The summer after I graduated from high school, I expressed my enthusiasm for starting college to a co-worker, who was a student at the university I would attend.
College is the final playpen.
She was right. For most young people, college is the last phase in life in which someone else is paying the bills. Graduation marks the point at which they take full responsibility for their financial successes and failings. This summer, thousands of students will leave the final playpen for the real world. From negotiating a lease to the heart attack of auto insurance rates, there's a host of new experiences awaiting them, and some situations for which they're totally unprepared.