Helping your high school student plan for college can feel beyond overwhelming these days. There are so many things to consider. What schools will be the right fit for my teen? When should they apply? When should they take the ACT and SAT, which one should they take, and how should they prepare? How do they write a strong college essay? How do we fill out the financial aid forms? Where can they find out about scholarships? etc., etc., etc.,
As you begin to think about all of these questions, it may suddenly feel like there is a giant elephant sitting on your chest. So, that brings to mind a famous question – “How do you eat an elephant?” And the answer – “One bite at a time.” And that is exactly how you and your high schooler should tackle the whole planning for college conundrum.
There are many great resources out there to help navigate the college process. Definitely make sure of all the online information to be google searched, but good old fashioned books can also be life savers. Below you will find some of the best college planning books for high schoolers.
So, whether your high school student hasn’t even begun to consider where they might want to go to college and needs to begin researching schools or whether they’ve known since Kindergarten and now it’s just a matter of getting or figuring out to pay for it, you’ll find the answers you’re looking for in one of these books, guaranteed
the best college planning books for high schoolers
A Starter Guide to College for Clueless Students & Parents
Not sure where to start? This book explains the basics, and then moves into detailed information that you may not need right away, but probably will use later. It has handy reference pages containing checklists, testing rules, calendars, admissions statistics, college degree levels, and websites to use. Consider this the help you need to go from overwhelm to organized and on track to help your high schooler find and get into the college of their dreams.
Fiske Guide to Colleges
There are many college guide books out there, but counselors and other experts in the field will tell you that this is really the one you want. It provides information on more than 350 schools and gives an insider perspective with quotes from real students and other information you won’t find on college websites. It is fully updated and expanded every year and is widely regarded as one of the most helpful, honest, and straightforward guides that parents and high school students can rely on to help them make one of life’s most important decisions.
College Admission Essentials
Applying to colleges is stressful, but this book helps make it just a little bit easier! This book answers and guides you along the admission process. It provides you with tips for how to stand out to colleges and is written by a team of counselors, advisors, and even deans of admission with experience.
The Official ACT Prep Guide
This is the most common book used by independent tutors helping students to prepare for the ACT. It includes six actual ACT® tests and provides clear explanations for every answer. There are also practical tips for boosting scores on the English, math, reading, and science tests, as well as the optional writing test. As a bonus there are also online extras like access to 400 online flashcards to help your teen prepare for all sections in the ACT® examination.
SAT Prep “Black Book”
The Black Book is the ideal SAT book. It doesn’t just review material from high school classes, but it helps students exploit design flaws in the SAT, using its own “SAT tricks” against it. There are 600+ detailed, systematic, easy-to-follow walkthroughs for real SAT questions from the College Board. The Black Book is a clear, concise roadmap to the SAT. It explains exactly how every SAT question works, and how to beat it in the least time possible.
The Price You Pay for College
The financial aid system is complicated and the evolving role of “merit aid” is only making matters more confusing. Plus, the real value of various universities isn’t something many families fully understand. This book examines all the factors parents and high schoolers should be taking into consideration when deciding on where to go to college and how much to pay.
The Ultimate Scholarship Book
Information on 1.5 million scholarships, grants, and prizes is available in this directory that features awards indexed by career goal, major, academics, public service, talent, athletics, religion, ethnicity, and more. Each entry contains all the necessary information for students and parents to complete the application process, including eligibility requirements, how to obtain an application, how to get more information about each award, sponsor website listings, award amounts, and key deadlines. This guide also includes tips on how to conduct the most effective search, how to write a winning application, and how to avoid scams.
On Writing the College Application Essay: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice
On Writing the College Application Essay is an inside guide to writing a college application essay that will stand out from the pack. Baum advises students on how to avoid platitudes and find their authentic voice. There are also helpful tools and ideas to spark the writer’s imagination and help them approach themes with originality and panache to make even the most tired topics—the ones most students should stay away from—fresh.
Grown and Flown
This book is more for the parents than for the high schoolers, but even high schoolers can still get a lot of value out of this book! Grown and Flown is a guide about building relationships and is organized by topic to help you prepare for college and beyond as you prepare to send your child off to college.
Parenting teens and tweens is hard and that’s before college even comes into the picture, but these popular posts other parents found helpful might just make it a little easier.
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