How to discern your child’s best post-high school path
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BY EMILY EILEEN CARTER
ith the rising price of college tuition and more college grads facing crippling
student loan debt, many parents and high school students are thoughtfully considering their post-high school options. Determining the correct course of action for your soon-to-be graduate can be tough. Weighing the cost of higher education, the job market and cost of living, families are considering options other than automatically enrolling scholars into a four-year institution. So what choices do teens have? And how do you know which is the right one? Answering these
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What are the student’s goals?
What are the student’s career aspirations?
“It’s important to start having conversations with your teens early about what their career and college goals are,” advises counselor James Rumbaugh of Owen High School in Black Mountain, N.C. “Our job here is to get students career and college ready. If they are already having these conversations at home, it will help them refine their goals and decide what (is) the best post-high school track for them to follow.”
That’s one question to ask, says Terry Brasier, vice president of student services for Asheville-Buncombe (N.C.) Technical Community College. Then, based on these goals, determine whether the student is prepared academically “to gain admissions into a college and/ or university which offers a major or program of study that would help the student gain the knowledge and skills to enter into their chosen career path,” Brasier says.
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questions can help:
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