Myth #2
“I’m not going to push my kid to start thinking about college as a Freshman. Starting that early will put too much pressure on them.”
That argument sounds like it makes sense. Why start 3 years before you ever fill out an application? As an aside, part of what makes these discussions great is that about half the room sits there thinking, “Start planning for college at the beginning of 9th Grade . . . that’s waaay to early!” While the other half of the room is squirming in their chairs and thinking, “Wait until 9th Grade to work on college stuff, that’s waaay too late!” Of course both sides are wrong. The beginning of 9th grade is a great time to get serious about college, the admissions process and the learning experience that leads up to it. But back to the myth. Doesn’t starting early put too much pressure on kids?
This is where we witness the traditional and long standing power of rumors over facts and media hype over news reporting. Haven’t you read the Time and Newsweek articles about all these kids having breakdowns because of college admissions pressure? Much of what you’ve read and heard is well, horse feathers.
There are a variety of ways to debunk this particular myth. We can go over some pretty dry and boring numbers but I don’t want too many more of you falling asleep so here’s my favorite. It’s a little less scientific but it seems to be pretty effective because everyone can understand it.
Getting up at your usual time in the morning and going to bed at your usual time in the evening . . . and keeping all of your business and social and family commitments . . . do you think that you could also manage to build me a pretty landscape brick wall, 1 foot wide and 2 feet high surrounding the football field of your high school on all four sides? No? You slacker! Now, which of these two directions do you think would make you feel more pressured . . . if I told you that you had to have it completed tomorrow night regardless of whether you think you can do it or not . . . or . . . you had to have it completed in a little more than 3 years?
The best part of that example was that uraccepted.com actually had to sit down and do all of the calculations to make them fit the time for a student to reasonably prepare for the college admissions process. Actually, we left out certain important and time consuming tasks because they were either constant for all students . . . such as taking the SAT’s or simply too variable . . . such as visiting colleges. But I think you all get the point. Beginning the process in the 9th Grade doesn’t add pressure . . . it greatly reduces it.
We’ve found one other real world example that helps parents and students understand this concept. Imagine that you’re trying to grow something in a garden. The directions tell you to plant the seeds and apply 5 inches of rain during the 10 week growing season. You plant the seeds and ignore them for the first 9 weeks. During that last week you water the heck out of the garden dumping all 5 inches that were required. Do you honestly think you’re going to get any vegetables worth eating? It’s basically the same when it comes to college admissions. For most students, reasonably beginning the process early doesn’t increase pressure, it dramatically reduces it.
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