How To Help Your Teen Prepare For College

As a parent, you’re always going to want to do your best when supporting your child. However, this can be a little daunting if college is the next step. Not only does this mean they will be flying the nest and moving out of your home, but they’ll also be taking the first steps of their professional career. Just thinking that it is time to prepare for college can stop us in our tracks!

However, getting into college is a challenge within itself, especially if they are applying to ‘elite’ or Ivy-league colleges and universities, which currently have an ultra-low acceptance rate. 

With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to help your teen prepare for college. 

• Work with College Admission Consultants. As mentioned above, the college application process can get quite complicated. From the initial applications to interviews, you’ve got to impress the admissions team from the word go if you want to secure a place. As a result, you might want to encourage your child to work with an admissions consultant who can help make their application stand out. 

• Encourage Them To Explore Their Hobbies. Many parents believe that supporting their child’s education means encouraging them to do their homework or pick up a book – but college applications now look for far more than academic qualifications. As a result, your kid’s hobbies could be the key to their acceptance, especially if they’re looking for a specific scholarship so that they are able to fund their studies. While there are plenty of extracurricular activities that will look good on applications, being able to talk passionately and openly about their hobbies will go a long way towards impressing college admission staff. 

• Teach Them Basic Life skills. Another way in which you can help your teen prepare for college is by helping them improve upon the skills we often aren’t told in school. For example, helping them get to grips with money management is a great way to ensure they put their best foot forward when fending for themselves. This should help them to stop overspending and ensure they remain within budget, which means you’ll receive fewer requests for money once they’ve left.  Teaching them how to cook some simple dishes is also helpful, especially if it stops them from eating buttered noodles three times a day (a college life staple). 

Encourage Them To Pursue Their Dreams. As a parent, you will always want what is best for your child, which means you’ll likely have hundreds of opinions on their choice of college, degree, and major. However, it’s vital that you encourage your child to pursue their dreams, passions, and interests instead of trying to pass on your own to them. College is a major undertaking, so it’s crucial they are pursuing something that is genuinely important to them. This will make those early-morning lectures and exams that much easier to deal with. Being a supportive figure in their lives during this time is vital, as they’ll likely require a lot of reassurance to know they are heading on the right path.