Parents
One of many milestones in your child’s life will be when they start college. College means making new friends, learning new ways of thinking, and preparing for a career. Your child will go through a transformation as he or she becomes an independent, self-sufficient adult. Sometimes this process can present challenges for the student and the parent.
Southwestern Michigan College has prepared the following Parent’s Resource Guide to help you and your child step into college life.
Introduction to SMC
To Mom and Dad, from John
An Open Letter to Parents by Former SMC Student—John Klapchuk:
In all honesty, Southwestern Michigan College wasn’t my first choice of colleges. However, now that I’m here—and looking back on all my options—I wouldn’t change a thing. SMC is the perfect place for me to be even though I may not have first admitted it.
The hardest thing was that SMC is a community college, and that carries a stigma with it for some reason. Most high school kids think that you only go to a community college if you aren’t smart enough to get into “regular” college. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I graduated in the top five of my class, had high ACT scores, participated in many extracurriculars, and was accepted to every college to which I applied. So why didn’t I go somewhere else?
The deciding factor was money. College is getting very expensive these days and I had to do what was best for me so that I didn’t leave with a mountain of loans to pay off. A lot of my close friends ran into the same situation, so we all went to SMC together.
After I got here and started taking classes, I realized that this really was college and a lot better than I had pre-judged. What makes SMC better, I soon found out, is what I’ll call the atmosphere. I’ve been here for more than a year now and I have never felt as if I were only a number. I know all of my professors, even the President and Vice Presidents, on a first name basis and can talk to them anytime, anywhere. One of my professors even gave our class her home phone number to call if we had trouble while working on homework at night.
The other really great thing about SMC, like I said before, is the price of tuition. I am taking virtually the same first two years of classes that I would have taken at any other college but at a fraction of the price. Actually, SMC recognized my past academic successes and offered me a full-ride scholarship for two years, so I’m going for free. No other college gave me the same offer, and as a result, I have saved myself tens of thousands of dollars.
If I were to give advice to seniors in high school, it would be to not scoff at your local community college. You get a quality education at a very reasonable price along with a staff that cares about your individual success. I am going to college to major in mathematics secondary education, and SMC has started me on my path to successfully reaching that goal. I look forward to transferring to a four-year university after my two years here are finished with a greater sense of maturity and preparedness. If I had to go back, Southwestern Michigan College would have been my first and only choice of college, hands down.