Monday, January 22, 2007

Getting my Sophomore Focused on College

I don't have any answers or advice today...just questions.

The main one is how to get a reluctant sophomore (most importantly my own) to focus on and get more serious about the college admissions process? We're now halfway through the sophomore year and his dad is starting to feel some time pressure. But he isn't. I ran into a neighborhood dad whose son is also a sophomore and he's struggling with the same question.

Fortunately my son Greg is taking challenging classes and making good grades. The challenge I'm finding is re-allocating his free time away from computer games to meaningful extracurricular activities. We've discussed the importance of this several times. His ever helpful dad has even provided a number of great suggestions. But so far, nothing. My neighbor is in a slightly worse spot. His son, who's very smart, is having trouble with both grades and extracurriculars.

I haven't had a chance yet to research this. But when I do, my specific questions will be:
- is this normal? are (most) sophomores too focused on today, and not enough on tomorrow?
- is there a time when the focus shifts? when?
- what should parents do? what's the right amount of pushing and what's too much?

I'll be looking for answers in the coming weeks and will post what I find.




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