US President Barack Obama has advised her daughter Malia to be open to new experiences when she goes to college and ensure that she gets a good grade.
“The advice … is to be open to new experiences when you go to college. Don’t go to college just to duplicate the same experience you had in high school,” Obama said on Monday at a Town Hall on college access and affordability at Des Moines, Iowa. “Don’t make your decision based on, well, where are all my friends going so that I can do the exact same things with the exact same friends that I did in high school,” Obama said.
“The whole point is for you to push yourself out of your comfort level, meet people you haven’t met before, take classes that you hadn’t thought of before. Stretch yourself. Because this is the time to do it, when you re young. Seek out new experiences,” he added. He was responding to a question on what advice he would give to his daughter Malia, when she goes to her college.
“My best advice to Malia. Now, this is assuming that Malia would listen to my advice. She’s very much like her mother at this point. She’s got her own mind,” he said. “One piece of advice that I’ve given her is not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college,” he added. “There are a lot of good colleges and universities out there, and it’s important I think for everybody here to understand you can find a college or university that gives you a great education, and just because it’s not some name-brand, famous, fancy school doesn t mean that you re not going to get a great education there,” Obama said.
“So one is, lower the stress levels in terms of just having to get into one particular school. I think that’s important,” he said. “The second piece of advice I have is keep your grades up until you get in, and after that, make sure you pass. Because it’s important that you kind of run through the tape in your senior year and not start feeling a little slack. I don’t worry about that with her; she’s a hard worker,” he added.
PTI