The Right or Wrong Time

Today, more and more students are being told that they need to start preparing for college at a very young age—sometimes middle school or even younger. Some individuals believe that the early start is necessary in order to gain entry into a quality college and succeed later on. Other individuals believe that starting too early causes stress, anxiety, and burnout before the students have even entered high school. While advance planning is necessary, I strongly feel that overemphasizing college too early can do more damage than good.

The majority of people feel that planning ahead is a great way to enable students to get a head start. They think that if students start planning in middle school, they will have additional time to establish solid grades, be in the right clubs, and take rigorous classes. While this is a pleasant idea, it also is putting too much on children too early. If children think they are doing everything for college alone, they begin to lose interest in learning. Instead of loving what they are doing and learning what they absolutely love to do, they get lost in stress and competition. Learning will start to become something they once loved and now hate becasue of the ealry stress put on them.

The admissions process to colleges has been getting increasingly competitive throughout the years. High school kids are already pressured enough taking four or five AP courses, doing sports, club activities, volunteering, and performing well in all their subjects plus studying for state tests. They cannot have added stress of the kind that begins too early or they will simply burn out long before they set foot in a high school. Instead of coercing students to think about college during middle school, we must coerce them to develop skills that will do them well in the long run—like problem-solving, creativity, curiosity, and persistence.

Planning does happen. High school is a great time to start planning for college seriously. Students now know more about what they like and can do. They can make good choices about courses and activities without too much stress or urgency. Parents and teachers must guide students but must also allow them to develop, explore, and learn.

College does matter in the end, but it should not control a child’s life as a child. Being accepted into a wanted school is not success, but a lifelong love of learning, interests, and passions is. Let’s make college planning sane and sensible and one that will prepare students for the future without stressing way too early.

Featured Image: “Stress” by topgold is licensed under CC BY 2.0.