As we move into April, graduating high school seniors are finding out about which colleges they have been accepted to and college seniors are preparing to job hunt. In my book, Failure to Launch: How to Get Your Teens and Young Adults to Independence, this begins the great myth. Not Santa Claus, not the Easter Bunny, not the Tooth Fairy, but the College Fairy. Yes, we believe in the College Fairy like we believe in very little else. At the end of high school, there is the great push to go to college. Why? Because having got the best grades at the best schools, and the best SAT or ACT scores, and going to the best colleges, the best job awaits. It is a mantra repeated over and over and over and over. It is as if parents and students are waiting to the meet the College Fairy right after getting that degree and poof, she hands over the six figure job and all its glory. I watch this dance year after year. Students who never worked or managed bills or their own money struggle to comprehend the whole world of “getting a  job”. Successful in academe, they now are rejected for their lack of work experience. Their parents become ashamed and look on mutely. What happened to that great student? Why aren’t they succeeding? I have watched with sadness the trials of last year’s college grads even more shocked and daunted by this economy. Most are not working and are either at home with mom and dad or are being supported by mom and dad. Did you know that even before this downturn in economy, half of all graduating college seniors went  home to live with mom and dad and had no job prospects?

(more…)