6 Important Life Skills Teens Learn Through Applying to Colleges

Last Updated on July 8, 2024 by Jill Schwitzgebel

It’s fall of your teen’s senior year of high school. They are busy. They are stressed. They are up late at night doing homework and working on their college essays. As a parent, you want to help, but feel like there is not much you can do. So, to relieve some of the burden, maybe you decide to take over some of the “smaller” details of college applications. Please don’t. There are so many important skills that they can learn through applying to colleges!

I am not suggesting that they have to do all of this completely independently. In fact, I don’t recommend that at all. I think for much of this, teens will benefit greatly from adult guidance.  And there are plenty of opportunities for you to help.  I’ve seen it happen, but it’s a rare teen who is ready to take on all of this without some support. It may take more time, but I promise, it will be worth your while.

Research

I’m not talking about the range of research that your family did together as your student compiled their application list. I think it’s important that’s at least somewhat of a group or family effort.

But, I’m referring to the “next phase” of research that students need to do when it’s time to actually complete their applications. For instance, researching to find out whether the colleges that they are applying to accept the Common App or whether they have an Early Action option. Learning to find and pay attention to this kind of detail will benefit them when their syllabus is online next year, or when they’re at their first internship reviewing information from their supervisor. Resist the urge to just do this for them.

Completing a Form

As a parent, you’ve likely completed hundreds of forms on behalf of your child. It’s their turn now! And once they learn this skill, the next part of your life can begin. But, since our teens haven’t filled out many (or any) applications in their lives, they may need some coaching as they complete the basic background information on their college applications.

You may be amazed at what they don’t know. Just yesterday, I read on Grown and Flown, about a student signing up for the PSAT whose parents were college professors holding PhDs…but their daughter didn’t know whether they had graduated from college!

Teens will learn that applications require knowing lots of details that they may not have paid much attention to previously. They need to learn how to find the information needed and understand what the question is actually asking. You’ve been doing this for them for a long time – it’s their turn now.

Management Skills

College application time might be the first time that the stakes are high for meeting deadlines and time management skills. While a teacher may accept an assignment a day late with a point deduction, it’s rare that a college will accept an application after their deadline. Hopefully, your student has been building those time management skills in preparation for this.

There are many aspects to this. There is the obvious one – the contents of the application have to be completed on time, including the essay and any supplements. Obviously, they need to complete the ones with the earliest deadlines first.

Additionally, students will also need to keep track of whether their teachers have sent their recommendations and they will need to be certain that they request that the guidance office send their transcripts to colleges in enough time to meet their deadline. Tracking the various parts of the application, and in some cases, having to remind an adult to complete a task, will likely be new to them.

How to Write a Resumé

Many colleges will request that students submit a resumé with their application. Or sometimes, a teacher will ask for one prior to writing a recommendation for a student.

Resumés can be challenging for adults to create, so imagine how lost students might be. It might be easier for you to find a template and just fill in your teen’s information, but writing an effective resumé is a life skill that teens need to learn.

Professional Communication Skills

This might be one of the most important skills that students can gain from this process. Like the resumé, it might be appropriate for you to give them a little bit of guidance here. But please, at this point, remember that you should not be completing any of this FOR them!

To complete the application process, teens will need to talk with their teachers and/or other adults to request recommendations. Believe it or not, it won’t always be obvious to them how or when they should go about asking. For instance, if a student doesn’t have much time between classes, they may have difficulty staying after class to talk with the teacher to ask or maybe they are asking someone that they don’t get a chance to see often.

In that case, it makes sense that it might be easiest to ask them via email. But, they should not just type, “Hey Teacher, could you write me a college recommendation letter?” Remind them that when you’re asking someone for a favor it’s helpful to lead up to it and sincerely thank them for their effort – and that they need to give them details about what is needed to submit the recommendation. Teens are used to texting and social media, but this needs to be written in a more professional manner. They may need some guidance about what that looks like.

They will also need to request a recommendation from their school counselor. Often, the school has a procedure in place to do that, whether it’s signing up for a time slot to see their counselor, or completing a form online. If not, students need to find a time to stop into their guidance office to ask in person (preferable) or send them an email, as well.

At some point in the process, they will also need to request that the guidance office send their official transcript. Again, there is likely a procedure for this. If they’re not sure what it is, they will need to ask and follow that procedure.

Finally, once they have it all completed, it’s a really nice touch to go back and thank all of the people that assisted them, in writing.

All of the above are important communication skills students will need to have in their college and professional lives. For many teens, this will be their first time navigating these kinds of situations. It definitely won’t be the last. If you google “how to email a professor,” you will quickly discover that many professors are not impressed with their students’ email skills and they wish that students had more practice with these types of emails, prior to arriving at college.

Decision Making

For some students, it took a lot of decision-making just to decide which colleges to apply to. But in the spring, they face one of the biggest decisions they’ve ever had to make – where they want to attend. In my experience, most seniors do a really admirable job of making their final college decision after they have received their acceptances. In fact, I am sometimes impressed by the amount of maturity they show.

To make this choice, they’ve got to balance the many pros and cons of various colleges. This usually involves considering some financial factors, as well. They may choose to seek input from adults they trust. But ultimately, when given all of the information, most teens are able to make a really thoughtful final choice.