Are you a Christian parent freaking out over how your kids will do in college?

Nearly two million students enroll at American colleges and universities each year, but about 30% drop out after their freshman year. Only half of students who enter college in the US finish their degrees. Others are ready to switch majors or hunker down with their teddy bears. As the Cs and Ds pile up, they wonder what went wrong. What happened to that warm, fuzzy feeling that college was supposed to be some of the best years of your life? The statistics are sobering:

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• Only about 40% of high school seniors graduate with the skills they need for college.

• Only about 20% of college students enter with the basic quantitative skills necessary to compare ticket prices or calculate the cost of food.

• The four-year graduation rate for students attending public colleges and universities is currently 33%. The six-year rate is 58%.

• More than 80% of college students currently feel overwhelmed, and 40% have felt so depressed it was difficult for them to function.

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And Christian students aren’t immune. They should be our best college students, but many are falling prey to the same forces that derail secular students. Students across America have learned that the transition from high school to college is one of the toughest assignments they’ve ever received—and for a Christian student, achieving success in a secular university is even harder. What’s a parent to do?

In this book, we give parents the straight scoop on how to prepare your kids for college by offering an unvarnished view from the professor’s side of the lecture table. Far more Christian students end up at secular colleges and universities than Christian colleges, yet there are few resources to help parents. We’ll show you what to do, what to avoid, what critical information you need, and what battles to fight. We’ll offer tons of talking points to share with your kids. You’ll overhear dozens of conversations I’ve had with students regarding the difficulties they’ve had—and how to conquer them. Best of all, we’ll save you sleep, frustration, money, heartaches, pints of Baskin-Robbins double chocolate, and hours of watching the Hallmark Channel to chill out.

To Christian parents who are lost and need straight talk to save your child from falling off the wagon in college, some of the topics:

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• A "coming to truth" moment for parents who think their kids walk on water.

• Who are these aliens we call our kids?

• Is it wise to send my kids to a secular university?

• "Of course he knows how to study; he's been in school like fourteen years"—not!

• The dirty-dozen rookie mistakes made by college students, and how to avoid them.

• What machine cranks out college professors? Who are you nerds, anyway?

• Effects of culture, screen time, partying, anxiety, depression, and dorm life.

• Is my Christian kid predestined to turn his back on Christianity at a secular university?

 

A secondary audience for the book includes ministers, educators, and a host of affinity groups who care about education. We seek to help:

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• Secondary teachers who seek to prepare their students for college.

• Youth ministers and pastors who deal with teenagers.

• Employers trying to understand today's new college graduates. Trust me—they don't.

 

It’s best to hear about what’s going on in colleges from the candid mouth of someone who has spent nearly his entire life there. Avoiding a Parental Freak-Out offers tools to help Christian parents guide your kids through the murky waters of college.