Years ago, if you had told me I would be working for a juniors club, I would have said you were crazy. Truth be told, I've never been a fan of the club culture - while the reps at a young age are important, I felt that the quality of the product many kids were receiving outside of the "elite" teams was less than satisfactory, especially in regards to giving guidance about looking for colleges to attend. Luckily, I found a program that, while smaller, had depth from top-to-bottom with their coaching staff, and gave me free reign to meet with all families face-to-face and talk about their personal situations.
Although I'm still relatively young (I need to use that statement while I still have time!), my experience has been pretty diverse - as a student I attended a big state school, a community college, and a private institution. As a coach, I coached NJCAA, Division III, and Division I. While it was a roller coaster of a ride, it gave me a pretty good perspective to bring to the table when speaking with students. The results have been great, and it really makes me hope to one day see a shift in the way we prep high school students for the next chapter of their lives.
According to the National Association of College Admission Counseling, 1/3 (I had read statistics as high as 1/2, but 1/3 seems more accurate to me) of College Students transfer from their original institution. I myself fall into that category. To this day, I remember the dialogue between me and my counselor at my high school:
Counselor: What do you want to do?
Me: I don't know - I'm good at math and I'd like to make money.
Counselor: Actuarial Sciences is the #2 profession in the country and is math-based.
Me: Great! What schools have that?
Counselor: Illinois State has a great program for it.
That is almost word-for-word the conversation we had - I visited ISU on a sunny day, took a tour where they told me all the great things about the school, and my decision was made. One year later, I looked my parents in the eye for the first time in my life truly feeling like a failure, uncertain what I wanted to do, but knowing I didn't want to go back.
What I WISH my counselor would have said was "You're good at math - do you enjoy math?" or "Actuarial Sciences is a very lucrative industry - you'll have to work harder than you've probably ever worked in your entire life, and the level of difficulty is high - are you willing to dedicate yourself to the field?". I was very naive at a young age, and didn't have anyone pushing me to really think about what I was passionate about - it was "You're great at math, you'll do something with that field". I've come to learn that talent only goes so far if you don't have a passion for something.
As adults, when we buy a car, we have a purpose in mind - something with good gas mileage, something that can carry more passengers, or maybe something flashy. We take it for a test drive - some of us take it to a mechanic we trust to inspect it. As a potential home-owner, we know exactly what purpose we want the house to serve - and if we're novices, perhaps we ask a contractor or electrician we know to take a look at places we're looking at and give us their opinion. Yet for high school students, rarely do we take them outside their comfort zones and REALLY make them think about what they want from their college experience before starting their search. Why aren't we doing more to help them?
We need to do a better job of truly preparing our high school students for researching what they're looking for in regards to college - even if they may be uncomfortable with some of the questions. From what I see, most clubs are using their college liaisons to just throw their kids out on the market, and see which schools show interest. I firmly believe it should be the other way around - we should be helping our kids research schools to find one worthy of their attendance, one that fits their wants and needs.
When I sit with our athletes, I ask them basic questions about what they'd want from their "Dream School". I get "I don't know" for a lot of the things I ask them - geographic location, field of study, school size, academic vs. athletic balance, philosophy of why they play their sport as well as what they want to get out of their college athletic career experience. And "I don't know" is OK - as long as they're starting to think about it. I've gotten to meet with many of our junior/senior athletes and their
parents, and most of them tell me a lot of the information I gave them
is brand new to them.
I will discuss scholarships at a later post. If you have a child or you are a potential collegiate athlete, make sure you're doing the work to think about what YOU want from your college experience and then research - don't just let schools spoon-feed you information. The more you ask questions pertaining to your wants/needs, the more certain you'll be that you're making the right choice when you commit. You'll be better off for it!
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