Selective Universities

Do you want your child to go to college/university and be successful? Support their dreams.

Research has found that students who go on to selective universities and go on to do well in post secondary education had parents that expected them to go to college. Those parents learned about their children's aspirations and used the information to direct the types of books they purchased and checked out of libraries, toy choices, dinner discussion topics and research on the Internet.

So next time your child tells you that they want to be a Vet, support them. Go to the library and check out books about various animals and what animal doctors do. Allow them to pull out vocabulary words from the books and alphabetize them, look them up in a dictionary and even play pretend Vet. Be sure to get books that reflect your child. If your child has dark hair and brown eyes and all the books have Vets who have blonde hair and blue eyes, your child may not be able to see themselves in that role. Take your child to visit people and places that interest them.

For older students find a mentor from the profession of their interest. Let them see and hear about the work up close. What about a summer internship? What about after-school or weekend volunteering? Help turn your son/daughter's dream into goals by locating the colleges/universities that offer their majors. Skim through the classes and read the course descriptions. Talk about how long a degree would take. Discuss options for vocational and technical schools. Help them to write a short and long term plan for becoming who they want to be. Remember life success is not always related to GPA and SAT scores.

Expose children to less commercialized careers. How? Talk to your kids about their strengths and interest, everyone has them, then go into the community and find people that are doing things that require the skills your children love to demonstrate.

As your child's interest changes, change with it. So the next time you visit the library or purchase toys, puzzles or technology think about supporting your child's post-secondary dreams. It may lead them to college and a life of success.