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Is your child academically ready to tackle on college? Even if your child is not completely ready academically, most universities offer non-credit remedial courses to help get your child to the level necessary for credit courses; however, you are paying for those remedial courses as if they were for credits toward a degree.
Every college is a little different. Generally speaking, most regionally accredited universities that are not considered ivy-league status require similar skills for successful students.
The main skills your child needs for college is grammar, writing, research, and reading. If your child can excel in those categories, the rest can be learned.
Some professors throw away college papers after x amount of grammatical errors, but most are aware that grammar has morphed into a creative process; however, if your child’s idea of a complete sentence is, “Although he will LOL when he sees that. SMH,” then your child is going to struggle in English Comp 1.
Students write everywhere in college, and if they aren’t writing, they are speaking. Content is most important, and critical thinking skills play an important role in content. Your child should be very familiar with literary devices used in literature as they will be using those in their writing.
One time waster many students struggle with is citation of sources. Google is an easy task for many children presently; however, properly citing where they got their information is not. They need to have a good understanding of MLA and APA format, with the focus based on their career choice.
College requires a lot of reading. It helps to really focus on main ideas and supporting details within a paragraph, and to use headings in note taking. Sometimes a study skills course can benefit even the smartest students.
