Summer break is here! While it’s a much-needed breather from the stress of the school year, it can also lead to a tremendous amount of downtime. If you’re the parent of a high school student, especially one heading into junior or senior year, you’ve probably heard the “I’m bored” chorus more than once already.
The good news? Summer offers a golden opportunity to help your teen make meaningful progress on their college journey without feeling like it’s all work and no fun. Here are some smart, low-stress ways to help your teen fight summer boredom while also easing their transition into college planning.
You’ve visited campuses, read every admissions packet, compared financial aid letters, and heard your teen’s pros and cons a dozen times. But the decision deadline is looming… and they’re still unsure about which college to attend. Now what?
May 1st is just a few days away and your teen still hasn’t made their final decision. How can you help?
First, take a deep breath. It’s completely normal for students to feel overwhelmed or hesitant before committing. The final college decision is a major milestone — and a meaningful opportunity for growth.
As a parent, your role isn’t to make the choice for them, but to guide and support them toward confidence. Here’s a step-by-step way to help your teen move from feeling stuck to feeling ready.
The college decision deadline is approaching for those seniors who have been accepted to colleges and have multiple college offers. Even though some have extended their decision deadlines beyond May 1 due to the FAFSA issues, parents and students are evaluating colleges and comparing offers.
Deciding which college to attend can be one of the most significant decisions in a young person’s life. With multiple offers on the table, the choice can feel overwhelming. However, with careful consideration and a structured approach, you can navigate this maze and choose the college that aligns best with your goals, preferences, and aspiration.
When your student is touring a college for the first time, they will have many opportunities to ask questions. They must not squander the opportunity and take advantage of the chance to get more acquainted with the college and campus life during the college tour.
Before you visit, your student should brainstorm and prepare. Don’t ask questions like “what’s the student/faculty ratio” or “how many people apply every year.” The answers to basic questions like these are usually readily available in the school’s online and offline publications.
Choosing the right college is a pivotal decision in a student’s life, and college visits play a crucial role in this process. A recent study found that 82% of students visit a college before attending.
Whether you’re exploring colleges close to home or considering options that are farther away, each experience contributes to shaping your academic journey.
Let’s explore the significance of college visits, sharing insights on both local and distant exploration.
College visits have become more important today than they ever were in the past. Competition for that coveted admission spot and the competitiveness of the colleges vying for students makes the college visit a key factor in a student’s decision and a college’s recruiting efforts. College visits are the “bread and butter” of the admissions process and if you have a college-bound tween or teen, it’s time to get into the game.
As a parent, you most certainly think about your child’s future and so often college prep is a part of that future. You may see them as an engineer, a teacher, or a doctor. You may picture them at your alma mater, or being the first in your family to attend college. Maybe you just hope they find a passion and pursue it. Whatever you hope, you want what is best for your child and to support them in achieving their goals.
College prep is a team effort. While the student leads the team and is ultimately the one who makes the final decision, parents can participate. This is an overwhelming process to handle alone and parents can ease some of the tremendous stress and burden.
It’s exhausting searching and scouring the internet for the right information when it comes to helping your student prepare for college. But what if you could use ONLY ONE RESOURCE and find everything you ever wanted to know about college prep? Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Here it is. I’ve done the research, examined the links and their resources, and compiled a list of 100+ college prep resources for you. (If you know of others, please leave them in the comments and I will add them to the list!)
Get a head start on college prep this summer. Learn everything you need to know about applying for college by getting my Parent Crash Course.
When my kids were teenagers, “I’m bored” came flowing out of their mouths almost every single day during the summer. They missed their friends. They missed the constant activity. They missed participating in all the school-related extracurricular activities. If you have kids, it’s inevitable that those words will be spoken in your household during the summer.
When you hear those words (and even if you don’t) here’s a list of summer activities that will keep your college-bound teen busy AND help their college admissions process in the future.
Believe it or not, colleges want to know you are interested in attending and many students simply stop with the college visit. This interest will influence their offers of admission. If they give you a coveted “accepted” slot, it only makes sense that those slots will go to the students who demonstrate interest. They are selling a service and they want interested customers, not casual shoppers. You can find out how much weight a college puts on “demonstrated interest” by researching the college’s statistics on College Navigator.
The college visit is a great place to start: taking the student-led tour and connecting with other students on campus. But if the college truly interests you, you should take that college visit a step further by considering these additional campus experiences.
