Sending Teens to College

College is something I have worried about for my kids from the day they were born. I was raised in a family where my father worked as an administrator at universities. I grew up in college, so to speak. So, when it came time for me to graduate high school, I knew I was going to college. I was surprised to find that there would be no financial support coming from my family. I guess I always assumed they had planned for it. Assumption is a dangerous thing, but one that teens are prone to. Luckily for me, I qualified for grants, loans and work-study. The middle being an issue I didn’t think twice about as a teenager. Loans… Sure, I had them, but what did that mean? It was something I would worry about after I graduated.


Now that I’m much older and just a little bit wiser, I realize that loans, while often necessary, come with a price. That price is called interest. I vowed that as my children became college-aged that I would help them pay for college defraying much of that cost. What I didn’t count on is the dramatic increase in the costs of education over the twenty years since I had been there. College, especially four-year colleges, are expensive!

So, plan B. We would pay for the first two years. Then, if they chose a four-year institution, we would pay for room and board providing it was not local. (Out-of-state is out of the question.) Scholarships would have been nice, but we didn’t go that route much to my hindsight dismay. I feel blessed beyond measure to be able to do this much for them.

The economy is not playing nice – it really changes our perspectives about pursuing a degree. Back in the day, education was the pursuit of knowledge. We don’t have that luxury today. Now, there must be a lucrative end goal for the investment to be worth it. I realized that just expecting my kids to go to college without a plan in mind wasn’t realistic. We needed to really consider all avenues. That’s what we are doing now.

My oldest has gone the four-year route. She spent one semester at home going to the community college and is now away at the university she always dreamed of. The catch – transferring may have made her four-year stay into five years. Yikes! That’s a lot of debt for her to take on, especially since her end goal is to teach.

My oldest son graduates this January. He will be at the community college in the spring fulfilling some of the general education requirements. Right now, he’s trying to decide between going to a four-year institution or taking a vocational path and earning an associate’s degree and certifications to work in the automotive industry. Based on our research to date, the latter seems like the more profitable approach.

There’s a lot to be done between now and next spring. He’ll have to make choices, she’ll have to figure out if she can afford another year, and we’ll have to determine just how we can get the two younger ones positioned to know what they want to do and have the scholarships to pave the way. Phew!

What has been your approach to post-high school with your children?

Teen Testing

Do you realize how much time we spend getting our teens ready for tests? I was thinking about this today as my thirteen-year-old mentioned I’m always talking about tests.


I don’t mean tests for their subjects. In fact, we don’t take a lot of tests in our subjects. Mastery is demonstrated rather than tested. (At least for now…)

However, I am always telling him that he’s going to need to know this, that and the other for the PSAT or the SAT or the ACT or a CLEP. Test, test, test…

One of the reasons I became very disillusioned with the public school system was testing. Teachers are pressured to prepare their students to take End of Grade, multiple guess tests. Teachers almost have to teach to the tests nowadays as their jobs and their salaries can be contingent on how their students score. I find this sad. It really takes the steam out of the love of teaching. I was tired of my children being taught to take a test rather than to master a subject and think critically.

Nonetheless… I find myself worrying about tests.

My oldest son is graduating in January from the local public high school. He recently took the SAT for the third time and today took a College Placement Test (CPT) so that he can take college classes in the spring prior to heading to the university in the fall. I’m glad he’s got his testing behind him. Now we get to focus on where and when and what classes he will take for the next several years of his life.

As a homeschool parent staring high school in the face, I’m worried. Will my son be evaluated on his transcript? Probably not since he was homeschooled. He’ll be evaluated based on his SAT or ACT or college level course performance exclusively? I know he can do it. In fact, I know he can do it very well. But, it begs the question, is a test a fair evaluation of a person’s academic ability?

Those of you who are homeschooling high school or have homeschooled kids into college – how did/will you handle college admission? Have you simply relied on their test scores to carry them? Did the university even look at their transcript? What’s the secret? What about scholarships? The clock, for me is ticking, and I want to know where to find the keys to the kingdom. Help!