As a student going off to art school (RISD) this upcoming fall, this is just my experience…
I been interested in art since young, but it was more of a hobby thing - art teachers liked me and that was about it. I focused on my academics when I went into middle school and up till my freshman year in high school. During this time I did not take any classes related to art in school but started to just draw digitally with a tablet and photoshop on various game sites. My parents through out the whole process weren’t supportive of my new obsessions (including late night drawing sessions ) but because I kept up my grades in school, they didn’t complain as much. In my high school, we do not have any visual art classes. It didn’t bother me much because I enjoyed doing art by myself whenever I had free time. I used croquis café on youtube to practice figure, actively took commissions from sites such as ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and work as an artist on Aywas.com, Kaylune.com, chickensmoothie.com, and other various game sites for children. My parents didn’t know I was earning money by doing art until my Junior year in high school.
Since my school does not offer any visual art classes, that includes any AP art. My guidance counselor told me that I could just take the ap test (basically preparing a portfolio) by myself if I was ok with that. I took AP Drawing in my sophomore year and was able to get a 5. I don’t really think parents ‘need’ to support/guide an artistic student, usually a lot of us just find an artistic outlet by ourselves. In my case my parents weren’t very happy and sometimes we would get in huge fights about how I spend too much time drawing and not studying (however, I kept an 4.3+ GPA average through out high school), but here I am going for the illustration program at RISD on full scholarships in the fall! (some pieces I used in my portfolio are located here. http://yhportfolio.webs.com/ Some are a bit old and was not used as portfolio pieces )
She should definitely get the portfolio review on AICAD, it really helped me a lot and be sure when submitting her pieces, she should describe a bit more about what her pieces mean, what she was trying to achieve, what she had in mind when she made the piece etc. They really enjoy reading the artist’s thoughts. You can also call in admissions at the colleges she’s interested in, and ask for informal portfolio reviews. Many of them will be more than happy to do so.
Submit pieces for Congressional Art Competition, Scholastic Art& Writing Awards, YoungARTS foundation, all very good places to get recognition and art colleges really like seeing that on your resume. (I personally got more $ because I placed in Scholastic and received recognition from YoungARTS).