Teen choosing a college teen

Helping to prepare your teen for life after high school is one of the most important tasks you'll have as a parent. It can be hard to imagine your baby as an adult. But with the right approach, helping your teen move into adulthood can be rewarding. Going to college, getting a job, or taking time off are common choices teens face. Here's how you can help your adult-to-be make the best decision. Although you may remember starting your own college search in the fall of your senior year, many teens these days need to get started earlier because of the extensive research involved and the deadlines for early admissions programs to competitive programs.

In the wake of the college admissions scandal , there has been a heavy focus on how and why our kids are—or are not—accepted into the school of their choice. My husband and I just recently did some updated calculations for the estimated cost for our son to go to a state university in Pennsylvania in 10 years. Parents and their teens need to weigh the costs of attending private universities versus public, and community college versus a four-year institution. How much extra educational value is gleaned by attending a more expensive option and how will you afford it? Some students will thrive in an expansive, bustling university setting. Other students might feel more at home in a smaller, more tight-knit environment. Denise Pope, the co-founder of Challenge Success , an organization looking for strategies for better learning, emphasizes this point to ABC New s:.

After your teen completes high school, they find themselves on the verge of making one of the biggest and perhaps most difficult decisions of their life, choosing a college major. The impact of this choice can be life-long as their college education is likely to serve as the foundation on which they may be building their entire professional career. Before you even start discussing majors with your teen, you need to make them ponder over what they expect of their life. Ask them where they see themselves heading in the years to come and how a college fits into the equation. Talk to them about the different career options and their prerequisites to help them envision a goal and the path to it.

Thankfully, and take it from my parents who put four kids through four different colleges and tackled various loans and grant paperwork en route! It just takes organization, patience, and logic. Wait, what? Hear Beal out. In other words, collaborate with your teen as an objective counselor and advisor.