10 Valuable Life Skills Your Kid Should Know Before Going To College
My wife recently received her master’s degree in counseling from UNC-Charlotte. As excited as I am for her, I’m just as excited that we’ve gone from paying three college tuitions at the same time to only two. Our oldest son is going into his senior year at UNC-Chapel Hill and our youngest is a sophomore at ECU.
It has made me so happy to watch how my boys grow from kids at East Mecklenburg High School into young adults at their respective universities. Of course, that transition wasn’t always smooth, but that’s normal. I remember what a mess I was when I first went off to college. Thankfully, my boys were a little better prepared.
Leaving The Nest
While high school is a time to prepare for the academic rigors of college, there are plenty of other skills that are just as important. Life skills are crucial to a young person’s success at their new school, especially if they’re going to be living on campus. Ideally, those lessons should be coming from somebody at home.
With another semester about to begin, Huffington Post asked parents, professors, therapists, and counselors what they think teens should know before embarking on their freshman year in college. From cleaning a bathroom to keeping a budget, here are some of those critical skills.
10 Life Skills Your Kid Should Know Before College
- How to do laundry – Let’s get an obvious one out of the way first. If your teen doesn’t know how to wash, dry, fold and put away their own clothes, teach them what to do before they’re overwhelmed in the dorm laundry room. They’ll also need to know how to wash their bedding and how often to do so.
- How to clean a bathroom – This is along the same lines as laundry. Help your kid learn the basics that go into a weekly bathroom cleaning, even if they’re living in the dorm as a freshman.
- How to stick to a budget – Super important! This is something that both of my sons struggled with during freshman year. Teach kids to manage their money and how to be able to say “no” when they reach their spending limit.
- How to create and maintain a healthy routine – They’ll need to know how to prioritize healthy habits like sleep, eating nutritious foods, being active, and keeping up with hobbies that make them happy. These should be balanced with time spent studying, working, and partying. Yes, partying. After all, it is college we’re talking about.
- How to listen to their body – Tell your teen to pay attention to their bodily cues and to listen to what they’re communicating. They should be moving toward people, places, and ideas that light them up and have them buzzing with positive energy. However, they should also be able to recognize things that leave their belly in knots or their shoulders tense.
- How to ask for help – Living away from home can be scary and stressful for a teenager. Thankfully, we now live in a time when mental health is being valued more than ever before. Colleges have the resources and there’s no shame in using them. Your child should know how to find and contact the campus counseling center.
- How to be assertive – There’s a lot less hand-holding in college. Your kid will need to be able to advocate for themselves and communicate effectively and share their thoughts and opinions. Give them the chance to speak up for themselves and provide loving guidance them as they get better at it.
- How to apologize well – Being able to genuinely say you’re sorry and take responsibility for your mistakes without blaming or trying to justify is a skill everyone should master. Learning how to do it as a young adult will help them in college and long after in both personal and professional relationships.
- How to stay on top of important letters and emails – Letters and emails!?! If it’s not a text or TikTok, your teen might not even notice it, right? But they need to start noticing. Help your teen recognize official correspondence from the school or work, actually read it, and pay attention to deadlines.
- How important it is to connect with people and find true friends – Encourage them to get to know a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and to be open to new experiences with the friends they’ll make. Professional networking is an equally valuable skill to harness.
North Carolina College One Of 10 Hardest To Get Into In The Country
1. Harvard University
Harvard University Eliot House across Charles River, in Cambridge, Massachusetts
“What like it’s hard?” Actually Elle Woods it is. Very hard. Harvard, located in Cambridge, MA outside of Boston was ranked the number one most difficult college to get accepted to in the country. Which doesn’t surprise me at all. Looking to get in? The acceptance rate is just 5% of applicants (and let’s be honest only the best of the best are even applying). You’ll need an SAT score between 1460 and 1580 for the best chance. A perfect SAT score is 1600 just FYI. If you do get in tuition is $18,037 per year.
2. Stanford University
Aerial view of Stanford University campus
Coming in at number two is Stanford, I’m not surprised they made the list though how high Stanford ranks is a little unexpected IMO.
Location: Stanford, CA
Acceptance Rate: 5%
SAT Range: 1420-1570
Net Cost: $20,023
3. Princeton University
Number 3 brings us back to the Northeast this time New Jersey.
Location: Princeton, NJ
Acceptance Rate: 6%
SAT Range: 1450-1570
Net Cost: $18,685
5. Yale University
Everyone knows that the only real Ivies are the holy trinity: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton at least according to Blair Waldorf. So it’s fitting that Yale rounds out the top 5.
Location: New Haven, CT
Acceptance Rate: 7%
SAT Range: 1460-1580
Net Cost: $17,511
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
While I’ve been to Cambridge, I don’t think I’m smart enough to live there. Not one, but two of the most elite schools in the country call this Boston suburb home.
Location: Cambridge, MA
Acceptance Rate: 7%
SAT Range: 1510-1580
Net Cost: $19,998
7. University of Chicago
This one stood out to me just because I’m not very familiar with the University of Chicago, but they are in elite company.
Location: Chicago, IL
Acceptance Rate: 7%
SAT Range: 1500-1570
Net Cost: $36,584
8. Columbia University
Another Ivy League school that I would expect to be on this list.
Location: New York, NY
Acceptance Rate: 7%
SAT Range: 1460-1570
Net Cost: $22,126
9. Duke University
North Carolina is represented on this list by none other than Duke University. I knew it was a top school and one of the most difficult to get into, but it’s smack in the middle of some of the most prestigious schools in the country. That’s impressive!
Location: Durham, NC
Acceptance Rate: 8%
SAT Range: 1470-1570
Net Cost: $26,932
10. Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island. City in New England region of the United States. Brown University, Department of Economics.
I’d agree with Serena Vanderwoodsen and put Brown in with the Ivy’s.
Location: Providence, RI
Acceptance Rate: 8%
SAT Range: 1440-1560
Net Cost: $27,659
11. University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1460-1570
Net Cost: $24,167
12. Northwestern University
Campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Location: Evanston, IL
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1430-1550
Net Price: $28,344
13. Dartmouth College
Location: New Hanover, NH
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1440-1560
Net Cost: $24,525
15. Rice University
Location: Houston, TX
Acceptance Rate: 11%
SAT Range: 1460-1570
Net Cost: $19,215
16. Swarthmore College
“Gate of Dean Bond Rose Garden in Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, USA”
Location: Swarthmore, PA
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1360-1510
Net Cost: $20,360
18. Johns Hopkins University
Location: Baltimore, MD
Acceptance Rate: 11%
SAT Range: 1470-1560
Net Cost: $25,241
19. Vanderbilt University
Campus of Vanderbilt Unversity in Nashville, Tennessee.
Location: Nashville, TN
Acceptance Rate: 12%
SAT Range: 1470-1570
Net Price: $25,804
20. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, NY
Acceptance Rate: 11%
SAT Range: 1400-1540
Net Cost: $27,522
23. United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, Maryland, USA town skyline at Chesapeake Bay with the United States Naval Academy Chapel dome.
Location: Annapolis, MD
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1230-1450
Net Cost: N/A
24. United States Military Academy at West Point
Location: West Point, NY
Acceptance Rate: 9%
SAT Range: 1210-1440
Net Cost: N/A
25. Tulane University
Location: New Orlean, LA
Acceptance Rate: 11%
SAT Range: 1340-1500
Net Cost: $47,413
