Helping Your Teen Through the College Admissions Process

The college admissions process can be stressful, so it’s important to try to reduce the stress on your child. Try to be encouraging and gentle with them as you remind them when they should complete certain steps along the way. While they may not be accepted into the school of their dreams, you may find they get into a school that’s an even better fit for them. There are a few ways you can help them through the process in a way that will help them grow into young adults.

Talk with Them About How They Will Pay for School

College isn’t cheap, and many students don’t have much in savings. Talk with your child about options for paying for their education, whether it’s through loans, a part-time job, or other means. If you are planning on contributing, be upfront about how much you will pay for and what they will need to cover. One way to increase the amount you can cover is by taking out a HELOC to pay for college and reduce the amount of financial burden on your children.

Guide Them Through Deadlines

After your child has a list of schools they are interested in, you can look through deadlines for each one. You'll need to know about early decision, early action, and their regular decision. Early action might allow your child to apply early in the process without making any decision on whether they will go there. On the other hand, early decision means they will be agreeing to attend there if they are accepted. This would be a good option if your child knows with 100 percent certainty that this is where they wish to go. Know that most students apply under regular decision.

Help with the FAFSA Form

The FAFSA form lets your student apply for as much financial aid as possible. Even if you don’t think you will be eligible for it, you won’t know for sure until you fill it out. Your child might be able to get a couple of scholarships you didn’t know about. You will need to fill in information from your tax forms, so that might mean you need to file your taxes earlier to get this information. Your child likely won’t have your tax information, so filling out the FAFSA should be done together.

Encourage Them with Their Essays

Many times, colleges require students to write an essay in response to a prompt. There are a few common essay questions many schools use, so even if your child doesn’t know where they want to apply yet, you can still encourage them to create a few practice essays they can then draw from when they have the prompt. Encourage your child to write their essays during the summer before they start senior year. They will likely be very busy once they enter their senior year of high school, whether it’s scholarship applications or extracurricular activities. If they are struggling to write the required essays for exams and applications, you might want to look to getting an essay tutor or a college application coach. While they can be pricey, they can also be just what your child needs to help their writing stand out from others as they apply to schools.

Show Your Trust in Them

It can be hard for parents to allow their kids to complete the admissions process on their own while making financial resolutions and meeting the deadlines. But you must trust your child to be able to do this on their own because it’s part of your child becoming a more independent adult. If you don’t trust them to complete the required steps, you won’t be able to trust them as they go off to school without your assistance. While you should be there if your child needs you, you should also only help when they ask you to. They will need to manage many things by themselves, but at this point, they are able to handle the challenge. If you take over, you will be taking away the chance for them to be more independent, and you are showing them you don’t really think they can do it. This will damage their belief in themselves more than any mistakes they might make along the way.