Posts
6185
Joined
8/27/2006
Location
Acworth, GA
US
Edited Date/Time
9/29/2017 5:23pm
Was thinking about this out of nowhere. My daughter is only 7 but I was thinking about those college days and first day of college and how hard it will be to drop her off and say good bye. I know it was hard for me when my parents dropped me off 25 years ago at ga southern.
It just ended up being one big party at our dorm and every night and of course the booze and drugs just got bigger from there. It's easy for a kid to spiral.
I saw people from my hometown dropping like flies from ga southern for all types of reasons. Relationships or mental or overwhelming or not going class or drugs and alcohol which got the best of me my 3rd year.
I would say out of the 50 or so from my hometown that went there only 10 lasted.
Which begs the question is 18 just too young to be off on your own that far away from parents? Are kids just still too immature at that age?
I'm almost wondering if staying at home a few more years and going to a local college might be better idea until maturity hits a little more.
It just ended up being one big party at our dorm and every night and of course the booze and drugs just got bigger from there. It's easy for a kid to spiral.
I saw people from my hometown dropping like flies from ga southern for all types of reasons. Relationships or mental or overwhelming or not going class or drugs and alcohol which got the best of me my 3rd year.
I would say out of the 50 or so from my hometown that went there only 10 lasted.
Which begs the question is 18 just too young to be off on your own that far away from parents? Are kids just still too immature at that age?
I'm almost wondering if staying at home a few more years and going to a local college might be better idea until maturity hits a little more.
Frosh week had its moments that I won't get into but think he's settled it down and gotten himself down to a grind. There are a lot of mature 17 year olds out there, and a lot of very immature 30 year olds - so it likely mostly comes down to their upbringing & parenting they've had. Most universities here have been paying more attention lately to this frosh stuff & the alcohol aspect, and getting supports & guidances in place. But it's still there - no getting around it.
The Shop
Maturity comes at different times for people.
I also had 3 jobs and was paying for my own way through college so I knew how hard the money was to come by while going to college.
IMO the high school system in the country needs to be revised to drop standardized testing and really give students an education on adult world problems. Personal finance classes would be a good start.
BTW I have a kid who is a freshmen in college. He ain't partying and is there to further his education. I can follow his instagram story and see what he's doing pretty much 24/7.
My kids started full time at 16, but it was our local CC so they weren't juggling the whole "living on my own for the first time" thing. That definitely helped. Academically they were easily ready by 16, socially might have been different.
Especially if you're used to floating by in High School with minimal "extra" effort, going away to a university can be a huge wake up call.
I worked 2 hours after school from 11 years old to about 14. After turning 14 I worked from 3pm when I got out of school til 8pm every day. My parents didn't MAKE me work, but they told me if I wanted a vehicle, cell phone, dirt bikes, etc then I was working. My parents paid for any and all necessities without question. But they taught me responsibility. That's the thing 18 year old kids lack going into college. A lot of them never even had an after school part time job and their parents think they can take care of themselves? Crazy. Teach your kids responsibility and money management at a young age so they're prepared for the real world.
This was my boy and his friends his freshman year.
If you hold your kids back until their 20 and then send them to college, they're still gonna do the same stuff they were gonna do when they were 18, except now they're 20.
It's all priorities. School, work, party, there's plenty of time for all. Being exposed to sex, booze and drugs...well, that's going to happen, probably more so in high school, and how a person is raised determines how they deal with it.
College weeds out the lazy. You gotta want it.
Pit Row
There is a LOT of construction happening around campus. Aquarena was shut down for pretty much the entire summer, and now there are various other parts of campus where the roads are shut down.
I know Grins and Palmer House are still around, but not sure about the others. Our "fun" days are usually spent playing disc golf or just hitting different places around town or going to the movies. Maybe that'll change a bit after we hit drinking age in a couple of months.
I did community college before going to a 4-year college and worked my ass off all through school, washing dishes, cooking in restaurants and waiting tables. I partied, but the sheer workload of getting a degree while working all the time sort of kept me on track. Shit, I learned as much about the professional world working in restaurants than I did in class. As well as how to interact with a team, under pressure etc. It's better if kids work in school-- or else there are too many distractions.
Running Start (college instead of HS for the last 2 years) was a huge help for them. For my daughter, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in 3 years. Could have been sooner but changing a major slows down the plans.
My son ended up going to a pretty decent school after HS (ranked 11th in the world overall) and literally dominated. He ended up doing all 4 years but the last 2 were mostly grad level courses
What they got out of doing the CC thing was learning to handle their own shit. The CC instructors wouldn't even talk to parents about how students were doing etc. The students had to step up and be responsible, like an adult.
It worked pretty well for them.
I made it through a pretty difficult engineering program and still made time for a social life. Seeing kids these days piss away their parents money failing out of a mediocre degree is very disturbing. You're 18. You're an adult. Act like it. It's not that hard.
Unless your career plan requires grad school, I wouldn't limit your school choices to "prestigious" schools. I'd definitely consider local CCs and regional universities that are located in places that will be enjoyable to be in and have good programs.
I've had 3 kids in college now and they've been enrolled at a wide variety of schools. Community college, regional universities, private university, and large pubic research university. All of them so far have had some very good learning opportunities whether they were considered "prestigious" or not.
If you're undecided on a major, I'd definitely consider doing your exploring at a lower cost school where you're more likely to be able to ask questions, rather than being the 550th student in a "101 Intro to XYZ" class.
If you just want to make a lot of money, go be a Safeway, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc. store manager. If you are halfway decent you can make $250K a year, but you'll want to slit your wrists daily and probably die of alcohol poisoning or a drug overdose..........
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