Getting Your Teen on Board with College Prep

For adults, it is often clear that students need to start preparing for college before senior year. However, your teenager likely has other things on their mind. With sports, friends, social media, hobbies, and more, researching what is needed for college is probably the last thing your child wants to do. If you need some help getting your teen on board with college prep, check out our ideas below!

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This post is part of a 10-day “Tips for Homeschool Moms” series we are doing in combination with several other blogs. For more information about this series and to see the other bloggers and topics, visit this post.

How do I Start Getting my Teen on Board with College Prep?

Before we talk about what your teen needs to do, we should start with the first hurdle: helping them realize why it’s important! This part can be the most difficult for teenagers, especially with their limited life experience. To help them realize why college prep is important, you need to put things in perspective for them.

When my oldest son was in high school, I struggled to get him to take his academics seriously. Eventually, I asked him to tell me a few colleges he thought he might like to go to. Then I told him to look up the average GPA and ACT / SAT score for each – as well as the cost. The answers he found gave him a shock. And it worked. He realized he needed to focus more on his grades and scores – and he needed to start thinking about how to win scholarships.

This exact approach might not work for you, but you need to find a way for your teen to understand the consequences of what they do or don’t do in their early high school years. They must understand what types of qualities the colleges they want to attend are looking for. Too frequently, seniors suddenly realize they don’t have the grades, skills, or experiences to pursue a college plan they have only recently decided on.

Of course, your teen’s plans will likely change throughout high school, and that’s perfectly fine. Having a general plan and expectations of what is needed for college is what matters. And this plan needs to be theirs – not yours! They will not be motivated to achieve your dreams for them. To get your teen on board with college prep, they need to see how it fits in with their future as they imagine it.

What Should I Advise My Teen to Do?

As mentioned above, the first step is for your child to have a general plan for what they need for college. If your child doesn’t have any idea where they might want to go to school, have them look up a few universities in your state and make note of the cost, admission rates, GPA/ACT/SAT requirements, etc.

Make a goal! If your child has a specific school they want to go to, start making a more solid plan for admission. Find the ACT/SAT score requirements for both admission and scholarships, and have your teen start working towards those. Look at the cost and estimate what your teen will need in scholarships to go to this university. Having clear targets to work towards can help motivate your teen and realize the importance of prepping now.

If you would like a fun and engaging way to motivate your teen through college prep this summer, check out FundaFunda’s High School Challenge! We offer this challenge for homeschooled teenagers to guide them through college prep with games, activities, and prizes! Your teen earns points for each of the “challenges” they complete, and the students with the most will earn Amazon gift cards ranging from $15-$150. The tasks we suggest are interactive, unique, and educational. Your teen will have a blast, and you’ll know they are learning a variety of useful skills!

Blog Series

We hope this post has inspired you with some methods of getting your teen on board with college prep! This post is part of a 10-day “Tips for Homeschool Moms” series we are doing in conjunction with other homeschool blogs. Our theme is “Preparing Your Homeschooled Teen for College”. You can find all of our posts, as well as the other blogs and series topics linked in this post. Our partners have some excellent experiences and insights to share in their series, so please check out their blogs!

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can leave them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading, and happy college prepping!

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Meryl van der Merwe

Meryl homeschooled her 4 children and during that time started teaching at the local homeschool co-op. She still teaches there - as well as online at FundaFunda Academy. In addition, she coaches homeschool Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl teams and an inner-city First Lego League team. In her spare time she loves reading and traveling.