College Guide For Parents
As parents, you play a vital role in shaping your child’s future and a college guide for parents is key to it. But college planning isn’t about simply looking up possible options and weighing the pros and cons before choosing a college. College guide for parents is stretched out over a few years. There are many things to be attended to and a college planning guide parents will come in handy.
But is there a College Guide for parents?
So how do you go about it? How can a college guide for parents work effectively? How can a college guide for parents help in dealing with children who have a mind of their own?
20 tips comprising a College Guide for parents
- Start early: A smart college planning guide for parents is to get going while your child is still in high school. While he is in 9th Grade, plan a visit to a prospective college or swamp him with information about the college to get him interested and excited about his future studies.
- Encourage:This is an essential and important component in any college application. Inspire him to take up leadership roles in school to further showcase his potential.
- Motivate:Your child’s high school GPA must be high to stand a good chance to be accepted at a reputed college and also be eligible for scholarships or financial aid.So it’s very important that your child takes responsibility and gets serious about his studies.
- Have a heart-to-heart talk with your child about his aspirations and his future. Get him to list out his interests, strengths, pet pursuits and his talents and match them with occupations. It is vital that you understand and appreciate what he wants to study and the career path he wishes to pursue even as you recognize his core skills and strengths.
- Identify what study program he wishes to pursue. Every college planning guide for parents lays emphasis on knowing what your child wants to study and then working on it.
- Do the groundwork of researching the best college options. Even while your child is busy with school activities, the college planning guide for parents will help you to be on course and listing colleges for him to choose from.
For information on the best Undergraduate Colleges
https://thebestschools.org/rankings/best-undergraduate-colleges/
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching
- When he is in the 11th Grade, get him started on preparing for PSAT/NMSQT. These are preliminary practice tests for SAT. While good SAT scores are necessary for admission, a good PSAT score can help students get scholarships. So as a parent, college planning should lay emphasis on high PSAT and SAT scores. Know more about PSAT at https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10
- Help him in preparing for SAT/ACT and TOEFL. Manage the registration dates and application process to free him from such mundane time-consuming activity. Know more about SAT at https://www.collegeboard.org/
Know more about TOEFL at https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/register/
- Assist him in the online practice tests for SAT/ACT and TOEFL and pump him with positivity and confidence to strive and give it his best shot.
Know more about online SAT practice tests at
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/full-length-practice-tests
Know more about online TOEFL practice tests at
https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/prepare/
- An important college guide for parents is to do a financial check of how much you can spend on your child’s education
Calculate the cost involved for studying at any of the colleges in the list. The cost of studying will include tuition and other fees, room and board, a laptop computer, the cost of books, etc. and other miscellaneous expenditures for four years. So a sound college planning guide for parents is to start early with saving for your child’s education.
- Examine the funding options which include need-based financial aid, scholarships, grants, loans, on-campus employment, etc., available at each of the colleges.
Do the necessary groundwork to be conversant and be prepared with the financial documents you will need to submit with your child’s application to support requests for financial aid.
- Share your financial position with your child. A valid college planning guide for parents is to ensure he knows what it will take to study at his chosen college and is prepared to go the whole hog.
- Identify whom to approach for letters of recommendation The selection committee depends on these letters to give an insight into the possible potential of an applicant so take care to choose the right persons.
- Urge your child to begin the application process early rather than get overwhelmed with gathering all the prerequisite documents in a hurry to meet the registration deadlines. The mundane task of filling forms and gathering all the necessary documents is time-consuming but critical in the application process.
- Be an enthusiastic support in the college planning and list out all the documents and papers that need to be submitted. A credible college planning guide for parents is to lay emphasis on this so that your child is presented well in the documents.
- College planning works best with a timetable.
- List out the timelines for preparing for the standardized tests
- The dates when the tests have to be taken as well as alternative dates for taking a re-test if necessary
- The deadlines for applying at each of the colleges
- Enlist the services of a counselor. A counselor will be in a better position to suggest colleges to apply to, based on your child’s potential and your financial capabilities. Besides a counselor is more well-versed in the needs of submitting applications. Even the best college planning guide for parents can’t match a counselor’s inputs.
Online counselors, as well as counseling service providers in the metros, are available.
- Partner your child in conducting mock interviews so that he is confident at the college interview. An interview can be intimidating so these mock interviews with a doting ally will make your child more self-assured.
- Make the right choice. College planning by parents does not end with the application process. Once your child receives acceptance letters, it is crucial that you guide your child to choose the best options after taking everything into consideration.
- Be a pillar of support to your child by example. Transitioning from school to college may be initially exciting but you need to ensure that your child has his feet planted firmly on the ground and isn’t swayed by the freedom of living and studying abroad independently.
So the college guide for parents is to shoulder the final responsibility of seeing your child transition from a child to a man of the world.
