An independent educational consultant helps families of high school students determine what colleges they should apply to based on their academic, social, and financial needs.

While area high school seniors are busy working on their college applications, their parents are worrying about how to pay for college. 

Costs have skyrocketed 213 percent at public universities and 129 percent at private universities in the last 30 years. Things are not going to get any cheaper anytime soon, but there are steps parents can take now to get their share of financial aid for college.

High School seniors applying to college often ask when they should start looking for private scholarships — early in their senior year? Later after they’ve gained acceptance? They plan to add scholarship search to their already heavy caseload of classes, standardizing testing, college search, applications and essays.

Summer is a great time for college bound high school seniors to get a jump on some of the tasks ahead during the fall college application season. Here are 10 things rising seniors should be doing before their final year of high school begins…