The Children’s Trust: How to prepare your high-schooler for college

Most teenagers spend their high school years eager to become more independent, continue to build their own identity and prepare for adulthood. Even as they take on more responsibility, your high schooler still benefits greatly from your guidance and support along the way.

One common path toward independence is attending college. The earlier you start preparing together, the smoother the process will be and the less stressful it will feel for both of you.

Freshman Year

There’s no single “right” time to begin college planning, but starting early helps. You can use the college’s acceptance criteria to help create a plan as early as your freshman year.

Freshman year is about discovering passions and honing talent. It’s a time to develop good study habits, such as note-taking, organizational skills, time management and meeting class deadlines.

Beyond the classroom, participating in extracurricular activities and volunteering can be a fun way to discover passions and maybe find a future college major. Now is the time to start keeping a list of everything your child takes part in. One day in the not-so-distant future, this list will become the blueprint for your child’s college application.

Sophomore Year

There’s no rush, and nothing is set in stone this early, but having a general idea of how your child’s passions link up to college goals can help shape your academic choices during high school. While standardized testing is no longer essential for many college applications, taking tests like the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in sophomore year can be beneficial practice for college application tests down the line. It may help your child qualify for scholarship programs and improve his or her application.

Junior Year

It’s time to step up the prep. Help your child maintain focus on achieving good grades and steer him or her toward Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes to boost college applications. Also, students should choose extracurricular activities they enjoy that align with their favorite subjects. Now is a good time to consider their college choices and which institutions best align with your high schoolers’ needs and interests. If your child takes standardized tests like the SAT and ACT in their junior year, there will be an opportunity to retake them later on if not satisfied with the results.

During junior year, your child should strive to establish a relationship with the school’s college counselor and participate actively in the College Assistance Program, which is available in all Miami-Dade County Public Schools sites.

Senior Year

The final countdown has arrived. Has it been four years already? By this point, your child’s college applications should be well underway. It’s now up to your child to keep calm and continue to earn good grades, take the standardized tests early in the year if needed, and start completing college applications. Senior year is a chance to increase responsibility and build skills surrounding independence, such as doing laundry, cooking and managing money to be ready to do it without your guidance. If money is on your mind, find out what financial aid is available at the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website (studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa).

How The Children’s Trust Can Help

Each stage of parenting presents its own challenges, and helping your high schooler prepare for college is no exception. Trust-funded providers like Breakthrough Miami (breakthroughmiami.org/), Boys and Girls Club of Miami-Dade (bgcmia.org) and the Mexican American Council (mexamcouncil.org) offer academic enrichment programs that give high school and college students the opportunity to mentor younger students in various subjects and pass on lessons they learned about college prep.

Additionally, the Summer Youth Internship Program (miaminterns.org), proudly funded in part by The Children’s Trust, enables rising sophomores, juniors and seniors to gain experience working for real companies and organizations for five weeks in the summer while earning income, which looks great on a college application. As does the Children’s Trust Youth Advisory Committee (TheChildrensTrust.org/YAC), a leadership development program with a focus on service and advocacy that also helps students accumulate those needed community service hours. For more information, visit TheChildrensTrust.org/CollegeResources on The Trust’s website. Miami Dade College also offers courses on test and college preparation in its School of Continuing Education and Professional Development (ce.mdc.edu).

Technical Colleges

College is a great path for many students, but it’s certainly not the only option. Technical colleges and trade school options have become increasingly popular, especially since the pandemic. These programs offer hands-on skills training and often provide a quicker route to good jobs - an appealing choice in today’s uncertain job market.

For more information, visit M-DCPS Technical Colleges at www.careerinayear.com or explore their Career and Technical Education programs at ctemiami.net. At MDC, the school offers a multitude of certificate program options that are searchable at mdc.edu/academics/programs/certificate.aspx.

Rachel Spector, MSW, is director of programs at The Children’s Trust and oversees the Youth Development, Early Childhood, and Innovation Fund initiatives.

This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 5:14 PM.