Research + News

12 Ways To Prepare For Your Freshman Year Of College

Students should follow these steps so they’re ready when classes begin. Read the article here.

Pandemic ‘Silver Lining:’ Better Sleep For Some

The COVID-19 pandemic may be stressing out most people, but it has had a surprising upside for college students: They’re sleeping better. Read the article here.

Dozens Of Christian College Faculty Eliminated In Spring Budget Cuts

Gen Z Career Futures

The pandemic has thrown gen Z dreams and ambitions up in the air as economies shrink and the world becomes a more dangerous place. Read the article here.

The College Experience This Fall: What To Expect

Students should anticipate taking some classes online and complying with coronavirus prevention guidelines. Read the article here.

In Person, Online Classes Or A Mix: Colleges’ Fall 2020 Coronavirus Reopening Plans, Detailed

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is tracking more than 860 institutions’ plans, two-thirds of colleges are planning to welcome back students in person, while only 7% are planning to hold classes only online. Read the article here.

Facing A Broken Mental Health System, Many U.S. Teens Fall Off A Dangerous ‘Cliff’ In Their Care

An 18th birthday is what some mental health providers know, anecdotally, as “the cliff,” the cutoff at which teens with mental health conditions are flung into adulthood, often without any preparation for the challenges to care ahead. Read the article here.

Video Games May Sabotage Fitness Among College Students

Video games often stand in the way of exercise and healthy eating among male college students, a new study shows. Read the article here.

Dear Youth Minister Of A COVID-19 Senior

Chelsea Kingston Erickson blogs about our graduating seniors for the Rooted Ministry blog. Read her helpful post to youth workers here.

How To Help A Student Who Just Lost Their Senior Year

Tim Elmore blogs from the Growing Leaders website about helping those graduating in this pandemic. Read the post here.

Will Students Show Up For College In Fall 2020? Community Colleges Offer A Hint. It Isn’t Pretty

Ask a community college president about what school will look like in the fall and be prepared for an eye roll, lots of shrugging and even a baffled look or two. Read the article here.

Reinventing Graduation: 3 Ways To Honor Milestones In The Midst Of Pandemic

This year, seniors wait in anticipation not of walking across the platform in cap and gown, but of news about what, if any, replacements will be arranged for this important rite of passage. Read the blog post from Fuller Youth Institute here.

The Big Question For Colleges: Will There Be A Fall Semester On Campus?

With Senior Year Is Disarray, Teens And Young Adults Feel Lost. Here’s How To Help

For many young people sheltering at home means missing milestones and public recognition of their achievements. This is especially true for seniors graduating from high school and college. Read the article here.

The Pressures Of A 2020 College Graduate

You had it all planned out. Then, this virus came along and changed everything. Read the article here.

College Students Feeling The Strain Of Social Distancing

The lives of college students have been turned upside down due to the coronavirus pandemic, so an expert offers some advice to help them cope with the situation. Read the article here.

‘I’m In High School Again’: Virus Sends College Students Home To Parents, And Their Rules

Their college campuses closed, crestfallen students have journeyed back to their childhood bedrooms — and to chores, revived sibling rivalries and curfews. Read the article here.

A Pandemic Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Neuroscientists tell us that it’s during times of boredom our brains develop empathy and creativity. Read the Growing Leaders blog post from Tim Elmore urging us to take advantage of the time we have during this pandemic.

US Colleges Scrambled To React To The Coronavirus Pandemic. Now Their Very Existence Is In Jeopardy

In the span of roughly two weeks, the American higher education system has transformed. Its future is increasingly uncertain. Read the article here.

College Students Can Eliminate Stress By Spending Just 10 Minutes Outdoors

Recent research shows that spending as little as 10 minutes in a natural setting can help relieve students of their college stress. Read the article here.

Many Children, Teens Suffer From ‘Test Stress,’ Psychologists Say

It’s that time of year when students of all ages face finals, standardized testing and college entrance exams. Read the article here.

High School GPAs Are Stronger Predictors Of College Graduation Than ACT Scores

Students’ high school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation. Read the article here.

The Grim Reality Of Millennials Who Rely On Their Parents For Money

Despite a decade-long expansion and record-low unemployment, studies suggest that between 60% and 70% of 18- to 34-year-olds rely on their parents for financial assistance. Read the article here.

College Students Picking Pot Over Drinking In States Where It’s Legal

In states where pot is legal, college kids use it more, but binge-drink less. Read the article here.

Too Many Teens Aspire To Be Teachers And Lawyers

Doctors, teachers, lawyers and architects continue to dominate among the top career goals for the majority of high school students. Read the article here.

I Killed My Teenager’s Fancy College Dreams. You Should, Too.

Forty-five million Americans owe a collective $1.6 trillion in student debt. One columnist describes why her daughter won’t be one of them. Read the article here.

Teenagers Don’t Use E-mail – Colleges Do. That’s A Problem During College Admissions Season

Email is not the default for most teenagers, but it remains the primary avenue for colleges to communicate with prospective and current students. Read the article here.

Concussions Strike College Students Far More Often Than Thought

On college campuses in the United States, students suffer concussions twice as often as believed, and most of those injuries occur off the playing field. Read the full article here.

Help Teens Plan For Life After High School

New Year’s resolutions aren’t only for adults. You can help your teen organize life after high school by getting them to plan now. Watch the video here.

More Testing Means More Stress For Teens – And There’s No Solution In Sight

tudents today face mounting pressure not just to get into college, but to figure out how to pay for an increasingly unaffordable education by working or by setting themselves so far apart from their peers that they’re awarded scholarships. Read the article here.

Final Exams, College Essays, Family Pressures: Here Are 6 Ways To Help Your Teen Manage Stress

Helicopter Parenting Impact Can Last As Long As College Years

A new Florida State University (FSU) study finds helicopter parenting continues well into young adulthood and can have devastating impacts on college students. Read the article here.

Why Colleges Should Not Drift From Their Original Mission

Tim Elmore blogs on an evolution taking place on college campuses. Read his post here.

College Major Regrets… And What To Consider Instead

The most-regretted college majors, according to ZipRecruiter’s College Grads Survey. Read the article here.

How To Get Teens To Fly The Nest And Prepare Them For The Real World

Record numbers of young adults in their twenties and thirties are still living at home, official figures reveal. Read the article here.

College Students Say Ditching Their Smartphones For A Week Changed Their Lives

College students went one week without their smartphones. Read the article here.

What I Did Right – And Wrong – In My Son’s First Month At College

Kara Powell shares some of her parenting errors to help parents avoid 3 mistakes she made during her son’s first month in college. Read her blog post here.

Tips To Sleep In College Dorms

The statistics about college students’ sleep are grim. Read some help tips here.

Farewell, Valedictorian?

Should high school students be competing for the highest grades? Read the article here.

College Quest: Teens Go To Great Lengths To Find Perfect School

For most kids, parents may offer a helping hand and some guidance in the process. But in the end, the pressure, the work and the final decisions belong to the teenager. Read the article here.

Better Sleep Habits Lead To Better College Grades

Data on MIT students underscore the importance of getting enough sleep; bedtime also matters. Read the article here.

8 Questions To Ask Your High School Senior This Fall

This might be the first time you’ve raised these conversation topics with your child or stepchild, and that’s okay. The last year of high school is a natural opportunity to restart and revise your communication rhythms. Read the blog post from Fuller Youth Institute here.

The One Question You Never Want To Hear From Students

Tim Elmore blogs about teh college admissions scandal and questions we get from our kids. Read the blog post here.

Young Life Voted Off Campus At Duke

While the college ministry continues to operate without recognition, another university officially objects to its sexuality policy. Read the article here.

Helping Teens Deal With College Stress

High school is stressful, but when you add in the pressure to get into college then the stress can skyrocket. Read the article here.

Tell Me More: 8 Conversations To Start (And Continue) With Your College Freshman

Fuller Youth Institute overs some helpful conversations to have with those who have just begun college. Read the article here.

Survey Results: Today’s Students Are Skipping College

Tim Elmore takes a look at some of the generational differences between Millennials and Gen Z and their views on higher education. Read the post here.

Three Ways To Help Students Choose The Right Major

Narrowing down a college major is challenging because of several 21^st century factors. Read Tim Elmore’s blog post about this here.

Lose Your Faith At An Evangelical College? That’s Part Of The Process

Research shows that students at CCCU schools are more likely to face a religious crisis than their secular counterparts. Read the article here.

Mental Health Concerns On The Rise For College Students

Serious mental health concerns – like suicidal thinking, severe depression, and self-harm behaviours – more than doubled among college students between 2007-2018. Read the article here.

Woke Totemism

Multiculturalism has the characteristics of a primitive religion, albeit a confused one. Read the article here.

Stressed Teens Fret Over How Much To Relax During The Summer

For many teenagers, summer break has become a multiple-choice pressure cooker, when they must decide whether to: (a) rest and recharge, (b) work and make money, or (c) rack up activities that stand out on college applications. Read the article here.

College Financial-Aid Loophole: Wealthy Parents Transfer Guardianship Of Their Teens To Get Aid

Education Department, universities are investigating the practice, which has been used in the Chicago area. Read the article here.

Failure To Launch: Parents Are Barriers To Teen Independence

While most parents say they are doing enough to prepare their teen for adulthood, they gave low rankings of their teen’s ability to handle basic tasks. Read the article here.

What Should I Do After High School?

Greg Forster answers the following questions:

What would you say to someone who doesn’t have a clear idea of their vocation after graduating high school? Go on to college and pick a generic degree? Trade school? Gap year? Something else?

Read the article here.

The Demon In Middlebury

What happens when liberal democracy increasingly resembles communism, especially in higher education. Read the article here.

‘Failure To Launch’: Poll Finds Many Older Teens Still Too Reliant On Parents

Most parents think they are doing enough to prepare their teens for adulthood, but they’re wincing a bit as the time comes for their young to leave the nest. Read the article here.

America’s Youth Think They Can Save The World And Get Rich

From tech to finance and the arts, college students and recent graduates believe they can have it all. Read the article here.

Looks Like Guys Are More Prone To Pack On The ‘Freshman 15’

A study revealed that freshman boys saw bigger increases in terms of waist size and overall fat mass than girls. Read the article here.

All School And No Work Becoming The Norm For American Teens

From the article:

“Many factors are at play in the decline of teen labor force participation, including increased school enrollment, seasonal employment, decreased returns to work, reduced demand for low-wage work, minimum wage hikes, and competition from older workers or immigrants. Time pressure is another driver of reduced teen participation. Teens have many demands on their time and those demands fundamentally differ between the academic year and summer.”

Read the article here.

Five College Admissions Myths

College admissions can stress out even the most cool, calm and collected of students (and parents). Read the article here.

Making The Most Of College: Business, Balance, And Learning To Live

Have you decided on the limits of your career? Read the article here.

Why ‘Follow Your Passions’ Is Bad Advice For Graduates

Four countercultural insights for outgoing students. Read the article here.

The Unintended Consequences Of Academic Pressure

Where did academic pressure come from? Read the blog post from Tim Elmore here.

SAT To Score Students’ ‘Disadvantages’ To Try To Even The Playing Field

The College Board has been testing a tool that could give the millions of students who take the SATs every year a score measuring their economic hardships and other disadvantages. Read the article here.

A New Normal: Kingdom Collaboration On Our Campuses Like Never Before

The EveryCampus coalition indicates we may be nearing a revival. Read the article here.

Millennials Bring Ambition And Optimism To Their Work

It’s graduation season again, and as more members of Gen Z transition out of high school and into their college years, they’ll do so with high expectations for their future careers. Read the article here.

7 Underrated But Essential Life Skills To Teach Teens Before They Go To College

Schools will teach your teen about important subjects such as math and science, but there’s another school parents and teachers may forget in their quest to encourage exam success: the school of life. Read the article here.

As College Debt Rises, So Does Interest In Teaching Financial Literacy

After languishing for a few years, support for teaching money-management skills to high school students has reignited, financial literacy advocates say. They attribute much of the newfound interest to worries about mushrooming student debt. Read the article here.

Teens Ponder How To Pay For College, But Not Much

When it comes to paying for college, most teens like the idea of not taking on debt, according to a new survey by Junior Achievement. Overall, however, teens haven’t given much thought on how to fund their educations. Read the article here.

What We Can Learn About Leading Students From Instagram

How should some recent experiments and changes on Instagram inform our leadership? Read the blog post from Tim Elmore here.

Some College Students Fall Into Vicious Cycle Of Drug Use, Stress, Poor Academics

The adoption of one harmful behavior, such as heavy alcohol use, can lead college students into a vicious cycle of poor lifestyle choices, lack of sleep, mental distress and poor grades, according to a new study by researchers at Binghamton, State University of New York. Read the article here.

Should You Follow Your Heart?

“Follow your heart” is a phrase that we hear in our culture often. But is that a good idea? Watch a video addressing this issue from Impact 360 Institute here.

Perceptions & Realities of Paying For College

Ascent Funding’s 2019 national study of students and parents explores their perceptions before starting college and the impact of reality once the college experience begins. Read the report here.

14 Skills Your Kids Should Have Before Moving Out

Tim Elmore discusses some skills that you should work to develop in your teens before they move out of the house. Read his blog here.

Campus Coercion

The First Things podcast features a conversation with Mark Bauerlein and Charlie Copeland to discuss the decline of free speech on the college campus. Listen to the podcast here.

Who Are These Emerging Adults?

Each generation produces a cultural shift, some more impactful than others, but this generation of young adults has undeniably brought on such a significant shift in the cultural mindset that it’s challenging for those of us in previous generations to understand. Read the rest of this blog post from Jim Burns of HomeWord by clicking here.

The Augsburg Concession

Augsburg College—now Augsburg University—has gone from “awakened” to “woke.” It has arguably conceded more to the secular progressive agenda than any Lutheran college or university in America. Read the full article here.

Stop Asking Kids What They Want To Be When They Grow Up

The question forces children to define themselves in terms of work. Read the article here.

Helping Students Beat Test Anxiety

Fear of failure can prevent students from showing what they know on big tests—but a 10-minute writing exercise can help. Read the article here.

What Do Young Americans Really Think About Trade School?

There has been a gradual decline over the past few years in students enrolling in occupational education programs, trade schools, and apprenticeships. Read the article here.

What If Instead Of Taking The SAT You Got To Play A Video Game?

L.A.-based startup Imbellus plans to upset the SAT and ACT’s monopoly with a test it says accurately gauges critical thinking. Read the article here.

Christian U Flip-Flops On Gay Relationships

Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian institution that last fall notably removed its ban on same-sex relationships only to reverse course a few weeks later, has once again flip-flopped to allow gay relationships on the California campus. Read the article here.

Higher Income May Prove Elusive For Many College Grads

Many college graduates with a four-year degree find themselves struggling to earn enough money to achieve their version of the American dream. Read the article here.

U.S. College Admissions Scandal: How Did The Scheme Work And Who Was Charged?

Wealthy parents were part of the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, prosecutors say, accused of conspiring to get their kids into elite colleges through bribery and cheating. Read the article here.

Is Higher Ed Ready For The Tech Expectations Of The Teens Of 2022?

What will these teens expect of tech based on their current experiences? Read the article here.

The Stigma Of Choosing Trade School Over College

When college is held up as the one true path to success, parents—especially highly educated ones—might worry when their children opt for vocational school instead. Read the article here.

Recovering From The Disconnect With Your Teens

We need to talk seriously about the disconnect between parents and teenagers before kids hit college campuses. Read the article here.

Why Generation Z Is Passing On College

Tim Elmore says that students “feel less dependent on adults to get them ready for the career they’ll choose to enter.” Read his entire blog post here.

Most Teenagers Drop Out Of Church As Young Adults

Church pews may be full of teenagers, but a new study says college students might be a much rarer sight on Sunday mornings. Read the article here.

Attention, College Shoppers. These Schools Are Slashing Their Prices.

As soaring tuition scares off many families, a growing number of private colleges have embraced a marketing tactic associated more with selling airline tickets or flat-screen televisions than higher education: a price cut. Read the article here.

The Top Reasons Young People Drop Out Of Church

Even with 1 in 4 leaving over politics, college kids are more likely to return after a hiatus than leave for good. Read the article here.

Penn State Updates Course On Drinking And Sexual Violence, Aiming To Keep Students ‘Safe & Aware’

Penn State recently revamped its online course for incoming freshmen. Students learn about alcohol safety and sexual violence. Read the article here.

Preparing Your Kids For College

Jim Burns from HomeWord offers his perspective and tips on preparing kids for college. Read his blog post here.

College Students At 3.5 Times Higher Risk For Meningitis B

College students ages 18-24 are more than three times at risk for the potentially deadly serogroup B meningococcal disease (meningitis B) when compared with non-college students, according to a study published in the January 2019 issue of Pediatrics. Read the article here.

Homeless For Holidays: Some Colleges Keep Needy Students On Campus

About one-tenth of college students say they’re homeless, according to Goldrick-Rab’s research.Read the article here.

Better Sleep Can Improve College Academic Performance On Finals

As the college semester nears the end, an innovative experiment has shown the benefits of averaging eight hours of sleep for five nights during final exams week. Read the article here.

Why ‘Passing On The Faith’ Fails Our Kids

Young adults often leave the church after high school. The problem lies close to home. Read the article here.

Colleges Strain To Keep Up With Students’ Mental Health Concerns

As stigmas surrounding mental health issues have eased, more U.S. college students are seeking help for emotional problems, a new study finds. Read the article here.

Why So Busy? Our Flawed College System Takes Toll On Families Years Before Tuition Is Due

Families jam their schedules and fret over finances to prepare their kids for college. But all this craziness comes at a cost to parents and children. Read the article here.