooling.

[hsbeth]

We are also preparing for a four year college so that our dc have a variety of options. It looks like our oldest (11th) will attend and study engineering. Our second is considering nursing and we have both four year and quality two year programs in our area.

 

Depending on their career goals, other options may make more sense and we would be absolutely fine with them choosing a vocational certificate, two year degree, or other training as appropriate. We are philosophically opposed, and would not financially assist, one of our children enrolling in a four year college for "the college experience". We would also highly discourage attendance for certain areas of study that don' t seem to be marketable. Bottom line, we'd prefer that post high school education teaches our child to "do" something, not just "about" something. Ultimately, it will be their choice to make, but how much we will help them with financially will be dependent upon their goal.

[swellmomma]

My goal has always been to prepare them for the highest level so that then they have options, so preparing them for a 4 year university, then if they choose a vocational school, or a college certificate or the army or straight into the workforce they are more than well prepared to tackle them.

[AngieW in Texas]

Our oldest was interested in animation and video game design. I definitely geared her high school years to prep for 4-year college and part of that was taking dual credit classes at the cc. Our cc is actually quite good and seems to be doing really well. She started college with 42 college credits from the cc and all but 3 credit-hours transferred. If scheduling works out just right, she should be able to get her BS in Arts&Technology in a total of just 6 semesters because of the credits she went to school with from the cc. I expect that it will end up taking 7 semesters because I'm sure that she'll end up with courses that she MUST take being offered only at overlapping times.

 

Our middle dd is interested in occupational therapy or speech therapy, both of which require graduate degrees. She is very science and math oriented, so her high school program was definitely directed towards 4-year college. She also took/takes dual credit classes at the cc and will have a total of 36 credit hours when she graduates high school in May. She will also have 3 credit hours from AP. Her plan is to major in neuroscience for her BS, while taking the prerequisite courses for entry into MOT programs and also take some exploratory courses in speech pathology. The school she will be attending has a fantastic ST program, but doesn't have an OT program. If she ends up deciding on ST, she will just stay there and probably do the fast-track to masters program they have. If she decides on OT, she will have to go elsewhere for her MS.

 

Our youngest dd is interested primarily in things that don't require a degree at all. I am prepping her for 4-year college, but I expect that she would probably prefer to get an AS first and then transfer if she does end up deciding on a 4-year degree. I think she is most likely to end up getting an AS in Audio Engineering or going through cosmetology school. I want her to have all of her options open though. She will also be taking dual credit classes, but hers are more likely to be exploratory rather than core classes. Her other interest is in photography and she is quite good at that too.

[Parrothead]

Dd is going into 9th grade. I'm trying to prepare her for whatever comes her way. Ultimately if that means she earns a PhD in dance then that is what we are shooting for. On the other hand if she wants to take business courses at community college then open her own studio, welll... she will be well prepared for that too.

[texasmama]

My oldest homeschooled student is in 6th grade, but I plan to prepare the kids for a four year college (or graduate degree). They will likely attend community college beginning at 16, which is part of the preparation for a four year college. All of my kids have the ability to get a four year degree or higher, if they so choose, so I believe it is my responsibility to keep as many of their options available as possible, which means the highest level of preparation possible. I hope it works out. :)