Tips for Parents

Here’s some quick tips on how you can help guide your child through the transition from high school to college.

Read Your Student’s High School Student Handbook

  • Visit the college/career center and scout out the resources there
  • Help your student understand and calculate their GPA
  • Attend the school’s Open House where you can meet counselor/teachers
  • Encourage your student to get extra help before academic problems arise
  • Read the school newspaper/website
  • Seek enrichment opportunities
  • Encourage, support & prod student to get involved
  • Visit colleges with your student beginning sophomore year
  • Insist your student join something not everything
  • Encourage positive peer relationships

Unique Problems that Multi–Potential Students Face

  • Hamlet’s fatal flaw: “Indecision” due to “Overchoice”
  • Perfectionism increases the fear of making mistakes, a necessary part of learning
  • Finding purpose is the one problem that’s not easier to solve if you’re smarter
  • Limited exposure to the “real” world of work blurs real options
  • Professional student syndrome, especially manifested by GT students
  • Fear of failure
  • All or nothing fallacy: “I’m a Hero or a Zero.”
  • Myth of adulthood as a static end state
  • Myth of having only one “perfect” or best possible career choice
  • Narrow self-image
  • Lack of realistic information about the world of work
  • Lack of awareness or consideration of the creative possibilities of how multiple majors and skills can be combined in a particular profession
  • A choice made too early can rule out other possibilities prematurely
  • Fear of loss of freedom
  • Fear of too much structure
  • Lack of personal exploration of potential careers or knowledge of how to obtain this information