What Vaccines Does My Teen Need Before College?

What Vaccines Does My Teen Need Before College?

Most colleges won’t let a student register or move in without vaccine documentation, and some of these are multi-dose series that can’t be finished in a week. If your teen leaves this month, now is the time. Here’s the full list and what Florida specifically requires.

The frustrating part of college vaccine requirements is that they’re a moving target — every school sets its own, and the deadline is usually tied to registration or housing rather than the first day of class. Miss it and students can find a hold on their account.

The good news: for most teens who’ve kept up with routine care, this is a records problem rather than a shots problem.

Start here: get the records

Before anything else, pull your teen’s immunization record. In Florida, that’s usually the DH 680 form, and many families already have it from middle-school requirements.

A surprising share of college vaccine “problems” turn out to be documentation problems — the doses were given, but records are split across a pediatric office, a pharmacy, a school clinic, and an urgent care from a summer trip. Consolidating them is the first step, and it’s something we can help with.

The vaccines colleges typically require or recommend

Meningococcal ACWY — the one that gets the most attention

This is the vaccine most closely associated with college requirements, for good reason. Meningococcal disease is rare, but it moves fast and college dorms are a classic setting for transmission.

The CDC routine schedule is a dose at 11–12 years with a booster at 16. That booster is the one most often missed — a teen who got their shot at 11 and never came back is not considered protected for college, and many schools specifically require a dose given on or after the 16th birthday.

If your teen is heading to a dorm and hasn’t had a dose since middle school, this is the single most important item on the list.

Meningococcal B — a separate vaccine, easy to confuse

MenB protects against a different group of meningococcal bacteria and is not included in the ACWY shot. It’s recommended for teens and young adults aged 16–23 based on shared decision-making between the family and the provider, with 16–18 the preferred window.

Some colleges require it, many recommend it, and plenty of families don’t realize it exists as a separate vaccine. It’s worth a conversation — outbreaks on college campuses have involved serogroup B.

Hepatitis B

A three-dose series most children complete in infancy. Florida requires postsecondary institutions to provide information about hepatitis B to students living on campus, and schools generally want documentation or a signed declination.

MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)

Two doses are the standard requirement, and colleges are strict about this one. Measles outbreaks in recent years have made schools less flexible about incomplete documentation.

Varicella (chickenpox)

Two doses, or documented history of disease. A parent’s recollection that “she had it as a toddler” is usually not accepted — schools typically want a provider’s documentation or a blood test showing immunity.

Tdap

A booster is recommended at 11–12 and again every 10 years. Many colleges want one within the past 10 years, and it also protects the younger children your teen may be around at home.

HPV

Often not required, but genuinely important — and the college transition is the last easy chance many families get. The series is most effective given before any exposure, and teens who start at 15 or older need three doses rather than two. If your teen hasn’t started or hasn’t finished, this is worth doing now.

Polio, Hepatitis A, Flu, and COVID-19

Polio and hepatitis A are usually already complete from childhood. Annual flu vaccination is strongly recommended for anyone living in shared housing — dorms are efficient places to catch influenza. COVID-19 vaccination should follow current CDC guidance for your teen’s situation.

What Florida specifically requires

Florida law requires colleges and universities to provide students living in on-campus housing with detailed information about meningococcal meningitis and hepatitis B, including the risks and the availability of vaccines. Students who choose not to be vaccinated generally must sign a waiver declining.

Individual schools frequently go further than the state minimum, so check your teen’s specific institution — the requirements are usually posted by the student health center.

Why timing matters more than parents expect

Several of these are series, not single shots:

• HPV for a teen starting at 15 or older: three doses over six months
• Hepatitis B, if incomplete: three doses over six months
• MenB: two or three doses depending on the product

A teen who starts an HPV series the week before move-in will be finishing it over winter break at best. Two or three months of lead time makes all of this much easier — which, for a student leaving in August, means the conversation ideally happened in spring.

If you’re reading this in August with a teen leaving soon, it’s still worth coming in. Getting the first dose of a series started, and the single-dose vaccines done, puts your teen in a much better position than waiting.

Book the visit — and consider a full check-up

Many families combine this with a final well-child visit before their teen leaves. It’s a natural moment to review chronic conditions, refill prescriptions, talk through how to access care away from home, and cover the health topics that come up in a first year away.

It’s also worth discussing how your teen will handle a sick visit at college, and whether telemedicine makes sense for staying connected to our office once they’re gone.

Book an appointment at our Longwood or Apopka office, or contact us if you need help tracking down records first. If your teen’s college has sent a specific requirement list, bring it — it makes the visit faster.