5 Important Steps to Prepare Your Child For College

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Parents want what is best for their children. This includes a satisfying, successful, and rewarding life. Although each parent?s goals may be different, depending on their specific children, most parents share a common goal in providing their children with the best. For this, many push their children to receive a college degree. Preparing your child for college begins way before college applications begin. Colleges are more competitive than ever and require more and more extra curricular activities. Parents can begin preparing their children for college acceptance in a variety of ways.

Consider the differences between public and private schools. Both schools have advantages and disadvantages. The right school for your child will depend on their academic and social needs. A few of the benefits of private school include smaller class sizes, more teacher attention, and a greater variety of after school activities. Also benefits of receiving a private school education include better resume listings, higher academic preparation for college entrance exams, and more opportunities to community service programs.

One of the most common reasons that parents choose to enroll their children into the top private schools are the smaller class sizes. This allows teachers to spend more academic preparation time with each student. Also, a student who struggles with academics is likely to get lost in a large school with hundreds of students. Private high schools on average, are less than half the size of public schools. More of the students in private schools also enter into the schools honor program.

Begin a routine of after school studying. Studying for exams and completing homework can take up a lot of time. Dedicating a specific time slot to after school studying and homework completion can help your child get into the routine of putting aside the time for these tasks. This set time also allows you time to interact with your children, getting to know what they are working on in school. Many private high schools recommend at least a couple of hours every evening to dedicate to academic studies.

Encourage extra curricular activities from a young age. Colleges want to know that your child has a passion, other than school. They want to know that they have dreams and motivations. It may take a child many years to find the hobby that they are passionate about. Enrolling them into activities from a young age gets them into the routine of trying out different hobbies. It also gives them sufficient time to find the one after school activity that they most enjoy. Having after school activities, such as being on the high school basketball team of one of the city?s top private schools, can be a great addition to the college application packet.

Provide your child with community service opportunities. Colleges want their students to be contributing members of their communities. They want to know what they have done, thus far, in helping their city. Volunteer projects and being members of groups that help others are a great way to stand out against other top private school candidates. Encouraging your child to participate in community service projects also helps them to grow up with a compassion for others who are in need.

Provide them with college test preparation classes. There are many tests that measure the college aptitude of an individual. College entrance admissions take these scores into account. A few of these tests can be difficult to study for. However, many top private schools offer specialized classes and trainings for success on these tests. Average national SAT scores were 497 in reading, 514 in math, and 489 in writing. Students in independent schools scored 541, 579, and 550.

There are 30,861 private schools in the United States, serving 5.3 million PK to 12 students. Parents who wish to enroll their children into private schools to reap the benefits are likely to find top private schools locally. A parent can also increase their child?s chances of acceptance into a top school by providing them with routine study times, enrolling them in after school activities, encouraging community service projects, and preparing them for college entrance tests.

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