REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama is practically weepy at the thought of his daughter Malia going off to college, a milestone many months away that is already on his mind.

Malia barely reached up to her father's shoulders when they moved to the White House nearly six years ago with her mother, little sister and grandmother. At 16, she stands nearly as tall as her 6-foot-1 (1.85 meter) dad and is visiting college campuses in preparation for that bittersweet day in the fall of 2016 when she trades her White House bedroom for a dormitory.

She has been seen touring the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, where former president Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea attended college.

In a commencement address to high school graduates in Worcester, Massachusetts, Obama said he is practicing for what's coming in two years. "So I'm trying to get used to not choking up and crying and embarrassing her. So this is sort of my trial run here."

Obama said during a question-and-answer session that his daughter, like young people in general, should shop around for a college.

"We tell her, 'Don't assume that there are 10 schools that you have to go to, and if you didn't go to those 10, that somehow things are going to be terrible,'" he said. "There are a lot of schools out there."

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