Parent Action Plan

Here are Some Tips for Success in Decisions Relating to College that you and your child should keep in mind as your child continues her education beyond high school.

Enroll in a summer course. If your child chooses to enroll in a university elsewhere in the state or country, encourage him to consider taking a college course at Tri-County during the summer to get ahead.

Apply for financial aid and scholarships. Learn all you can about financial aid and scholarship opportunities. Your child may qualify for a grant that you did not know about. And many scholarships go unused because no one applies for them. Check with your college’s financial aid office and counseling center to find out more about these opportunities. And don’t be afraid to apply!

Click here for links to Financial Aid Resources and Information

College Board Online (information on cost and budgets) www.collegeboard.com/paying

CollegeNet www.collegenet.com

Fast WEB (financial aid and scholarship search) www.fastweb.com

FinAid.com (“The Smart Student guide to financial aid”) www.finaid.com/

Peterson’s Education and Career Center www.Petersons.com

Participate in School-to-Work. Make School-to-Work part of your child’s collegiate experience. She may have participated in work-based learning in high school through shadowing or mentoring. Encourage her to continue in college through cooperative education or internships! (Remember, doctors don’t become doctors and teachers don’t become teachers until they have done an internship.) Work-based learning experiences are great even if they aren’t required for your child’s major.

Realize that there are no fail-safe choices. By identifying more options, your child will increase the likelihood that he will make good choices. For example, if he wants to major in archeology, fine. But he may want to minor in business or computer science, just in case digging for dinosaur bones professionally offers limited opportunity. Encourage your child to diversify his opportunities. Don’t allow him to put all his eggs in one basket.

Consider your child’s personality. Our personality has more to do with long term satisfaction and success in a career than anything else. For example, if your child loves nature and being outdoors, she probably would not be happy as an industrial technician who works in a manufacturing setting and has limited contact with the outdoors. Or, if she prefers working inside, she may not wish to be a forestry technician.

Your child should think about what is important to her. Is she the type of person who needs to make a contribution (i.e., make a positive difference in someone’s life)? Does she enjoy solving complex problems and get bored if she is not challenged? The answer to these and other questions will give her a hint about her “work personality,” and that’s a key ingredient to career success!

Spend time learning about the job market that will be available after your child graduates. There is a great deal your child can do on his own. He should talk to professionals, relatives, or your friends about careers and the world of work. He should go to the library to search for career information. A clear understanding of workforce trends will help him make wise decisions now about his college major. (This website contains much information and great links to other sites to help you learn more about labor market trends and issues.)

Your child needs to choose a career he will find rewarding, but he should keep in mind the consequences of his decision, and be prepared to “pay the price.” If he knows that being an editor for a large newspaper is the career for him, he should be aware that the job market is limited and that he will likely have to accept numerous lower level writing positions to prove himself before he finds his dream job (and an acceptable salary!). Or, if he loves farming but is concerned about the number of career opportunities, or the challenges that modern farming presents, perhaps he should consider something related, like agricultural engineering.

Recognize that your child can only make two mistakes in career planning-not planning at all or trying to keep all her options open. Both “techniques” essentially result in the same thing, “career by default.” Eventually, your child will wind up somewhere, but it may not be where she had hoped to be! Good career planning doesn’t mean that you come to a decision and never change your mind. It means that if a change of direction is needed, you can do so wisely, with the least amount of time, trauma, and cost!

Your child should keep everything! Keep all grade mailers, syllabi, advising records, college transcripts, etc. He will never know when he might need them!

Consider this: If your daughter and her advisor agree on some modification to the standard curriculum, she should get it in writing! Her advisor may change jobs and leave the university before she graduates. And, while rare, sometimes there may be discrepancies between the grade she thinks she earned in a course and the one that shows up on her transcript. If she keeps her quizzes and notes on grades she earned in the course, all that could come in handy! If she takes a course at another college, she should keep the syllabus and the college catalog. She may decide to transfer to multiple schools and need the documentation to get the credit posted to her transcript at her new college.

Don’t just do what you are told. Encourage your child to be responsible for all his decisions. He should ask questions and fully understand why he is doing certain things.

And remember this Prescription for Success: As you and your child plan college courses and look forward to a career, remember...The ideal employee has a solid foundation of academic skills, one or more technical skills, and strong social skills for interacting with fellow employees in a productive environment. It is essential that your child develop these skills as she prepares for the world of work!

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