A Parent's Guide to College Preparation

Preparing for College

The College Board Website A good place to start finding information to help your child prepare for college is the College Board website. Here you'll find just about everything you'll need to know about preparing for college.

Go to the Home Page http://www.collegeboard.com/ and look at "Your Inside Source." Under this title, you'll see five boxes.

These are the five pages you should use:

1. Planning for College. This is probably the most important page on the site because it outlines all the ways that your child can prepare for college: make the most of high school, build academic skills, and think about a college major. This page is a must read for every Take Stock in Children parent and student!
2. Taking the Tests. This page has a lot of detailed information about the SAT and other standardized tests. This page is a good resource for students who wish to prepare for standardized tests.
3. Finding the Right College. This page contains information and tools to help you and your child compare colleges, learn about college life, and prepare an action plan. This page is a great place to start learning all about the college experience.
4. Getting into College. Here is another must read page because it will give you a clear picture of all the things your child will have to do to apply and be accepted by a college. Every parent of a junior or senior should read this page now!
5. Paying for College. Parents of juniors and seniors should also look over this page. Be sure to look at the financial aid materials available on our website after you've read this page.

College Planners

Would you like to know all about planning for college? If so, you can use these six college planners:

1. Think College http://www.ed.gov/thinkcollege This site has some good planning tools for parents and students.
2. Preparation for College http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Prepare/ This is a resource book for parents created by the US Department of Education. It has a lot of good background information you should know.
3. Community College Planner http://www.dcc.firn.edu/programs.htm
Click this address and use the search tool to learn about all the programs offered by Florida's community colleges.
4. Four-Year College Planner http://www.grafenwoehr.army.mil
This site contains a grade-by-grade task list for students with extensive instructions and detailed information about every step in the college planning process.
5. State University System College Planner http://www.floridanext.com/articles/view/asp?sid=9&id=111
This is a college planner designed specifically for Florida students. It provides them with practical information about admission standards of Florida universities and a streamlined task list for students in the 7th through 12th grades.
6. Florida's Private Colleges http://www.fsu.edu/~spap/orgs/prc.html
This page links you to all of Florida's private colleges.

Applying for College

Juniors and seniors should understand all about the college application process in order to prepare properly. Listed below are websites that will help you and your child learn about this process:

1. The College Application Process http://66.9.25.106/section.asp?s=college
This website will help you learn about the steps students have to take to apply for college. It also contains a lot of other good stuff about college and careers.
2. Electronic Applications http://www.adventuresineducation.org/text/highschool/hs_apply.htm#app
This site tells students how to apply for college electronically.