Finding the right college or university may prove to be a daunting task for many students and parents who are faced with thousands of schools to choose from. Parents, teachers and guidance counselors must be attuned to each student’s educational performance and abilities to be able to assist in making this difficult choice.

Students who have high achievement capabilities otherwise called gifted and talented (GT) students may need other specific activities to help them making the appropriate choice. They may have a more problematic time than other students in making these choices.

College planning starts with a student’s self-awareness, learning about themselves and learning about their community and how they fit in that community. Learning about oneself is a long course which may take 4-6 years of continuous work. The school must provide students with guidance activities and resources by means of counselors and teachers and even peers who can help in discussing their concerns, listen to their stories, interpret their experiences and understand their needs in an effort to understand their self-perceptions and at the same time use these perceptions in laying the groundwork for college planning. Counselors must be on hand to help them make sense of their feelings, doubts and misgivings and encourage them during these times.

Parents play an important role during this time as well as peers as they can provide guidance in the home as well as in the community.

Knowing their interests, strengths and abilities can help identify which path they would like to take later on. Coupling these self-awareness activities with career-awareness programs can help students identify what they would want to pursue in the future and identify which interests and abilities may be considered as leisure activities.

Skills on decision-making, time-management and leadership must be incorporated in programs and activities to help them cope with college and after-college life. Knowing how to manage one’s time and resources is a major foundation for success.

Workshops can provide students with further information on various colleges’ admissions processes to see which college would be a match for them. Learning about how applying students are evaluated can give insight on which college or university they might want to pursue.

Students must always be ready to research and gather information as a crucial step for college planning. They must read the material on hand, talk to people, ask pertinent questions, and get their input and of course visiting the colleges.

By doing the necessary research, students must be able to narrow down the list of desirable colleges matching their personal needs, interests, values with what the college has to offer. Important things that should be taken into consideration are constraints such as cost and distance. Finally, students must always be aware of the selecting process or method of the college they are interested in. As a rule, students must include in their list a school that they know they can get into, secondly, a school that has more stringent admissions criteria and lastly a few colleges whose admissions criteria match the student’s credentials.

Preparing for college as early as possible is beneficial to gifted and talented students as well as their parents to ease the difficult process of college planning.

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