7.Can your student make friends easily? This sounds trivial, but the fact is kids who can make friends easily tend to stay at college because they know people. This is not to say shy kids can’t make it. But maybe they need to go to a school closer to home or to a college where their friends are going.

8.Is your student prepared to think like an adult? College exposes our parenting mistakes. Can our kids take the responsibility for planning their day, studying instead of partying, for walking away from dangerous situations and people? Can they handle the incredible world of possibilities, problems and setbacks that college will throw at them, or would they be better off taking a year to mature, study at a junior college and grow up?

9. Are they choosing a college because that’s where their high school flame is going? That is the single stupidest reason for picking a college. Broken hearts bring more kids home than you can believe.

10. Is college the right choice? As a society we have bought into the belief that every child deserves a college education, when in reality every child deserves to learn skills that will help them succeed in the adult world. There are a lot of plumbers out there doing better than MBA’s. My electrician has five rent homes.

These are serious questions that parents and their kids need to really think about and talk over. College is the right choice for many kids. But it’s not the only way a young adult can make it in this world. Ask my electrician.

Harry H. Harrison, Jr. is a NYTIMES best selling parenting author with over 3.5 million books in print. He has been interviewed on more than 25 television programs, and featured in more than 75 local and national radio stations including NPR. His books are available in more than 35 countries throughout Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Norway, South America, China, Saudi Arabia and in the Far East. For more information, visit www.fearlessparenting.com.