The Keys to a Great College Fit by Keith Frome, Ed. D - Executive Director, The Park School of Buffalo Foundation When students ask if I will help them get into college, I tell them I’m not interested in getting anyone into college, but I’d love to help them get out of college. In other words, college is particularly valuable if you actually graduate. People with a bachelor’s degree tend to enjoy significantly higher earnings; live longer, healthier lives; and are more engaged in satisfying, civic pursuits than those who do not complete college. The life span gap between college graduates and those with only a high school diploma is striking: college graduates live an average of 11 years longer. These benefits accrue, though, only if students finish their college degree. This is why, when students apply to college, it is essential that they find what college counselors call a school that is a “good fit.” But what does “fit” mean? How can you know if a school “fits” you when you can’t try it on before making a substantial commitment to attend? A good-fit college provides five crucial benefits: SKILLS: It teaches the essential hard and soft skills the student will need to succeed in their career. Hard skills include those specific to a profession. With rapid advances in technology and artificial intelligence, necessary hard skills are a moving target and constantly evolving. Soft skills - like the ability to communicate, write, work in a team, and imagine and plan for a set of scenarios - are necessary for all jobs and careers. Many are now arguing that these soft skills will become paramount in an age in which artificial intelligence dominates the marketplace. NETWORK: It provides a network of peers and professors who will cheer them on and support them long after they receive their diploma. This network will also, over the course of a graduate’s lifetime, connect them to employment and other professional opportunities. It is estimated that 80% of job openings are not advertised, so they will need a community of friends and believers who will connect them to these invisible circuits of opportunity. COMMUNITY: It is a place where they will be, for the most part, happy and proud to attend and represent while they are studying for their degree and long afterwards. INSPIRATION: It is a school that will transform the ways that they think and solve problems; it will deepen their understanding of the way the world works; it will broaden and deepen their background knowledge; and it will provide them with the texts and ideas to help them make and find meaning in their life. AFFORDABLE: It is a school that will work with their family to ensure that they have the financial support to pay for all four years (not just the first year), and where they will not graduate with a crippling debt load. Finding a school that will provide these five gifts is not easy. Except for the rare few, most students need at least one “knowledgeable nurturer and nudger,” or a KNN. A KNN will provide administrative support by keeping them on track Members of our Class of 2025 sporting their chosen colleges! Director of College and Life Counseling Julianne Lewis walks seniors through the application process 25 “To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.”- John Dewey, Democracy and Education
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTcyNDA=