Women of Influence by SheSpeaks

Reality Check: Navigating the New College Landscape for Parents & Students

• Episode 195

Share episode

The college admissions process has changed drastically, and so has the reality of what students face once they’re admitted. In this episode, our guest Jennifer shares her expert insights into the challenges of the modern education landscape, the post-pandemic impact on students, and what parents can do to set their kids up for success—not just in college, but in life. We cover practical strategies, the importance of resilience, and how to embrace a growth mindset to thrive academically and professionally.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why college admissions are more competitive than ever—and how it affects students.
  • How the pandemic has shaped academic readiness and mental health for today’s generation.
  • The crucial skills students need to transition successfully from high school to college.
  • Strategies for managing distractions and building effective study habits.
  • Why failure is essential to growth—and how parents can encourage resilience in their kids.

Links & Resources

Want more from SheSpeaks?

* Sign up for our podcast newsletter HERE! *

  • Connect with us on Instagram, FB & Twitter @shespeaksup
  • Contact us at podcast@shespeaks.com
  • WATCH our podcast on YouTube @SheSpeaksTV
Speaker 1:

For a lot of my parent talks. I really try to focus the parents on things they can do to prepare their children for success once they're in college, because everyone's so worried about getting their kids in and very little thought is given to what happens to these kids once they're there, and that's when the floundering occurs.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the show. Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. It is definitely one of those times of year that I know we are all wanting to enjoy some time off with friends and family. We did our she Speaks survey and that was the number one thing that people told us they wanted this holiday season was to be able to spend some time connecting with friends and families. So today we have our very final episode of 2024, and it's a really fun episode of 2024. And it's a really fun episode If you have a child that may be going off to college soon or you have anyone in your life who is going off to college or in college now recently graduated.

Speaker 2:

This is a really interesting episode we have on Jennifer Gershberg. She is a former professor, a speaker, a course creator. She has such in-depth understanding of what college students are going through and really what the impact was and has been of COVID and not just COVID but also the way that kids have been raised in the last 15, 20 years. She's got some really terrific insights on how that is impacting kids when they get to college and what are some of the pitfalls kids are experiencing when they're in school, how COVID also has impacted that. This is a really interesting conversation. Impacted that this is a really interesting conversation, and Jennifer talks a lot about how she's observed a notable decline in student competencies, meaning their abilities to succeed in the classroom environment, as well as mental health, following the pandemic. So you're going to hear some really interesting insights from Jennifer on that.

Speaker 2:

We talk about what are some tips that parents need to be keeping in mind for how to think about raising their kids so that they are resilient and they are able to succeed in that next step, when they get to the point of going to college. We talk about what are the top skills that parents need to make sure their kids have, and then we also talk about what are some of the things that we are observing with this generation of kids who are finishing college and going out into the workforce. One of the stats that Jennifer shared with me, which I was just blown away, was that six out of nine employers have already fired college grads that graduated from May of 2024. So we're now in December of 24, and these are kids who graduated in May, got jobs, and six out of nine employers say that they have already fired kids that graduated in May of 2024. Now, obviously, there's some economic elements with that, but there's also things related to them being prepared, these kids being prepared for the workforce.

Speaker 2:

So this is a very interesting conversation. I think you'll get a lot out of this chat, hopefully. If you do get some great insights, please feel free to share it with anybody who you know has a kid going to college or getting ready to go to college or kids in college, because that's what Jennifer spends her time doing really helping to advise students and their parents. With that, I'm going to let you hear my terrific conversation with Jennifer. We're going to jump right into it.

Speaker 1:

Jennifer, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

Speaker 2:

Well, I am looking forward to talking with you, as we were just chatting before we started. I have a sophomore now in college and I also have a senior in high school who's about to go off to college next year and I am knee deep in the college experience and I have to say I feel like it's quite different than when I applied to college all those years ago and I feel like it's more. Just the nature of it is so much more stressful because it's so competitive to get into schools these days. So I'm just curious if you could talk a little bit of just like what that experience is Absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

as you said, the landscape has really changed from when you and I both applied. I think it's due to a number of factors that have made the admissions game so much more competitive. First of all, it's much easier for people to apply to schools, so people are, on average, applying to many, many more schools than you and I did.

Speaker 2:

Is that because of the Common App. Is that what they call that?

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's the Common App. It's just really easy. You click another button and you know. Not all schools have separate supplemental essays, so it's not that much more work to apply to more schools. Just the schools are getting bombarded by so many more applications, so the admissions rates necessarily have to become lower. And there is still this test optional landscape. Now Some schools are bringing back the required standardized tests, but many schools are still test optional. And you know the standardized testing can be used as a differentiator because grade inflation in high schools is so very rampant nowadays.

Speaker 2:

This is something also for those listening who don't have kids yet, maybe ready to go to college, or maybe your kids are already out of college. But I've been seeing that kids will be saying, oh, I have a 4.8 GPA and I'm like, wait a second, isn't it out of 4.0?

Speaker 1:

That's part of it. When they have over a 4.0, it's because they have a weighted GPA. So you get more credit for grades in AP and honors classes. That's how you get above a 4.0. But the rate of students getting all as is much higher now than it was in our day and honestly, it's not uncommon at all. It creates a challenge, I think, for colleges to sort of have a basis for comparison among students when so many applicants have perfect grades, and it's not that this generation is so much more gifted than our generation. So when you couple that with the test optional feature, it really becomes more of a crapshoot of who gets in and who doesn't. So in part I blame the pandemic because there was this complete relaxation of standards, I think appropriately to some degree at that time. People were having a really hard time. In many cases they were doing virtual school and no one know, no one's head was really in the game, and so teachers relaxed standards across the board then and it hasn't.

Speaker 1:

Things have not sort of gone back or caught up to where they need to, and the problem with all of this is that students are less prepared for college than they have ever been. There have been numerous studies that have demonstrated this. I observed this myself in my experience as a college professor. Students often go into college with an inflated sense of their academic prowess because they are not used to getting a B. They're not used to being told that anything is less than perfect. It can create a problem for them.

Speaker 1:

A lot of mental health issues come along and they feel inadequate and they feel like they don't belong. They're not used to being told no, and they're not used to being told that there is area for growth and they don't know what to do with that. And that's a huge trend in colleges now and it's deeply concerning. The bottom line is, no matter how old students were at the time of the pandemic, they missed a crucial developmental stage. Whether they're younger and learning basic communication skills, or older and learning more advanced study skills, whatever it is, they're all, by and large, a little more stunted than they would have been had there not been a pandemic. And so I've read sort of guesses, estimates of when things can be expected to go back. I'm not sure they'll ever go back because the world's changed dramatically, but there have been estimates that it will take at least 10 years minimum, and I don't think it's going to go back.

Speaker 2:

And when you say go back, what do you mean? Go back to the academic standards that we had prior to the pandemic.

Speaker 1:

I mean go back to the standards, the skills, the communication skills, all of the things that make students college ready and real world ready. Yeah, well, that I mean that's.

Speaker 2:

that is a really tough pill to swallow, so to speak, obviously for all of I mean, there's obviously so many millions of kids then who are going to be impacted by this. So here's my question how does this affect the workplace?

Speaker 1:

Six out of nine employers have already fired college grads who graduated in May 2004.

Speaker 2:

That sounds huge to me. Is that large compared to?

Speaker 1:

like an average. It's unprecedented. Yes.

Speaker 2:

And that is not related to the economy.

Speaker 1:

The narrative is that the generation of recent college grads is not prepared for the workforce, Just as they're not prepared for college. They go through college and they're emerging largely underprepared for the workforce. They have not developed the professionalism that employers expect. They have a real insistence on sort of their boundaries and boundaries are very important, of course, to well-being. But when you're first starting out you should be thinking about learning as much as you can learn and contributing as much as you can and building your network and building relationships and sort of throwing yourself in. The narrative, for this generation has not been aligned with that by and large, and of course I have to say there are exceptions everywhere. Right, I'm saying, but I it's a real trend and it's what employers are noticing To your point.

Speaker 2:

this is affecting many different areas of our like economy, our ecosystem of hospitals I'm sure the police force, like I'm sure it's everywhere. Hospitals, I'm sure the police force, like I'm sure it's everywhere. So you've talked also about the mental health load and the impact there and you have this approach of thinking about. You know, helping students with nurturing, but tough. Can you talk a little bit about what that approach?

Speaker 1:

is little bit about what that approach is. I think it is fundamentally insulting to students and to employees and to people in general to not expect a lot of them. As a professor, I was sort of known as being demanding but very committed to my students' success. My students all knew this. I fundamentally respected their intellect and I knew they could do better and I pushed them to do better, and I think it's very important that students be empowered to do better. So I take mental health very seriously. I think so many students I mean.

Speaker 1:

It's without question this has been established in study after study the mental health landscape on college campuses is terrible. There's so much anxiety and depression and so much of that, I believe, is skills driven. They don't have the competencies and the skills that they need to know they can rely on themselves to do hard things and to get through hard times and to be resourceful and resilient. And so that's really why I'm so passionate about my work, because I want to help empower students with the skills they need for success and they feel better and more confident as a result. And that's like, uniformly, the feedback I get from students.

Speaker 1:

For a lot of my parent talks. I really try to focus the parents on things they can do to prepare their children for success once they're in college, because everyone's so worried about getting their kids in and very little thought is given to what happens to these kids once they're there, and that's when the floundering occurs. There are things parents can do from the time their kids are in really any age but I tend to focus on high school and college and beyond any age, but I tend to focus on high school and college and beyond to help empower their children to be successful and to develop their own agency and skills.

Speaker 2:

If you had to give a top piece of advice to parents who have kids that are kind of in that phase. What would be the number one thing you would tell them?

Speaker 1:

So the first is to teach them how to, to allow them and teach them how to self-advocate, and what I mean by this is not asking for special favors. This drives teachers everywhere crazy and professors really crazy in college when students come and ask for special treatment and do-overs and I don't mean that email to the teacher and asking for specific help and asking specific questions, sort of helping them learn and scaffolding those communications and sort of pushing more and more on them as they are able. Once you've taught them the skills I think is really invaluable. So that's number one. Number two, from a purely skills perspective, I do think parents should take a little more active involvement, at least in the beginning, teaching their kids proper time management and organization.

Speaker 1:

Because let me tell you, one of the biggest problems college students face when they arrive at college is they have suddenly all this unstructured quote, unquote free time. They could have like six hours one day with no class. So you know, it's important that they organize their time properly and structure their schedules, and far too many don't they sort of like waste the day on TikTok or hanging out and doing nothing, and then they're up all night and not studying the right way and it's a bit of a disaster. So I think, at least in the beginning, until the students develop good study and time management habits, for parents to help them write out a schedule, help them organize their time. There are certain ways to organize your time that will lead to the most efficient, best results. So teaching them those skills when they're in the sort of structured setting of high school so that they can hit the ground running when they get to college.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean that is really great advice because, if I think about even the skills that you need in a job as an adult, it's self-advocacy and in a smart way. Do you have any tips for parents, or well, parents who are trying to help their kids, but for students, about how to manage distractions? Very much so.

Speaker 1:

Yes, the first biggest thing is the do not disturb feature on the phone. Oh yes, so this is huge. The phones are truly. I mean, they just derail every effort people make to be productive. And you know, mature adults included, we're all addicted in different ways.

Speaker 1:

But for students it's really tough because you know they're not able to focus in their studying. Studying takes so much longer than it needs to and they don't get as much out of it. And the research is very clear that the best, most efficient, effective way to study is to do focused, scheduled spurts punctuated by brief breaks. So I always tell students when I'm giving talks to them you want to set your timer on your phone and do like 45 minutes of focused, uninterrupted work, deep work, deep thinking, followed by a 10 minute break where you can check your phone and then go back and you know. An added advantage of this is students are practicing, not thinking about or looking at their phones for a period of time, and it's very uncomfortable for them at first, but they learn that the world keeps spinning and they learn that they actually haven't missed out on anything.

Speaker 1:

It all comes down to discipline and habits and creating the habits you want. We can all create whatever habits we want. One of my favorite books is Atomic Habits. Have you read that book? Everyone's read that book. It's the best ever. I highly recommend it to everyone. It's so compelling because really you can undo habits and you can create habits, and it's so empowering to realize this and to realize that, even though it might be hard, if you do the things, you can do it, and it's empowering. I talk so much with students about how to create, what habits to create and how to do it, and that you know. I mentioned discipline because I think motivation in general is totally overblown. We're all human and our motivation waxes and wanes. With the wind 100% Right, it's not reliable. Mm-hmm. With the wind 100% Right, it's not reliable. And so motivation should have very little to do with how we live our lives. It's really about discipline and about having a clear sense of what you want to accomplish and a plan to do it.

Speaker 2:

And going back to what we said earlier I know we mentioned this idea of personal agency just how gratifying and important it is to show yourself that you can do hard things, that you can do something that you didn't think you could do there is it's unbelievable how those things stay with us. So I think about, like college age kids, how incredibly gratifying it is to push yourself to try something, to do something that you don't think you can do, and accomplish it. Start with something small that you don't think you can do and try it. That's right, and you know it's unbelievably gratifying to see you know the the payoff of doing those things.

Speaker 1:

I mean, that is one thing that really leads to authentic confidence, and that's why I always urge people to just do do the things. Yeah, don't over complicate it, just do it. And there are ways to set yourself up for success, so you will do it. And there are ways to set yourself up for success, so you will do it, yeah. So it's about sort of creating the right systems.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I think it's I also find that there are people who don't feel good about necessarily trying things because they're afraid of failure. You can't fear the failure because if you don't even try, you've failed that thing right, because you haven't tried.

Speaker 1:

Right. This comes down to the whole growth mindset versus fixed mindset approach. Growth mindset means you look at failure as a learning opportunity and you're not afraid of it. You learn more from failure than you learn from success. Like failure is okay, you just don't want to waste it by not learning from it. So people with a growth mindset, who have far lower rates of depression and anxiety because they're not afraid to fail, understand the value of failure and of making mistakes and of being human and just look at that as part of their journey. I mean, no one likes to fail. People who accept failure as part of their journey are much better off and they will reach more success.

Speaker 2:

Well, and going back to what we were talking about earlier too, for what parents can do for their kids, I think instilling in your kids this notion that it's okay to fail, you gave it a shot. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out the best case you win, worst case, you learn something from it. Well, exactly To your point, like, actually think about it and learn something from it.

Speaker 1:

Right. And that's another danger of solving all your kids' problems for them, because you're sort of telling them it's not okay to fail and that you're not willing to risk their failure because it's worse to fail than to have them try on their own. Oh, my God, that is such great insight.

Speaker 2:

Well, jennifer, thank you so much. If people want to follow you, I mean you have so much great advice, you have so such great insight. Well, jennifer, thank you so much. If people want to follow you I mean you have so much great advice, you have so much great insight what is the best way for them to find you and follow you?

Speaker 1:

They can look at my website, which is jgtalksorg. I'm pretty active on Instagram as well. I give a lot of tips and advice there and the Instagram handle is at jgtalksorg. And then I have a course as well, an online course that is available through my website. It is really intended for any recent college grads who are starting college. It's a Welcome to college bootcamp and I break down all of the best tips for studying time management and college how to connect and get to know your professors and develop your network and overcome test anxiety and all the things that I've watched in my career sort of derail students. So I have it all in that course as well, which they can get.

Speaker 2:

Jennifer, thank you so much for spending time with us today. No-transcript.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Aliza Freud

Host