As students think about their future after high school, one of those paths, of course, is heading to college. However, how prepared are they to enter college? A recent survey found that less than half of students (44.8%) feel positively about being ready for college and future careers. What can schools do to ensure their graduates succeed in college after leaving high school? Consider how you can build your students up in the following ways:
Positive teacher and peer relationships
A positive school experience is crucial in helping students prepare for college, starting with the teacher. Teachers need to make school enjoyable and engaging for students. A “warm demander” approach can promote social-emotional learning and academic success as it includes a combination of care, discipline, and high expectations.
Your students can also receive guidance from volunteer “mentors” to guide them through getting ready for college from a first-hand source. These mentors can include professionals in a field they wish to join, high school alums who are current college students, or other college-going role models. These people can work individually with a high schooler by meeting outside the classroom, offering advice, and addressing specific questions.
Provide curriculum and environments that encourage “soft skills”
As you prepare students to succeed academically, you still need to develop “soft skills.” In short, these are the skills to help students organize themselves and interact with others effectively. These include time management, critical thinking, communication skills, and other habits.
How do you prepare such skills? That will depend on making a diverse curriculum and classroom environment. Including group projects, real-world examples, AP courses, research projects, guided questions, and more will help develop these skills necessary for college and any career afterward. As needed, individualized curriculum plans support a particular career path that will foster the necessary skills to succeed.
Assist students in completing steps for college entry
When applying and searching for a university for them, students will need support as they embark on this completely new experience. The most basic is ensuring that students know the required entrance exams and college requirements and how to prepare for them. Communicating what needs to happen, such as crucial deadlines, will go a long way for students to focus on studying rather than figuring out college application basics. Providing information about schools regarding costs, acceptance rates, and college campus visits removes unnecessary busy work to decide. While you don’t want to handhold, providing a timeline and eliminating unnecessary barriers due to a lack of information can still help students while keeping them working toward their goals on their own.
Increase awareness of and help students apply for financial aid
Finally, as with many problems in life, a barrier to college comes down to having the funds to make it worth it. That’s why students and parents need to know their financial options. Whether it’s FAFSA, Upward Bound, Career Beginnings, or more, those aspiring for college must understand what’s out there to afford college. Schools can help by scheduling workshops for parents and students to learn the process and information on scholarships and guiding them through the application process. If schools don’t have this knowledge, officers at local colleges can provide this information while informing students about their universities.
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Getting the next generation ready for their next stage in life is a profoundly complex academic, financial, and sociological issue. There are also a lot of unique obstacles to address on a case-by-case basis. Regardless, students and parents count on guides to help prepare them for their next steps, especially if this is the first generation entering college. The more you can prepare them for a smooth transition to higher education, the more people will remember your school fondly for decades to come.
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Our mission at OnToCollege is to help schools and families create two- and four-year college graduates with minimal debt. We believe every student deserves the right college at the right price. OnToCollege partners with over 750 schools in 26 states to strengthen their college and career readiness culture through effective test prep (grades 6-12) and college counseling tools. The OnToCollege video test prep courses have a proven track record of increasing school composite ACT scores and increasing scholarship dollars for students.
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Otus significantly improves the way we support the whole child by providing an all-in-one platform for educators to collect, analyze, and use student data to ensure every child – no matter their learning level or background – is on a trajectory to achieve their true potential. Otus was created and built for teachers, by teachers. It saves educators time through the streamlined integration of assessment, performance tracking, and third-party data, while its gradebook and dashboard reports make it easy for teachers, administrators, and families to understand each student’s growth.