U N I V E R S I T Y U N D E R G R A D
s p e c i A l F e A t u r e
The Undergrad
Experience
Things to consider in helping your ospring
choose the right university and program
S
o, your kid has excelled in high
school and is about to apply to
university. Congratulations! This is
the most denitive transition into
adulthood that can happen, and
likely the rst time your ospring is
truly seeing the world as his/her oyster.
But while many parents take pride in
their children preparing to become
undergraduates, they are also lled with
trepidation—and not just because of the
cost of tuition. Worrying over which
institution is the right "t," or how well
their kid will fare if he/she doesn't have a
clear career path, or no longer being able
to exert daily parental supervision are all
sure-re ways to lose sleep.
Nobody appreciates this more than
Chris McLeod. He is the director of
communications and community
engagement at Athabasca University—and
a parent well acquainted with sleepless
nights, having gone through the tribula-
tions of helping one son dive into the
world of higher learning and currently
coming to grips with the fact his 16-year-
old will soon embark on the same
journey.
PHOTO:
iSTOCK
Give Them Space
McLeod has many practical tips for
parents in his shoes, but he stresses they
must all be underscored by a mindset
that may take eort to adopt. "This is
precisely the time when you need to step
back and give your kids space, not only so
they can make their own decisions but
mistakes as well," he says. "For them to
succeed they have to follow their dreams,
not yours."
He adds that this is tough to do in light
of the fact that "the transition from high
school to university can be severe,
because students go from a place in
which they have been totally supervised
and expected to simply regurgitate
information, to an environment in which
they're expected to take responsibility for
learning what the information means."
Peter Tingling agrees. "I've had a front
row seat to these problems because I have
four kids of my own," says the associate
continued on pg. 54
