What Skills Does Your High School Graduate Need to Be Successful in College? |
High school graduation represents a time of transition, from one stage of life to the next. Families celebrate the hard work and perseverance that the graduate has shown to earn a high school diploma while also anticipating what comes next: a career, the military, a gap year, and for many, a continuation of their formal education at college. For these rising college freshmen, the time to prepare for college move-in day is now. While that first day of college may seem like a full summer away, it will be here before we know it, and there are many things, other than planning college dorm decor that need to be done prior to arriving on campus. The summer after high school graduation, like our country’s 4th of July celebration, represents a time of new independence, but along with that newly earned freedom, comes a new level of responsibility. What types of things need to be completed prior to move-in day?
And how will the college communicate the need for all of these tasks to be completed? Yes, you guessed it, to the student’s email address! |
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Is your soon to be college freshman ready for this new level of responsibility that will be expected and required of them, including checking their email regularly this summer for information about all of the above items? Do they have the skills to respond in a timely manner to those emails with the necessary information? Are they able to ask for help if they need it and communicate things that are important for you to know and be aware of (perhaps like when move-in day and time will happen and when and how to pay tuition)? These are just a few of the skills that our kids will need to be successful in college:
There are many other skills that both Elizabeth C. Hamblet and Perry LaRoque, Ph.D discuss on their websites and in their books, 7 Steps to College Success: A Pathway for Students with Disabilities and Taking Flight.. |
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Each of these books provides invaluable information for parents and the student alike. Both authors describe skills that students will need to be successful in college. You are hopefully not surprised that the skills are not just being academically capable. They also include a number of other important but less practiced skills:
Additionally, there are four categories that all of these skills, including academic and study skills fall into, that are essential for college success and I would say life:
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If we are aware of what we are capable of doing or not doing; Able to manage our physical, emotional, and health needs such that we can do what we need to do (and stay balanced with what we want to do) ; Can advocate for help when we don’t know what to do or can’t manage our emotions or health needs; And can persist in not giving up and can take action in the face of obstacles by using the help and resources around us, Our kids will be successful in college and most likely, in life! |
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So How Do We Help Our Kids Develop these Skills so They are Prepared from Day 1? |
It starts with talking to them about their vision of college. What will a typical day look like for them? What types of responsibilities will they have? Do they know how much free time they will have and what will they do with that free time? Do they know how to do laundry? Do they know how to refill medications? Do they know what to do when they get sick? Do they know where there classes will be and how to get to them? Do they know who to ask for help if they need it? |
There are many questions like these to ask and if your teen is anything like mine, they may want to limit the 20 questions, AND this awareness of what their skills and tendencies are is an important first step in helping them prepare for college. We have developed this self-assessment form as part of the First Day of our Executive Function Bootcamp - College Edition happening July 16-18 and August 6-8. We are making it available to you even if you don’t register for camp because we want your child to be successful in college. Feel free to use this form as a set of talking points with your child to inform things for you to work on learning together, or share it with them to review on their own so they develop a sense of what they will need to do (and what they can already do). At the end of the assessment, we offer space to identify and develop goals and create an action plan for achieving those goals based on what you discover about the skills you have and don’t yet have. |
Download our College Readiness Skills Assessment! |
If you think your child could benefit from having some additional support in assessing these skills and developing an action plan for being college ready from Day 1 while also having some fun with other soon to be college freshman, register your child for for the Executive Function Bootcamps - College Edition. |
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And while you are helping your teen prepare for launching into college, I hope that you will also take time to prepare yourself for the transition that you will be making as a parent or caregiver who has been present to support your teen’s daily life in a very concrete and tangible way. Our role when they go off to college shifts, and we have to be adept at asking open-ended questions, affirming their efforts, and being available to problem solve with them rather than for them as they step into this new stage of adult responsibility and independence. The coaches at 2tametheshamE, Inc want you and your student to be successful! Please reach out for any support that we can provide and in the meantime, enjoy the next few months with your high school graduate and your other family members, and have a wonderful, safe, and happy 4th of July! |
Yours in the journey of empowering one another, Courtney and the 2TTS, Inc. Team |
Courtney Edman
What Skills Does Your High School Graduate Need to be Successful in College?
Updated: Sep 26
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