“Alex proposes a wide-ranging series of conversations for parents to have with their teens: conversations about being responsible, forming good friendships, understanding faith, living as a Christian in ways that are wise and gracious, being smart with money, maintaining personal purity, living from convictions, discerning talents, working diligently unto the Lord, and many other topics. Parents who engage their teens in the ways Alex recommends will accomplish things that cannot be achieved through any exercise of parental authority…I am happy to recommend this book as a sharp tool for Preparing Your Teens for College.”Tedd Tripp
Author of Shepherding a Child’s Heart
“Preparing Your Teens for College is about more than preparing them for college. It’s actually an outstanding book about preparing them for adulthood whether or not they go to college. Every parent who wants his or her teen to make a successful transition to young adulthood will profit from this book. As a grandparent I’m going to send copies to my own children to help them prepare our grandchildren.”
Jerry Bridges
Author of The Pursuit of Holiness
“Don’t let the college years derail your teens. Too many are floundering in college, losing their connection to God and reality. Let Alex be your guide to preparing them for college. Highly recommended.”
Josh McDowell
Author of More Than a Carpenter
“Alex Chediak has provided a comprehensive manual, packed with biblical insight and practical wisdom. It should be required reading for all parents in preparation for the “bittersweet sorrow” of seeing our children in the rear view mirror as we drive away from the college campus. I recommend it highly.”
Alistair Begg
Senior Minister, Parkside Church
“Parents have no guarantees, but they can boost the likelihood of a successful transition to college by absorbing Alex Chediak’s book. Preparing Your Teens for College is not a gassy theoretical work but a practical, easy-to-use map through the spiritual, social, sexual, financial, academic, and occupational minefields.”
Dr. Marvin Olasky
Editor-in-chief, WORLD News Groups
“My friend Alex Chediak has done it again. He has provided parents an invaluable and reliable guide regarding the all-important college years. We sent our oldest to college this past year and were forced to think and pray through all of the issues that Alex so capably and helpfully addresses here. The college years are years that will shape your child for the rest of his/her life. Read this book and let Alex, a parent and a college professor himself, guide you.”
Tullian Tchividjian
Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Author of One Way Love
“In Preparing Your Teens for College, Alex Chediak presents parents with all the tools needed to launch their young adults successfully into college life and beyond.”
Gregg Harris
Conference Speaker, Father of Alex and Brett Harris (co-authors of Do Hard Things)
“At a time when both college officials and employers are recognizing that certain ‘soft skills’–timeliness, professionalism, proper speech and dress, etc.–essential to adult success are lagging among young adults, Alex Chediak’s primer on college prep is timely, informative, and effective. ‘Character matters,’ he says, more so now than ever when teens grow up in a youth culture suffused with irreverence and irresponsibility, a Digital Age flooding them with distractions and vulgarities, and a college scene all-too-often taking the form of a 4-year party. How can they resist it all? Chediak lays out a sound and workable guidance plan, one oriented toward Christian faith, but accessible to all concerned parents. He understands well the force of peer pressure, the nature of temptation, and the difficulty of long-term thinking, and his chapters provide wise and steady paths beyond them.”
Dr. Mark Bauerlein
Professor of English, Emory University, Author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future
“The common conception is that Christian teens head off to college only to have their faith, values and character stripped from them. But Alex Chediak argues that it doesn’t have to be that way. This book gives parents a wealth of helpful information as they send their kids to the halls of higher learning.”
Jim Daly
President – Focus on the Family
“Alex Chediak has provided guidance for parents on preparing teens for college that is at once useful, practical, and insightful as well as undergirded with a clear biblical worldview. In some ways it has as much to say to parents of a pre-teen as it does to parents of a high-schooler. The emphasis on character, conversation, and personal faith development while dealing with the pressing issues of college cost, selection, and value, is both wonderfully practical and deeply spiritual. Parenting an emerging adult in the “habit forming period of life” and assisting her to come to grips with full personal ownership of faith is messy. The six marks of college readiness are extremely helpful as benchmarks for parenting priorities during a young person’s high school years. This book will be a great resource to any parent, youth pastor, or school guidance counselor who is involved in leading, advising, and coaching a teen for responsible Christian adulthood.”
Derek J. Keenan, EdD.
Vice President, Academic Affairs, Association of Christian Schools International
“In his book, Preparing Your Teens for College, Alex helps parents realize that our hard work of preparation has a lot more to do with getting them ready for life than with getting them into the “right” college. And, preparation involves much less doing everything for our kids, and much more equipping them to be able to do things for themselves. As kids step up, they and we get a better indication of their unique giftedness – an important consideration, especially as it relates to life’s next step.”
Kay Wills Wyma
Author of Cleaning House – A Mom’s Twelve-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement
“In my work with Christian college students, I know that significant numbers of them arrive at school without adequate preparation for what they will encounter. This is the case at our local state university and New St. Andrews, the Christian college I am associated with. Now for those who know what these kids should be doing, certain things might seem to ‘go without saying,’ but that is unfortunately not the case. They don’t go without saying. What many Christian families need at this point is some sturdy horse sense, grounded in Scripture. Preparing Your Teens for College meets this need in an admirable way.”
Douglas Wilson
Pastor, Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, Author of The Case for Classical Christian Education
“This book does more than show parents that they can prepare their children for college. It offers specific, practical, wise advice on the larger task of raising teenagers, including topics that often prove most daunting for parents: instilling sexual morality, forming positive friendships, dealing with peer pressure, handling social media, and internalizing their faith. In addition to useful tips for helping sons and daughters choose and succeed in higher education, whether at a university or a trade school, this book can function as a guide for Christian families in one of the most important tasks of parenthood: teaching children how to be adults.”
Dr. Gene Edward Veith
Provost of Patrick Henry College, Author of Loving God with All Your Mind
“Alex Chediak has provided us with a much-needed and thoughtfully-written guide for parents, guidance counselors, and educators alike. The insights found in this outstanding book will be most beneficial for those who invest the time to read and reflect upon Chediak’s wise words. Heartily recommended!”
Dr. David S. Dockery
President, Union University
“Combining practical experience with research, Alex Chediak helps teens (and their parents) prepare for the migration to adulthood. As that migration is made increasingly later in life these days, the wisdom laced throughout this book is welcome indeed.”
Dr. Michael Horton
Professor of Theology, Westminster Seminary California
“Preparing Your Teens for College is relevant, accessible, insightful and practical. But best of all it is biblical. This is not a book of helpful hints from a wise man on guiding older teens. It is instead a faithful book of soundly applied biblical wisdom on guiding older teens. Alex has a rare ability to lead the reader to not just compare the Bible to the culture’s expectations of what is normal, but to demonstrate the beauty that flows from submission to the Word. Our Lord sets before us life and death. Alex powerfully communicates the wisdom and beauty of life.”
Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Associate Professor, Reformation Bible College (and father of eight)
“This book helps calm parents’ fears in sending their children to college. With tremendous insight and wisdom, Dr. Chediak helps to prepare parents to prepare their children for college. I know of no other book that deals with many of the hard questions this book helps to answer.”
Burk Parsons
Co-pastor, Saint Andrew’s Chapel, Editor, Tabletalk magazine