5 Benefits Of Going To College During The Summer

Just going to college in the summer doesn't automatically put your student on a "preferred" list at any college. You have to have a specific reason for going, such as taking a course because a scheduling conflict during your child's junior year prevented him or her from taking a needed AP or Honors course, or your student simply needs to find out if s/he really wants to go to college.

Here are 5 benefits for taking a college course during the summer between junior and senior years:

1. Colleges will be impressed that you took initiative to "make up" what you missed (translation: you didn't use the standard excuse of bad scheduling to NOT take an AP or Honors course, or that a 2nd AP course was never offered);

2. Colleges will see that you challenged yourself at a time when the beach was more appealing (translation: you demonstrated a high level of maturity and focus that are not always evident on a college application);

3. You were able to test-drive the college experience: you actually know what a college class room session is like, how professors act, and how challenging college can be. You now have a solid sense of whether you want to go to college, or you now now have a confidence level about going to college that was never known before, and the anxiety of "what's college really like?" - the fear of the unknown - is a lot less;

4. Your student earns college credit before senior year in high school, an advantage that 99.6% of competing seniors will not be able to claim; and

5. Your student's letters of recommendation will reinforce all of the above.

How Crass Can A College Get?

A lot of press is being given to a college in South Carolina for the way they treat their students.

For approximately $36,000 a year, here's what you get for your money from High Point University if your student is looking to be treated like a rock star:

1. an ice cream truck roams the campus giving away free ice cream all day;

2. music is piped into the walkways between buildings;

3. snack kiosks are situated with an endless supply of free bananas, pretzels and drinks;

4. each student receives a birthday card signed by the president, with balloons and a Starbucks gift card inside;

5. gift baskets of snacks and drinks are dropped off at student rooms when they return from breaks;

6. to get exactly what students want, the university maintains a database of each student's preferences in movies, candy bars, and sodas; and my favorite...

7. upon request, wake-up calls in the morning and afternoon.

This is the Club Med of academia. Did I mention that there are people there who actually teach courses if your student wants to take some?

The press reports indicate that the university's passion for "customer service" is paying off. Enrollment has never been higher. Should the term "customer service" apply to an academic environment? If you don't think so, you and I are both clueless.

In May of 2006 Brown University's president told an incoming freshman class: "You are the smartest, the cutest, the savviest, most dynamic, extraordinary - I could go on and on."

As long as colleges continue to baby our kids, the less prepared they will be for the daily demands and tough expectations of real living.

This story is not an aberration. It highlights the college trend in pampering the next generation. The injustice such schools are doing to these students is incalculable.

The focus is not so much on academics, but on what can we do to make your student more self-absorbed and narcissistic. "It's all about me" in a lah-lah world that has no shame with indulging in crass commercialism while making you pay through the nose. Okay...so I'm totally clueless.

Once our students discover how the world works after graduation, they'll complain that it was a wake-up call they never requested.