Parenting

My son, who is 17, applied for college last fall, actually, he applied to five colleges. He got into three of them right away and was wait listed for his first choice. He found out a month ago that he didn't get into his first choice, so he opted for his second choice, the only problem is, because he waited to accept the spot, he got wait listed for residence.

We were notified today that in all probability, he is not going to get into residence and we should start looking for something off campus. He will be attending a school a little more than an hour from our home, it's in a town that we are not familiar with and he doesn't know anyone else going to that school. I can't imagine trying to find him a room either by himself or with a group of students (probably not first year students) that met each other while attending school in residence. It means no meal plan, relying on public transportation to get to class, things that I know he is going to struggle with. He's a great son, but he's very quiet and would be lost in this environment. And he's been stressing about it. Every day for the past month he checks his e-mail, hoping to see that his residence request has been approved and he's becoming more and more anxious.

My husband and I made a decision for him. He will not be going away to school in the fall, we both know he's not ready for it. I thought today was going to be a hard day, to try and explain to him that he'll have to apply again, either go back to secondary school for another term or maybe find some classes he can attend at a college here on a part-time basis. But it wasn't hard to explain to him once we started, he's actually happy he's not going, he's feeling relieved. I just wish I could recover from this as fast as he did, but I guess all of this only confirms that we did make the right decision. I hope.