April: Focus On College

It’s decision time for high school seniors…

High school seniors and their families know what May 1 means: It’s the deposit deadline for securing a place as a first-year student next fall.

By now, colleges have issued their admissions decisions. And assuming the paperwork has been filed on time, they’ve also issued financial offers of need-based aid, merit aid or a combination of both. Some seniors committed to their college months ago, and can begin preparing for life as a college student. For those who haven’t, now is the time to figure out which school would be the best fit.

Clearly the top choices should offer the academic topics the student hopes to study; take into account the family budget; and provide the social, emotional and academic support that such student might require. Most importantly, it should be a place where that particular child can be successful—meaning not only that he or she can handle and thrive with the academic program, but also that the student can become active within some aspect of that school’s community. Visiting the campus (whether as part of an “admitted students day” or not) and speaking with current students can truly help with this process.

Once the college choice is made, students and their families can start to focus on the transition from high school to college. This is the perfect time to discuss financial literacy, anticipated budget, time management and familial values. Students who plan to live on campus will participate in roommate selection and should hone their housekeeping and laundry skills. Most importantly, they can relax knowing they have a place to attend in the fall, but they should still remain consistent academically to ensure that a college does not rescind its offer of admission.

Evaluation time for high school juniors…

Even though juniors are earlier in the college process, the goal is to create a list of schools that are a good fit for their needs. Parents should encourage their children to learn more about themselves and their interests, talents, strengths and weaknesses. High school guidance counselors and reputable independent educational consultants can review student self-assessments, high school transcripts and standardized test results. They also can listen to students expressing their plans in order to help develop a list of tentative schools to consider.

From there, students are best served doing their own research. That includes visiting schools, attending regional information sessions and college fairs, and speaking to current students and alumni.

Once the student has an initial college list, he or she can begin preliminary work on college applications now. Many schools participate in The Common Application (www.commonapp.org). New for this year, if a current junior creates an account for the Common App, any information entered will “roll over” when the official application period begins on Aug. 1. Additionally, The Common Application already has announced that its essay prompts for the class of 2017 will remain the same as those for the class of 2016.

Individual schools will not finalize their questions and/or supplemental essays until sometime after August 1st. But students who get their initial essay completed sooner will have less stress once the fall rolls around, and will be able to meet early- to mid-fall deadlines for scholarship consideration.

Planning time for high school sophomores…

Sophomores should be thinking about long-term consequences of their current decisions. This is a great time to explore elective subjects and consider new areas that may lead to future studies. Junior year will be the time to take standardized tests (PSAT, SAT, ACT, perhaps AP), but for certain programs it would be useful to take SAT Subject tests at the end of sophomore year.

When selecting courses for junior year, remember that colleges generally like to see students perform the best they can academically in the most rigorous classes they can handle.