Are your students thinking about attending college or training in a field of interest? It is never too early to get started in the process even if it is a few years away. Each student can start positioning himself or herself to get into college by following the college planning timeline as a guide.

School counselors – talk to you students about:

• Taking courses required for entrance into high school and developing strong study habits.  Each student should take challenging courses and position himself or herself to take advantage of advanced courses in high school in areas of strengths.
• Teach organization and time-management skills to prepare them to succeed in high school and beyond. Assist with building good study habits.
• Developing the student’s educational plan. Review college preparatory courses the student plans on taking in high school including English, math, history, science, and modern and classical languages. The child and parent should seek out extra tutoring to improve his or her skills.
• Participating in summer enrichment programs or community-based extracurricular activities that may be available in the student’s county or school.  Activities such as band, choir, and other fine arts can complement the student’s classes.
• Encourage reading.  “Starting to read” magazines, newspapers articles, and books of interest will be important in building reading comprehension skills.
• Discuss test taking strategies on standardized tests – encourage practicing prior to test taking.
• Discuss college options and encourage the student to make a decision to go to college.
• Gather information about careers, begin to explore areas of interest thinking ahead about a major, and begin to read about colleges and factors in the admissions process.
• Share information with parents about college costs, and how to pay and save for college. They may not realize there is money available through federal, state, and institution-based assistance in forms of loans, scholarships, work study, pre-paid tuition plans, and tax credits.

Though the student’s middle school record is not seen by colleges, he or she should set the goal of graduating from high school. Encourage the student to use these years to explore new things, discover what subjects and activities really excite him or her.

Help your middle school students by:

• Holding a career day, inviting representatives to talk about what they do and how they prepared for their careers.
• Talking to your school about displaying a college of the week prominently at the school, using college pennants as decorations, asking faculty and staff members to wear sweatshirts from their alma maters.
• Inviting college students or graduates to talk to students.
• Checking with colleges for donation for donations of college brochures and guidebooks.
• Educating parents by sending college information regularly and inviting financial aid officers from nearby colleges to talk about ways to pay for college.