<p>I am just dipping my toe into all this for the first time. My Dh and I are both Vandy grads and our daughter is finishing her first year of high school. Since she is our oldest, I have no idea what I should be starting to do to help her prepare for college or what <em>I</em> should be doing.</p>
<p>Academically, she is doing fine. Good GPA and planning to take her first AP course next year. Good extracurriculars. And she has a life too... BONUS!</p>
<p>I assume she should take the PSAT next year? Should we have her prep for that or just see how she does? When should we start taking her to look at various colleges? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance. I expect I'll be seeing a lot of you the next few years!</p>
<p>On PSAT for sophomore year, I think it is fine to take it without prepping. That way she will know what she needs to do and how much she might want to improve her score. Usually the school offers the PSAT, so there isn’t anything you need to do. Not all schools offer it to all sophomores.</p>
<p>I think that the best thing parents can do is gently guide if a student seems to be off track, but otherwise let her enjoy high school and find and pursue the things she loves.</p>
<p>Only push her in the sense of getting good grades and pursuing higher education. I’m so thankful that, ironically, I was basically blind with college admissions until mid-way through junior year when I first took the SAT. Looking back, I didn’t know **** about colleges, I didn’t visit colleges until AFTER I was accepted on their admit days, and really didn’t know where I was really going to apply until September or so of senior year. Even though you will probably say, “How the hell did he get through like that?” I will respond by saying I feel like my lack of knowledge towards college in high school was a positive in that I didn’t think about it, I concentrated on the present and thats really all anyone can do. I applied to 5 colleges (UC Irvine, UCSan Diego, USC, UCLA, and Pepperdine), was accepted to all 5 (going after some sort of business or econ degree) and am now a Bruin. </p>
<p>But that’s my advice for maybe prior to mid-way through junior year. Once it gets to crush-time (as in, October of senior year through May of senior year) KEEP TRACK OF DATES AND DO EVERYTHING BEFORE THE DEADLINE, BOTH THE APPLICATION AND FINANCIAL AID CRAP. I can’t tell you how annoyed I was when I always found out that something was due the next day with some tax forms we didn’t have, with something else that was in our safety deposit box, etc…</p>
<p>Keep your daughter on the straight path and she will do fine.</p>
<p>Pretend she is like a bike, you are the training wheels - however, I suggest only one training wheel as you want her to be able to lean on you for support, but you don’t want to be shoving your ideas and desires down her throat.</p>
<p>I recommend you start keeping track of all the stuff she’s doing - our school calls it an extra-curricular resume. I was surprised how hard it was to remember all the activities, leadership, volunteering, etc. when we had to put together resumes for college applications and scholarship applications. Our application for National Honor Society required all that info too (with signatures!).</p>
<p>I agree with only pushing her in the sense that she should be getting good grades, taking as challenging a curriculum as she can while still maintaining her life and her sanity, and keeping in mind that college is the next step. </p>
<p>If she does a lot of activities it’s a good idea to keep track of them now, it will make it easier down the road, especially community service. You can basically list everything on your application, but they will want to know roughly how many hours you spent on each thing, this can be hard to recall when you’re a junior/senior. </p>
<p>Don’t bother prepping for the PSAT, think of it as a baseline measurement of how much (if any) prep she’ll need for the SAT. Don’t stress about that now. Depending on what college she wants to go to, SATs will probably end up being the least important factor (some of the elite LACs are going SAT optional now, though she’ll still need it if she’s thinking a university).</p>
<p>Take her to look at colleges as junior. Going earlier, unless there are colleges in your area that are super close, is kind of a waste. You need to have some idea of what you’re looking for/interested in and what kinds of questions you have in order to make a visit worthwhile, and you’re just not there as a sophomore or a freshman. She won’t pay as much attention because it won’t be so urgent that she be looking at this stage. Just wait. If you end up getting view books or brochures, then she can start looking at those. Or encourage her to think widely and generally about what she might want to study and where (big/small, city/rural, north/south/east/west/midwest/etc). </p>
<p>VandyGrad: At this point, just let her follow the college prep classes at her school; if you think she might want to apply to Top 20 schools, encourage the most rigorous path available at her school. We have a group here for parents of the class of 2013 already started on this forum.</p>
<p>Also, mom, think about mopay. How much will you be able to afford and based on that manage her expectations. You see too many cc kids saying “I appliedand was admitted to xyz” but my parents can’t/won’t pay.</p>
<p>And piggybacking on what mpabon said, take an early look at finances. Find out the Cost of Attendance of some schools your D might be interested in (on each school’s website, usually on the financial aid page). You needn’t pin her down for an accurate list at this point – just check your state university, and one or two privates that she might have mentioned. If she has no idea, use $45K per year for the private figure for now.</p>
<p>Then run an EFC calculator to get some idea of the minimum amount your family would be expected to kick in each year. If financial aid is going to be critical, begin researching schools which are known for giving significant aid (there are a couple of pinned threads around here). Also begin thinking about how you might want to fill in financial gaps: reducing living expenses, pulling from savings, borrowing.</p>
<p>There is some really great advice in this thread to take to heart. I spent a lot of time on this forum gathering information and learning about how much the college selection process has changed. I picked trusted (and even not some trusted) people’s brains to see what their reactions, plans, priorities were. I do best when I can gather a lot of information, some of which may vary significantly, and then seeing what bubbles up to the top as to what I see as most import for my child’s situation. I hardly even involved my child in that part of the process. They were off figuring out their own plans, priorities based up their experiences. Somewhere between all of that, some college visits and college counselor information and opinions, one of more will tend to bubble up quite nicely. Then look at them in the contest of your future, your current situation, the past events to come to a decision.</p>
<p>Not all students will want to be involved through the whole thing, but some will.</p>
<p>At the sophomore level, it will just be nice if they do their best and have options available when they start looking next year, as lease where we are in the Midwest.</p>
<p>Regulars on this board know what I’m about to say, but I’m going to repeat my spiel for the sake of the OP.</p>
<p>It would be a good idea for the OP and her daughter to become knowledgeable about the SAT Subject Tests now. Many highly selective colleges require them for admission, and depending on the student’s course choices, it may make sense to take one or more of them as early as sophomore year (in rare cases, freshman year). </p>
<p>Most aspects of college planning can safely wait until junior year if the student prefers. But this can’t. </p>
<p>Let’s say, for example, that the AP course the student is taking as a sophomore is AP U.S. History. As you will learn if you read through SAT Subject Test threads on this board, that course provides excellent preparation for the U.S. History SAT Subject Test. A student who takes AP U.S. History as a sophomore but waits until junior year to think about SAT Subject Tests may be very frustrated by having missed an opportunity to take a Subject Test and score well at the time when he or she was best prepared for the test. Taking the test a year after the course ends is likely to yield a much lower score (unless the student devotes a substantial amount of time to reviewing the course material).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, high school guidance counselors and teachers may not bring up this topic, so it’s something that parents and students should take the initiative to learn about on their own.</p>
<p>Mostly just reiterating what others are saying. </p>
<p>She should take PSAT next year with minimal studying. She’ll know if she’s in the ball park range for National Merit as a junior and whether she’ll need to study for junior year PSAT when it counts.</p>
<p>If she’s taking AP US History, AP Physics B, or Pre-Calc (and perhaps some other AP that lines up with an SAT subject test) she should definitely take the SAT subject test in the spring.</p>
<p>If she is in an activity where one wins medals, write down the name of the event and the year! It’s amazing how hard this is to reconstruct!</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone needs to look at colleges before junior year. I’m glad to hear she has a life, both my kids had lots of down time and both did very well in the college admissions game.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it so much. I can tell I am going to have so much to learn from all of you and your experiences. :-)</p>
<p>I will definitely learn more about the SAT2 tests and quietly gather my information while trying not to freak her out. :-)</p>
<p>Thinking about sat IIs, my D took them even if they were no required for admission to any schools in her list. However, she had them if she had changed her mind and also are used by her college for placement.</p>
<p>The key point for me was that when it was time to submit applications she had choices. She has friends who changed their minds and decided to apply to schools they never considered before and they couldn’t because they did not take the extra math class or the sat II.
Let your daughter have fun and enjoy her high school years but learn as much as you can so you can guide her.</p>
<p>My advice is simple. Go to Target and buy a huge rubbermaid tote. Put it in your basement and toss in all the college related mailings. (when you are ready to deal with them, they will all be in one location) The amount of mail you will get is overwhelming and if not corralled, will take over your kitchen counter(s).</p>
<p>Also not saying much new, but summarizing / voting on what others have said[ul][<em>]have the child take SAT II after the appropriate classes[</em>]Do the FAFSA4Caster, and be aware that part of a school’s “meeting need” will probably include the student taking out loans - these are ADDITIONAL to the EFC, and tell your children what you can and can’t afford to set expectations[<em>]keep track of activities, hours, and honors[</em>]don’t be swayed by the college’s name, but go for fit[<em>]if she’s likely to want to go to the tippy-top schools, tell her both that she can’t get her heart set on getting in, and that she needs to take the most rigorous course load available[</em>]When you’re doing your research, keep in mind schools that will be both academic and financial safeties[*]maybe visit one local 4-year college one day so she can become aware of the process[/ul]</p>
<p>Run the EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) This year the Collegeboard calculator yielded the same result as our FAFSA, the Finaid calculator was a bit higher. Your mileage, as the saying goes, may vary. You do need to know about your money situation as early as possible so that you can get real about it as soon as possible and so that you can be honest with your child as soon as possible. As written above, there are way too many “I can’t pay for the schools I got into” threads here every April.</p>
<p>Along that line, take time to identify at least one rock-solid safety that your child can love. Remember that an academic safety that is not affordable is no safety, and a financial safety that the child hates is no good either. A True Safety is affordable with no aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, offers the major(s) your child is interested in, guarantees admission for students with his/her stats (many public institutions post this information right on their websites), and is somewhere your child is confident that he/she can be happy for the duration of his/her studies. Not all of our kids can find a True Safety, but if you and your child are willing to dig a little together you should be able to find an institution (or two or three) that come close to meeting these criteria.</p>