College Savings Going Down the Drain?
Tired of nagging your college student throughout the semester and then having your worst fears realized when grades come out?
Have that pit-in-your-stomach feel when you read the academic probation letter?
Staying awake at night worried about what happens to all those years of careful college savings if your student drops out, or worse, flunks out?
You’re not alone.
25% of college students won’t return to school after their freshman year. Even scarier, 46% of college students today will not graduate in six years, according to The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Not exactly the picture most of us are planning as we set aside funds each month for the college savings account.
As parents, we worry about the money invested in a student’s education, sure. But even more worrisome is the picture we’re forced to consider if our student is struggling (and failing) to meet the academic and social challenges at college.
While colleges and universities are making strides in increasing retention rates and offering support for special needs students, the honest truth is that, for most at-risk students, the efforts just aren’t enough to make a difference in their success toward graduation.
What happens to the college drop outs?
If your student fails after four or six years of struggling at college, what will his/her future look like?
At The Being Well Center, we’ve helped guide students from an uncertain future to a self-assured, confident success. We’ve seen a pronounced increase in college students seeking personalized success plans for navigating the challenges of higher education. These are students who want to picture a cap and gown in their future. These are parents who want to protect their financial and familial investments. These are families who are admitting they can’t face one more battle over getting to class on time or turning in term papers or failing tests or making poor decisions to party away the week.
81% of students enrolled in the Being Well Center’s Confidence@College program are on track to graduate; many in four years rather than six, which has now become the norm. The confidence boost in these student’s lives has been marked. The relaxed smiles on parents during consultation sessions say it all: college success can be achievable for ADD and ADHD students, as well as, those with learning, language or emotional differences.
But many times, success needs a partner. A partner that can teach self-advocacy skills and be there to catch your student when a stumble happens. A partner to be by your side as you cheer from the stands on graduation day. The Being Well Center has designed Confidence@College to be that good roommate in your student’s college life.
What Works for College Success: We get to know the Whole Person first.
In our Confidence@College program, we always start by looking at The Whole Person first. We accomplish this by surveying the individual’s TRANSACT Profile either through a screening tool or more extensive questionnaire. TRANSACT is an acronym we use to summarize the key factors within the individual and his/her environment that interact with each to lead to success or failure.
This is the first in a series of 8 blogs that are presented to illustrate how unique aspects of a student’s TRANSACT Profile can serve as barriers to success at college. We have selected one example for each of the TRANSACT factors. We have tried to pick examples that might not be obvious at first blush but help illustrate the importance of systematically looking at The Whole Person when trying to identify at-risk students or figuring out why things went wrong. Our screeners and questionnaires take a comprehensive look at all the possible contributors for each TRANSACT factor.
Get started with our first screener today. We’re sharing our clinical questionnaire, “Am I Ready for College.” It’s free to download, so don’t waste another minute! Share it with all your friends–our questionnaire can help anyone. Call us today to find out more about how Confidence@College can help you: 724.443.4120
The Being Well Center 