Fear of the unknown is most often conquered by knowledge. Visit the school you want to go to as often as possible. Get to know as many of the faculty, administration and even students as you can. A secret source of rapport in a new place can be maintenance people, grounds keepers, cafeteria personnel, cooks, and cleaners. They may have been around the campus for years and if you can make a few of them your friends they may help you in unexpected ways in a time of need.
Take some classes on public speaking before you go to college. Being at ease with talking to strangers will pay dividends throughout your life.
Another fear is the fear of failure. You fear that you will flunk out of college, become a penniless loser and wake up in a dingy hotel room in a bath tub full of ice missing a kidney.
The best way to prevent failure at college is to know your limits. If you are not a straight A rocket scientist then don't try to get into MIT. Just because you parents are alumni does not mean you have to or even should attend a certain institution. If you are not PhD material then a community college might be a cheaper and better bet for you. If you had bad grades in high school or struggle with Dick and Jane and Run Spot Run, then this is a big clue that the social promotion you got at your high school has not prepared you for life. Get thee hence to a community college and take as many of the remedial classes as you can in the subjects you struggled with in high school.
You can actually buy some education before you ever attend a college class. Go to the college book store and buy up all the cheat sheets and cram material you can and pore over it in the summer before you got to college. Nothing prevents you from memorizing the parts of speech, the anatomy of the human body, the plays of Shakespeare, the periodic table of elements and the equations of motions for physics long before you ever attend a class. Throw in the basic equations of elementary functions, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus and you may find that your classes are not that bad at all. Part of what an educational experience at an institution of higher learning is all about is providing a common core of experience for all educated people. At the end of our studies we should, among other things, have a touch stone of concepts and allegories upon which we can construct a Brave New World better than the one our parents left us.
Another way to prepare for college is to go down to your local library and check out every test and certification book they have available. You only want the books with the answers in the back so you know when you are doing things the right way. Take the following tests over and over until you memorize at least one set of answers: PSAT, SAT, ACT, GRE. If possible and your interests lie in the proper direction, memorize a set of answers and questions for the law or medical graduate exams like the MCAT and LSAT as well. Knowledge is timeless and knowing how to pass advanced tests on arcane subjects will almost certainly help you with any test taking anxiety you might have had with more mundane fare.
If you can, sit in on classes you want to take before you take them. Try to avoid the incomprehensible professors with thick foreign accents. Obtain quizzes, notes and tests from students who took the class before you whenever possible. Attend all your classes. Take notes. When you are studying a difficult text, look at the questions and summary at the end of the chapter before you start reading the text. When you are studying for the final, if there is time, skim the first and last sentence in every paragraph of the books for the class.
It's okay to fear that Marxists have taken over your school and that they are trying to mold you into an anti-Capitalist tool of destruction and reduce the United States to Third World status-because they have and they are. But don't fear freshmen Calculus. There are a hundred or more ways to study and memorize everything you need to know about it before you even take the class.
One of the life's secrets is that you don't actually need to go to college to learn everything you need to know in life. But you do need that piece of paper called a degree if you want to go far. Experiences like college can be used to help you grow and mature as a person. Never let the sheep skin scare you. You can know everything you need to know before you take a class or a test if you are willing to put the time in.