<p>While I'm not a parent, I have just been through the college admissions process and was accepted EA to my first-choice school. I found this article to be particularly interesting - it was written with high school students in mind. It is a long read and does start out a little slow, but it gets better and is definitely worth the time.</p>
<p>Apologies if this was already posted somewhere else - thanks.</p>
<p>OMG - That article is EXACTLY what I've been saying to my son: You don't have to know exactly where you're going, but do things that keep as many options open to you as possible. Try not to make decisions that close doors to you in the future. For example, why would anyone going into a film program be taking AP Calc and AP Physics in his/her senior year in high school? TO KEEP FUTURE OPTIONS OPEN! My son has changed his proposed major several times in high school, and two of the options would have involved a lot of math. If he gets into the program he wants (now) and decides later that he wants to revert back to physics or computer science, HE CAN DO THAT!!</p>
<p>Sorry for the yelling (CAPS), but I couldn't believe how much that article captured my own thinking. Hey, all CCers: read this!</p>
<p>LAS, thanks so much for that link to Paul Grahams "What You'll Wish You'd Known" - I'm going to give it to my daughter. </p>
<p>Graham nails it when he writes: "...When a friend of mine used to grumble because he had to write a paper for school, his mother would tell him: find a way to make it interesting. That's what you need to do: find a question that makes the world interesting. People who do great things look at the same world everyone else does, but notice some odd detail that's compellingly mysterious...</p>
<p>...The important thing is to get out there and do stuff. Instead of waiting to be taught, go out and learn...</p>
<p>...Your life doesn't have to be shaped by admissions officers. It could be shaped by your own curiosity. It is for all ambitious adults. And you don't have to wait to start. In fact, you don't have to wait to be an adult. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age...</p>
<p>...The only real difference between adults and high school kids is that adults realize they need to get things done, and high school kids don't. That realization hits most people around 23. But I'm letting you in on the secret early. So get to work. Maybe you can be the first generation whose greatest regret from high school isn't how much time you wasted..."</p>
<p>I wish he'd spoken at my graduation from middle school, but I don't think he was old enough back then. ;-)</p>
<p>Seriously - I found this to be a very refreshing piece and really appreciate your posting about it. Graham's insights and advice hold true for all of us.</p>
<p>A parent in my local homeschooling support group recommended another of Paul Graham's articles to all of us to read a year or two ago. He is an interesting thinker on education.</p>
<p>I too bookmarked the essay and will print it for my son. I've found that sending him messages with a link to what I want him to see doesn't work.</p>
<p>Super article. Thanks. What excited me most about it--and my son, who has just read it--was that he has come to many of these ideas on his own in the last year or so.</p>
<p>LSA, just wanted to give a follow-up and thank digmedia for his suggestion of printing out Graham's essay: I gave it to my daughter yesterday afternoon and later that night as she lay reading it in bed she confided to me that "This is exactly the way I think!" Gave it to my husband to read this morning and he, too, thought it was excellent.</p>
<p>Again, thanks so much for posting this! I think I may pass around a copy to one or two other people I know.</p>