My D is young because of her birthday and if I left all this up to her she’d still be trading Pokemon cards. Don’t wait until senior year to start pushing your kid if s/he has not shown the initiative to start. There are many things that can be done in junior year – PSAT, obviously, but also SAT/ACT prep, fine-tuning extra-curriculars, taking advanced courses if warranted, talking to GC about colleges that others from the HS have been accepted at, visiting colleges, etc etc etc. These things have a way of creeping up on you and deadlines come fast & furious in senior year. My older stepkids had no real direction from their parents and floundered; one isn’t in college at all after dropping out of a CC and the other is in her sixth year at her third school.