Planning for College Produces Positive Outcomes

Welcome to 2023! For many of us, the first of the year is a time of new beginnings, an opportunity to make resolutions that we believe will improve our lives.
To that end, promise yourself that you and your children will actively plan for college.

By encouraging your kids to develop interests in and outside of the classroom and helping them to plot a challenging academic path over the course of their high school career, you’re taking important first steps that will lead to their success down the road. Supporting their curiosity about whatever makes their eyes light up—whether at six or 16—sets the stage for imagining the exciting opportunities awaiting them in college and beyond.

Unfortunately, many families don’t plan for college at all—including financially—although paying for college is probably the biggest expense other than purchasing a home that families will ever encounter. And often, they don’t realize just how complex and time-consuming discovering and applying to good-fit options is. Indeed, for many students—especially those aspiring to highly-selective schools—this work is akin to a full-time job, added onto perhaps an already heavy course load and busy extra-curricular schedule.  

As the time for submitting applications draws near, students who’ve not been planning for college may feel lost or paralyzed. Unsure of where or how to begin what needs to be done, students can end up scrambling to tackle tasks the summer before or even the first semester of senior year. Unsurprisingly, being so late to the table often leads to students’ exhaustion and anxiety. What should be an eye-opening period of discovery and possibility instead may feel like a dreaded chore hanging over their heads.

Independent educational consultants (IECs), like me, know that it doesn’t have to be this way. In our practices we see that most often this “problem” lies less with students’ unwillingness or inability to do what’s required, and more with the timing of the entire enterprise: The later they jump into the application process—and if they do so without first taking the time to think carefully about important factors such as how they like to learn, where they’d like to live and what they want out of their college experience—it’s likely that this experience will be more stressful than anticipated and its outcomes less happy than expected.  

Here are three steps high school students can take to avoid senior year stress:

• Build on academic and extra-curricular interests in authentic ways throughout high school
  
• Sit for standardized tests prior to senior year
  
• Begin visiting college campuses in the fall of junior year and during spring break
  

Planning for college is not the same as obsessing about it! Early awareness can inspire students to set high academic and personal goals for themselves. And being more “in the know” may keep them from missing out on opportunities due to ill-informed course selections and not being familiar with financial aid policies and practices. To avoid making these and other mistakes that can sabotage your children’s dreams while creating unnecessary family stress, don’t rush the process!
For more info and a complimentary consultation, call 845.242.8336.