First of all, she is not behind.
I have two girls. The first, i said “go make a college list and we will visit them over spring break” and she did.
The youngest one there was procrastination, whining…one day I took her to the library and said we are going to look at colleges. We did…but at some point she said “Mom, you like to research on the internet. Could you help me find some colleges?”
So first I asked her what she wanted in a college.
She wanted to be no more than 2 hours away, but not 15 min away.
She did not want to be in a city.
She did not want to be the best student at the college nor overly challenged.
I wanted it to be affordable as we don’t qualify for need based aid
I took her to visit our Big State U, and a littler State College. I thought she would like the State college.
That gave her an idea of what she did and didn’t like in a college.
So then i helped her look within the radius at colleges she would have a chance at merit scholarships (or they would just be affordable sticker price).
If you want, you could help her do the work. Go to the closest college to you and see what she likes/doesn’t like about it. She may have never been to a college. She may be recovering from whatever caused you to be her guardian. She may have no idea what to do.
Actually, she should just really get started with college stuff now. Sign her up for the SAT.
Start working on college ideas with the idea of visiting over spring break.
Also get on this thread:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/class-20xx-community/1839538-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2020.html#latest
Also learn about financial aid while having a guardian:
If the child has the legal guardian appointed by a court, then they are an independent student and can get much aid.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency