Preparing Your Teen For College
- By Norbert Georget
- Published 10/17/2011
- Parenting
- Unrated
While you might begin thinking about your child's college education while you are shopping for preschools, you probably won't really start thinking about college seriously until your teen is in high school. There are definitely steps you can take to help ensure your teen has the tools to succeed in life and in college from the time your teens are toddlers.
Academic success comes from having a stable and loving home environment, encouragement and enthusiasm about learning, and regular access to books. Reading out loud to younger kids and encouraging older kids to read regularly helps ensure academic success. While the preschool your child attends probably won't have an enormous effect on your teen's college search, the environment you provide at home can have a direct impact.
One of the most important components of your teen's college search is the application process, which should begin as soon as your teen starts high school. This should not be a high-pressure process; even once your teen chooses a school and course of study it's likely to change at least once. But it is important to encourage your teen to think about his or her future and to start the college search by looking at what colleges offer courses of study that match your teen's future career plans.
The college search is a long sometimes arduous process. Most stateside schools require minimum performance results on standardizes test scores like the SATs and the ACTs. All colleges will require a basic application and many will require supplem
ental applications, essays, and letters of reference.
Typically, your teen should be taking steps in the college search all through high school. In the freshman year, students take the PSAT (a preliminary SAT test that helps identify the student's strengths). Your teen should be thinking about what subjects excite him or her and how those relate to future job possibilities.
As a sophomore, your teen should attend local college fairs hosted by the high school or local community colleges. He or she should also request catalogs and information from schools that are of interest. By the end of the sophomore year, your teen should narrow the college search by region, course of study, and other determining factors.
In your teen's junior year, your college search can include making visits to college campuses, talking to financial aid counselors about tuition costs and available aid, and narrowing down the search to some final choices. By early October of the senior year, applications should be submitted, standardized tests should be taken, and supplemental materials should be requested, like transcripts from high school, letters of reference from teachers and coaches, and application fees.
Colleges will normally make early acceptance offers by December and regular acceptance offers by February or March, although the details of financial aid possibilities as well as scholarships might take longer to determine. Once the college search process is completed, your teen will be able to relax and enjoy the rest of his or her senior year, confident about the where he or she is headed and making plans and dreaming about the future.
Academic success comes from having a stable and loving home environment, encouragement and enthusiasm about learning, and regular access to books. Reading out loud to younger kids and encouraging older kids to read regularly helps ensure academic success. While the preschool your child attends probably won't have an enormous effect on your teen's college search, the environment you provide at home can have a direct impact.
One of the most important components of your teen's college search is the application process, which should begin as soon as your teen starts high school. This should not be a high-pressure process; even once your teen chooses a school and course of study it's likely to change at least once. But it is important to encourage your teen to think about his or her future and to start the college search by looking at what colleges offer courses of study that match your teen's future career plans.
The college search is a long sometimes arduous process. Most stateside schools require minimum performance results on standardizes test scores like the SATs and the ACTs. All colleges will require a basic application and many will require supplem
Typically, your teen should be taking steps in the college search all through high school. In the freshman year, students take the PSAT (a preliminary SAT test that helps identify the student's strengths). Your teen should be thinking about what subjects excite him or her and how those relate to future job possibilities.
As a sophomore, your teen should attend local college fairs hosted by the high school or local community colleges. He or she should also request catalogs and information from schools that are of interest. By the end of the sophomore year, your teen should narrow the college search by region, course of study, and other determining factors.
In your teen's junior year, your college search can include making visits to college campuses, talking to financial aid counselors about tuition costs and available aid, and narrowing down the search to some final choices. By early October of the senior year, applications should be submitted, standardized tests should be taken, and supplemental materials should be requested, like transcripts from high school, letters of reference from teachers and coaches, and application fees.
Colleges will normally make early acceptance offers by December and regular acceptance offers by February or March, although the details of financial aid possibilities as well as scholarships might take longer to determine. Once the college search process is completed, your teen will be able to relax and enjoy the rest of his or her senior year, confident about the where he or she is headed and making plans and dreaming about the future.
Norbert Georget
Norbert Georget is an accomplished professional speaker, teen motivator, parenting expert and author of the book, No-Nonsense Parenting For Today’s Teenager – How To Feel Like A Good Parent Even When Your Teenager Hates You. You may get a FREE REPORT called No-Nonsense Parenting for the Disrespectful Teenager. All the answers you'll need to deal with your disrespectful teenager.
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