Almost Grown: Launching Your Child from High School to College (Paperback)

by Patricia Pasick (Author) "Adam often stares up with a barely tolerant look that says, "I can't wait until I get out of here..." (more)
Key Phrases: college search process, leaving home process, departure for college, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Lawrence Steinberg (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A time of tumult, your children's transition from high school to college can also be a time of growth. This book shows you how. Almost Grown is a guide for parents to the final years of high school and first years of college, offering intelligent counsel not only in practical issues such as developing a college search plan or handling questions of money, sex, and substance abuse, but also in the psychological issues that arise during this family transition. Writing as both psychologist and parent, Patricia Pasick tackles the key question of how mothers and fathers can foster adolescents' growth and autonomy while maintaining family connections and stability. She also explores the unexpected: the impact of the changing family on younger siblings, the benefits and frustrations of college students' returning home, the challenges and opportunities that nontraditional families face, and more. Pasick delves into another critical yet underplayed aspect of the college transition: how parents' lives change. Almost Grown guides readers through this major step in adult development and new start to adult partnerships. Almost Grown contains advice from high school and college admissions counselors across the country and, at the heart of the book, stories of personal experience from parents and adolescents who are making, or have made, the transition.

About the Author
Patricia Pasick, M.Ed., Ph.D., is a family therapist and clinical psychologist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and teaches at the Fielding Institute. She is married and has two children, ages 18 and 22.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 2 edition (March 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393317102
• ISBN-13: 978-0393317107
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,758 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very powerful for boomer middle class parents, January 28, 1999

By	(Kathryn Mackay) [e-mail] (Victoria British Columbia) - See all my reviews

This book describes the stages that a stable loving middle class family goes through in letting go of their college-bound children. Compared to poor or disadvantaged families, focussing on the emotional transitions necessary to let go of a child heading for college is a privileged position, but if you are a middle-class boomer...

I experienced this book as if I were the mother (therapist) who wrote it. I happen to be a therapist and I have three kids 7, 15 and 17. I am devastated, thrilled, overjoyed, proud and overwhelmed by this transition with my firstborn. We are in the thick of it, and I'll be reading and rereading these chapters for the next year, using it for a lifeline when I can't control my emotions. I want to scream for joy that I successfully raised a wonderful person and I want to sob at the cruel pace of time. I am very grateful for the preparation this book is giving me. Lots of practical tips too for the work load around the planning, decision-making, moving, ongoing contact, etc. I highly, highly recommend it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

A heart felt book for anyone whose child is going off to college. I teach at a University and would suggest this book along with "Major in Success", by Patrick Combs. It offers insight to what college students go through as they identify and persue their dream job.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How To Restore Sanity to the College Admission Process, November 3, 2000

By	Kathryn M. Forte (Palos Verdes Estates, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The college admission process in the US today is THE rite of passage for young people from the comfort and nurture of family, school and friends into the world beyond. Unfortunately, it has all too often become a cruel one, not one that is helpful to the child's growth. All too often parents, grasping for the "brass ring" of a designer label college become overzealous and overly ambitious, beginning the college process way too early and pushing their children so hard that it harms their child and their relationship with their child. As someone who has spent 20 years in college admission and now 4 in college counseling in a highly compeitive school, this book has become the most powerful tool I've found in prodding parents of the need to stay sane and use a more balanced approach in working with their children. I hope to do a reading group with parents in my school using it as the text next year.