10+ Ways Teachers Can Help Prepare Students for College

One of the greatest disservices we can do when preparing high school students for college is treating it like a sprint that starts in senior year. Students need time to build the academic habits and interpersonal skills that make higher education manageable, from reading and writing stamina to self-advocacy and time management.

A review of college access programs found that when students receive real guidance before graduation, their chances of enrolling in a two- or four-year college increase by about 12%. The trouble is that carving out time for that kind of support isn’t easy when teachers already feel stretched thin.

That’s where structured, ready-to-use resources make all the difference—helping educators support every student, without adding to their workload.

In the sections that follow, we’ll break down practical strategies, essential skills, and free resources that empower educators to guide students through every step of the college journey. From building academic habits to supporting families and navigating financial aid, here are 10+ ways teachers can help prepare students for college—starting now.

Main Takeaways

• Starting in 9th and 10th grade helps students build the habits and confidence needed to navigate college independently.
• College readiness includes academic skills like reading stamina and study habits, as well as non-academic skills such as communication, time management, and self-advocacy.
• A strong college-going culture recognizes four-year degrees, two-year programs, certificates, and trades as equally valid postsecondary options.
• Free, research-based digital lessons from Everfi make it easy to integrate college and career readiness into existing classes without additional prep.

Table of Contents

1. What Does Preparing High School Students for College Involve?
2. How Can Teachers Help Students Choose the Right College?
3. What Academic Skills Do Students Need for College Success?
4. What Non-Academic Skills Should Students Develop Before College?
5. How Can Teachers Support Students in the College Application Process?
6. What Role Do Standardized Tests Play in College Prep?
7. How Can Teachers Help Students Build a Strong Academic Record?
8. How Can Teachers Foster a College-Going Culture in Their Classrooms?
9. What Resources Can Teachers Use to Support College Prep?
10. How Can Teachers Involve Families in the College Preparation Journey?
11. What Does Everfi Offer in Terms of College-Readiness Resources?

What Does Preparing High School Students for College Involve?

Students who complete high school without a rigorous college- and career-prep curriculum will likely lack the academic, social, and emotional readiness that post-secondary environments assume. When all those expectations hit at once, even confident seniors can feel overwhelmed in the first few weeks. Some start questioning whether continuing their education is a good fit simply because they haven’t had enough practice getting back on track when things go sideways.

To avoid that early burnout, students need chances to take ownership of their work while they still have a built-in support system. They also need structured ways to explore post-secondary options available to them, because the pathway that fits one student’s goals or finances may look very different from another’s.

Programs like Everfi’s free college and career-readiness lessons help create that foundation at every grade level. Because the resources are self-paced and grounded in real-world scenarios, students feel engaged; not burnt-out. The same goes for teachers because Everfi’s lessons are turnkey with everything needed to get students learning without having to spend more than a few minutes planning.

How Can Teachers Help Students Choose the Right College?

Most teenagers haven’t had to think metacognitively about how their learning style or non-academic strengths will carry over to a college setting, so they often focus on things like intended majors or family legacy instead.

In a perfect world, teachers would have time to sit with every student and walk through those reflections one-on-one. Since that isn’t realistic in most classrooms, standard-aligned digital tools, like Everfi’s resources, can take on the early work.

In classrooms that used Keys to Your Future last year, students showed a 29% increase in their understanding of planning for life after high school. Because they’ve already done that thinking, the conversations students have at college fairs or campus visits tend to be more focused on personal fit instead of rehashing the basics.

It also helps to check in with students afterward and talk through how their own habits might show up in a college setting. You can use questions such as:

• How do you feel in large, busy classrooms versus smaller ones?
• What do you usually do when you’re unsure about an assignment?
• How easily do you adjust when schedules change?
• How comfortable are you reaching out to an unfamiliar adult for help?

As students start considering where to submit applications, they’ll have this new self-knowledge in mind to guide them.

What Academic Skills Do Students Need for College Success?

Compared to high school, first-year students face more stringent expectations: They’ll need to make sense of new material without the personalized scaffolding they’re used to, while managing their own workload.

It’s common for even the most capable students to feel “lost at sea” in their first semester as they face these new challenges. However, it usually reflects a lack of practice with productive struggle rather than a lack of potential.

These academic skills can be broken down into two general categories: intellectual and logistical.

Intellectual college readiness skills include:

• Critical thinking: Students benefit from regular chances to puzzle through ideas. Even a short reading or data set that raises questions forces them to slow down and make sense of what’s in front of them.
• College-level reading: The most challenging part of college-level reading is that professors assume students know what to do when a text stops making sense. One effective way to practice this is to use short but demanding passages and ask students to explain the structure of an argument rather than skimming for the gist.
• College-level writing: First-year courses expect students to respond to what they read, not just summarize it. Short analytical responses that ask students to take a position on a text and support it with specific evidence give them a realistic preview of the kind of writing they’ll do in college.

Logistical college readiness skills include:

• Time management: Planning is unfamiliar territory for many teenagers. When an assignment extends beyond a single period, they have to figure out how to sequence their work, and that trial-and-error is what teaches them how to manage longer tasks later on.
• Study habits: Students often rely on rereading when they study, but it’s not particularly effective at moving information from short-term to long-term memory. To encourage your students to engage in active thinking, introduce them to a range of study skills, such as mind mapping, interleaving, spaced repetition, and the SQ3R method.
• Research skills: Even small research tasks can help students learn to separate useful sources from everything else online. Asking them to note who created a source, why it was published, and how it connects to their assignment builds the evaluative habits they’ll need for college-level research.

What Non-Academic Skills Should Students Develop Before College?

In addition to academic skills, high school students can start practicing several soft skills for college success. Sometimes called “durable skills,” these refer to the personal and social abilities that guide how students interact with others and handle unfamiliar situations.

• Communication and self-advocacy: Classroom routines help students get comfortable speaking for themselves. Before stepping in during a group conflict, ask the student to describe what isn’t working and what they want to change. That practice — putting a problem into words — mirrors the emails, conversations, and follow-up questions they’ll need to handle in college.
• Collaboration and leadership: Opportunities where students take initiative outside class build the confidence they’ll need to handle college organizations and group work later on.
• Financial literacy: A lot of first-year stress comes from not understanding how college costs actually work. Everfi Financial Literacy and Pathways: Financing Higher Education courses give students a chance to sort through those questions before they graduate. In schools that used the latter, students improved their understanding of financial aid and program costs by 38%.
• Basic life management: Simple tasks like tracking deadlines and arranging appointments form the backbone of independent living. Giving students chances to handle these responsibilities now makes the transition to campus life far less jarring.

How Can Teachers Support Students in the College Application Process?

Finding yourself in a flood of last-minute requests for college application support can turn even the most organized teacher’s desk into a mess. Instead, establish a simple system that keeps things manageable and helps students take more ownership of the process.

Streamline Recommendation Requests

Start by showing students, early in the year, exactly where to find your recommendation request form. Keep it simple by asking for one piece of work they’re proud of from your class, a challenge they worked through, and something about themselves that wouldn’t show up on a transcript. Having this resource on hand when it’s time to start writing gives you concrete evidence to work with that you already know the student feels confident about.

Scaffold Personal Statement Prompts

It’s a challenging task to sum yourself up in 650 words, so give students a way to collect material long before application season. Use short, quick-write prompts each week and ask them to record a recent moment that shows something about how they think or work, such as an obstacle they navigated or a responsibility they took on. By the time they start drafting, they’ll have a bank of authentic experiences to draw from instead of trying to invent a story under pressure.

Bring in Student Reviewers

Another method for containing the madness is asking students to support one another. Peers can be invaluable readers, able to point out where the writing is confusing or where the author’s voice is unclear. After that round of feedback, you can step in to help them refine and tighten the final version.

What Role Do Standardized Tests Play in College Prep?

Standardized tests don’t decide everything about college admission, but they still matter. In addition to affecting admission decisions, many universities use them when awarding merit aid or deciding where to place students in entry-level courses.

SAT

The SAT is a multiple-choice reading, writing, and math exam with a total score from 400 to 1600.

ACT

The ACT reports a composite score of 1–36 based on the English, math, reading, and science sections. Some programs also ask for the optional writing test.

AP Exams

AP exams are tied to specific courses and are scored on a 1–5 scale. Depending on a school’s particular policies, students can use high AP scores to earn credit in a related class, saving them time and money once they enroll.

As for tools and resources, point them toward official, free practice tests from the College Board and the ACT. You can also normalize low-stakes quizzing in your own class. A 2023 meta-analysis of 24 studies found that regular practice tests and quizzes not only boosted performance but also reduced test anxiety for students from elementary school through college.

These practice scores will also help you work with them to develop realistic testing goals based on their score improvements throughout the year.

How Can Teachers Help Students Build a Strong Academic Record?

Starting as early as 9th grade, you can help students see how their course choices and efforts in class create a picture of themselves as a student.

• Take a sample schedule and walk students through how each course converts to grade points, then average it out in front of them. Once they’ve seen the math, add in one honors or AP class with a weighted scale.
• Many students assume that an easy A will always look better than a harder B. In reality, colleges often consider a B in a challenging course as stronger evidence of college readiness skills.
• Reassure students that colleges are more interested in consistent improvement than they are in one bad semester. So, for example, even if they got a C in sophomore English, admissions offices will give credence to the fact that they raised that grade to a B by the next term.
• Connect grades to cost, not just admission. Tools like Everfi’s Pathways: Financing Higher Education invite students to run scenarios that link GPA and earned credits to scholarships and out-of-pocket costs so they can find ways to save themselves hundreds of dollars. Last year, Everfi awarded over $300,000 in college scholarships to students who completed select Everfi resources.

Keeping the focus on clear examples and numbers gives students a realistic picture of what “a strong academic record” actually means, and it helps them understand how the work they’re doing right now will follow them into their postsecondary options.

How Can Teachers Foster a College-Going Culture in Their Classrooms?

Most students don’t wake up one morning with a “college-bound mindset.” They piece it together from what they see adults doing and saying around them.

One of the simplest ways to do this is through personal stories. Be candid in explaining when things went wrong, and how you course-corrected to show them that setbacks don’t disqualify them from postsecondary success.

You should also prioritize celebrating small milestones. A simple board where students log that they’ve completed the FAFSA or attended a campus visit turns the process into a sequence of manageable steps.

Finally, college prep should not hold four-year degrees as the “best option,” because for many people, that’s not the case. On top of the enormous debt college incurs — $108,584 for a public institution — they might prefer a career path in the trades or one that lets them start moving their career forward as soon as possible.

What Resources Can Teachers Use to Support College Prep?

Many students only get bits and pieces of college-prep advice, depending on the classes they take or who has time to help. That makes it hard to build a shared baseline. One of the simplest fixes is choosing a single, reliable resource that every student can work through, then using class time to extend what they’ve already seen.

Many students don’t receive consistent college-readiness instruction, so having a structured resource to lean on is helpful. EVERFI’s curriculum-aligned college and career programs fill that gap without adding work to your plate.

The lessons are free, self-paced, and built around the kinds of decisions teenagers actually have to make: choosing a path after graduation, comparing programs, understanding financial aid, and planning for long-term goals.

They’re also highly effective. After completing Pathways: Financing Higher Education:

• 33% more students felt more prepared to fill out the FAFSA form.
• 45% more students felt more prepared to calculate the right amount to borrow.
• 44% more students felt more prepared to evaluate loan offers.
• 42% more students felt more prepared to develop a plan for repayment.

How Can Teachers Involve Families in the College Preparation Journey?

Families want to support their child’s plans after high school, but many aren’t sure where to begin. A little structure from the school goes a long way. Research shows that students who discuss their courses with a parent or caregiver have 44% higher odds of attending postsecondary education, so your efforts to keep families in the fold make a difference.

Here’s how you can help:

• Give families a one-page overview of the major dates, like the FAFSA opening and upcoming ACT test dates.
• Instead of dense presentations, walk through one concrete task during parent nights, like completing a sample section of the FAFSA or comparing two programs side by side.
• Students sometimes assume they know what their family can manage financially, which can limit their choices early. Giving parents a few prompts opens the door to a more realistic conversation at home.
• Regular updates through email or a classroom platform give families quick reminders without overwhelming them. You can also include links to digital planning tools students use in class to help everyone stay on the same page.

What Does Everfi Offer in Terms of College-Readiness Resources?

Everfi’s free, standards-aligned college & career readiness resources are designed to sit underneath the work teachers already do to help students think beyond high school. Instead of giving students a quick overview of “college options,” the digital lessons give students repeated contact with the academic and practical skills they’ll rely on in their first year after graduation.

For teachers, these courses work like plug-and-play additions. You can drop a lesson into advisory or an AVID unit without having to start from scratch, and the dashboard makes it easy to see where students are getting stuck, so your follow-up conversations are more focused.

For educators and leaders looking to bring this opportunity to their schools, Everfi offers full support, from onboarding and training to ongoing guidance.

Educators that want to learn more can:

• Explore Everfi’s free college & career readiness resources
• Create a teacher account
• Contact your district’s dedicated Everfi implementation team