College: How to Entice a Teen

Help cast the vision for college, even if your kid is reluctant to go

UCLA, my alma mater, always looking beautiful

Sometimes homeschooling parents tell me their kids just weren’t “college material” or that their kids haven’t shown an interest in academics, so why go to college?

Other parents tell me that they know they want their kids to attend college, but their children are just not interested.

And then there’s this much smaller batch of homeschoolers who tell me that their daughters aren’t meant for college (or even high school!) but that’s not who this post is for. We’ll deal with that in a later Substack (wink).

Why consider college

A good question. With the massive amount of debt that college can create, why even bother? Can’t our homeschoolers self-teach and find careers without it? The answer is yes: for some fields. It matters to know which ones. Computer programming doesn’t always require a college degree. Graphic design may only need art or design school. Working as an entrepreneur may mean you can skip college.

Should we funnel our homeschooled kids to careers that bypass the assumption of college?

I suggest to you, my friend, that you should not bypass college. (Wait, what? Julie is taking an open stand?) Indeed, I am.

I’d like to make the case for college—even if the career your child eventually chooses wouldn’t require it.

University/college offers homeschooled kids something they haven’t had at all or much of: school.

I know, I know. Aren’t we all suspicious of school—that educational straight jacket? We don’t like grades. We don’t like agendas. We don’t like the social bullying.

But we’re talking about college now, not high school. College is different.

Going to college gives homeschoolers advantages that turn out to be pretty key in many of their lives (they’ve reported back to me).

In the rest of this article, I’ll give you reasons to send your kids to college and then some suggestions for how to incentivize them to want to prepare and go!

Why go?

Listen, I know it’s expensive. I know you may wish that college was not necessary for a great career. I have to tell you: so many of today’s jobs require it the way the high school diploma used to be the ticket to employment.

In fact what I’d say is this: it’s better to assume your child should go to college and then, if you decide against it later it’s because you gave going to college a “good college try.” (Rim shot!)

So why go? Because it’s: