June Checklist for Parents: COVID-Adapted

It’s June, which means that virtual classroom has come to an end for the summer! If it’s not yet, it will be very soon. It's an understatement to say these last few months have been odd. Your child (AND you) have navigated some serious pandemic roadblocks. Now that your student is moving up, whether it is from one grade to the next or, even from high school to college the rest of the summer is going to be an exciting time and will really affect how hectic your student’s fall is going to be. Looking for more COVID-19 student-impact information? Find it here. The more time your student takes to prepare now, the better off he or she will be later. While enjoying the sunshine, make sure to encourage your student to keep next semester in mind with this COVID-adapted June checklist:

For Parents of Soon-to-Be High School Seniors

1. Encourage Your Student to Get Involved in Summer Activities, Volunteer

By now you know that, in addition to academic grades and test scores, college admissions officers also look at your student’s extracurricular activities. Summer break is a great opportunity for your student to get involved in clubs, the community and local sports to help show colleges that your student is active both inside and outside of the classroom. Keeping social distancing in mind, encourage your child to creative and use this unprecedented time to their advantage. If they’re artsy, why not visit a local nursing home and decorate windows with window chalk? Or, they could offer to walk dogs at your community animal shelter. There are still so many ways to get out and do good during this pandemic! Volunteering is a great way to spend free time and give back to the community. Not only will they (and you) feel great doing so, but an added bonus is that it looks great on their college applications, too.

2. Create a Summer Savings Plan

If your student is planning on working this summer, have him/her set up a summer savings plan, which allows them to start saving for college now. To make things easier they can look for jobs find a jobs in your neighborhood with our Monster supported, Part-Time Job search tool. The earlier a student starts saving, the less her or she will need to borrow to cover college expenses later. It’s always best to avoid borrowing if able, so help determine the portion of his or her summer income that can go into savings for the future and help your student stick to it!

3. Help Explore Potential Career Paths

If your student unsure of what they’d like to study in college (as most students are), summertime is perfect for exploration! Suggest he or she contact some business professionals in fields they’re interested in to talk to them about their careers. Also, recommend volunteering with organizations or at events which share common interests as your student’s potential career paths. Communicate with your student that this summer should be all about discovering who he or she is and where his or her passions and career path potentially meet.

4. Apply for Scholarships

As a general rule, applying for scholarships should always be on your student's to-do list! As a starting point, have him/her check out this list of 10+ College Scholarships You Can Apply for Today.

5. Ensure Students Keep Up the College Search

Your student’s college search will only continue to ramp up as senior year begins, so any legwork completed now will give an added advantage. Help them look at the summer as an opportunity to schedule virtual college visits, attend virtual college fairs and research schools online. Have your child check sites like You Visit, Campus Tours or eCampusTours to see if the colleges they are interested in offer virtual tours.

6. Inspire Your Student to Create a Student Resume

A student resume will detail your student’s life outside of school, since any school they’ll be applying to will already be aware of what their grades and test scores are from their transcript. They can include items like extracurricular activities, community or volunteer service, work experience, any honors, awards or recognition received.

For Parents of Soon-to-Be College Freshman:

1. Finalizing Records

Your student should double (or triple) check with their high school guidance counselor’s office to ensure that they have the correct college selection on record so that their final transcripts will be sent to the correct school, along with any scholarships received. As many professionals are working from home, have them send an email.

2. Giving Thanks

Now that their college path is underway, it’s important that your student take time to acknowledge those who helped accomplish their college goals. What a better time than the year 2020 (social distancing, pandemic, Coronavirus) to mail kind thank you notes. Have your student send these to anyone who helped with college applications and admissions process – including teachers who wrote recommendations, family friends who may have made phone calls, those who proofread student essays, etc. – should be encouraged. Remember, a hand-written thank you note is second-to-none!

3. Financial Aid Paperwork Completion

Remind your student to follow up with their future college’s financial aid office to ensure all paperwork is complete. Remember that June 30th is the deadline for filing your Federal FAFSA form! This year there has been a significant drop in FAFSA applications. This means there may be more funds financial aid funds available now. Helpful Tip: Many college financial aid officers are busy right now (thanks COVID). We recommend you encourage your student to communicate via email and avoid the phone calls. This may bump him/her up in their response queue too!

4. Arranging Future Finances

It’s smart for your student to open a student checking and/or savings account that’s local to his or her college campus. They’ll have easy access to banking services (think: no ATM fees) and they often offer promotions for students.

5. Spending Time with Friends

Encourage your student to spend time with their high school buddies , even if that’s with Facebook’s new Messenger Rooms. Let them know that, come fall semester, they may be all be in different areas. They should take this time to enjoy each other’s company in pandemic-adapted ways while they can!

6. Dorm Shopping

The campus living situation may be up in the air still, but that doesn’t mean they can’t start planning. Have them make a list of things they may need that are unique to this year. We’re thinking reusable face masks, cleaning supplies, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, backdrop supplies for virtual classrooms and etc. Once your student talks to their future roommate about what he or she may be bringing, they will be able to divide the list of items that need to be purchased. After you know what your student is responsible for, you can begin to help your student shop for their portion of items, plus anything else they’ll need like XL twin sheets or may want, like decor items.

7. Apply for Scholarships

As a general rule, applying for scholarships should always be on your student's to-do list! As a starting point, have him/her check out this list of 10+ College Scholarships You Can Apply for Today.