Ohio Department of Education Families

Below are links to activities you can do with your teen to help them find out their career interests, timelines for college planning and a checklist of important dates in the college application process.

Activities

• Analyzing, Prioritizing, Deciding: Career Decision Activity (PDF);
• The Ohio Career Information System (OCIS) contains links to career assessments, an interest profiler and several other tools to help your teen connect their interests with a career;
• KnowHow2Go provides a list of steps for exploring career interests and developing career plans. Click on the appropriate grade level on the left and then click on "Explore Your Interests";
• Career Games provide a variety of "discovery tools" based on the work of French career expert Daniel Poirot.  

Timelines

The College Board provides detailed, month-by-month college planning checklists for parents of juniors and seniors.

• College Board Action Plan: Your Junior
• College Board Action Plan: Your Senior

Important Dates

Below is a list of tests, deadlines and events that may be important to you and your child while planning for college. To help you both feel more relaxed about the process, make a calendar together with the following dates:.

• SAT and/or ACT tests;
• Early decision college application due dates;
• College application due dates, which may be different for each school;
• Deadlines for any scholarships your child is applying for;
• Financial aid application deadlines;
• College decision deadlines;
• Visits to college campuses;
• Meetings with the school guidance counselor; and
• College fairs or other college-related events at your child's high school.