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'Soft Skills' Pushed as Part of College Readiness

Denee Taylor, far right, takes a quiz in his statistics class at Northern Illinois University. The freshman says the noncognitive skills he learned in a high school program smoothed his way to college.

—John Zilch for Education Week

By Caralee J. Adams

To make it in college, students need to be up for the academic rigor. But that's not all. They also must be able to manage their own time, get along with roommates, and deal with setbacks. Resiliency and grit, along with the ability to communicate and advocate, are all crucial life skills. Yet, experts say, many teenagers lack them, and that's hurting college-completion rates.

"Millennials have had helicopter parents who have protected them," said Dan Jones, the president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors and the director of counseling and psychological services at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. "They haven't had the opportunity to struggle. When they come to college and bad things happen, they haven't developed resiliency and self-soothing skills."

College enrollment is growing, but graduation rates remain flat. Among industrialized nations, the United States ranks ninth in the world in enrollment but last in completion rates, according to an analysis of 18 countries by the Organization for...