USEFUL RESOURCES

  • The Fiske Guide to Colleges:  An actual book, available on Amazon for approx. $24; new versions are released on July 1 of each year. A great place to start learning about colleges.
  • Princeton Review College Profiles: Just google “Princeton Review +[college or univ. name]” and a descriptive “About” entry will pop up that includes descriptions and student reviews about Academics, the student body, and campus life. Covers more colleges and universities than Fiske.
  • Collegedata.com  Easy-to-navigate website for seeing data reported by colleges to the federal govt in their Common Data Sets, including overall admit rates, average test scores, and financial aid disbursements. Use to generally understand likely admissions and financial aid outcomes. (A good companion to Naviance or Maia school-based products, and useful earlier.)
  • Dataverse Comprehensive array of data tables to understand various admissions statistics by college, including the very important Early Action and Early Decision rates. Also has useful lists of Greek life participation rates and direct-entry pre-professional programs + combined degree health programs (e.g. BS/MD programs).
  • BigFuture.collegeboard.org  Search engine for finding colleges that have particular academic majors or sports teams. (Use filters at top of first set of search results to narrow field of college results; the athletic filter is under campus life.) You can also filter by accept rate (under the Admissions tab).
  • College Navigator Search engine maintained by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Also has a link to the US Dept. of Education’s “College Affordability & Transparency Center” website.
  • US News College Ranking Lists  These get a bad rap, but the USNWR lists can be pretty useful, particularly outside of the Top 50 colleges. The lists are particularly helpful when looking for lesser-known schools, including regional universities. The website above has list links for: national universities, national colleges, regional universities, regional colleges, undergrad business programs, undergrad comp sci programs, and undergrad engineering programs. There are several other potentially useful lists as well (e.g. strong colleges for “B students” and colleges with high economic diversity). The business, comp sci and engineering lists are definitely worth a look, for students interested in these areas.
  • NACAC College Fairs  Sponsored by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors and the Common App, these virtual fairs feature multiple institutional participants over several days. Browse fair days and sign up for what interests you. Click on the “Exhibitors” tab on any date, to see which colleges are participating. Another resource is http://www.collegeweeklive.com/.
  • College Confidential  The largest online college discussion-focused community + data/blog/article resources, regarding all aspects of the college search and selection process. Lots of student posts; many students use this site heavily, and it provides college-specific updates about things like decision release dates.
  • Cappex, JLV College Counseling Scholarship List, and Unigo  Private scholarship search sites.
  • CollegeExpress  Website to search both for colleges and scholarships. It has some good college lists to check out (by interest, by state, etc.), and you can search for summer programs too. Site is run by educational publisher, Carnegie Dartlett.
  • College Trips and Tips Terrific interactive website for college trip planning, by state.
  • College Scoops Website with 87 pre-visit Campus Guides for purchase (and counting). Aimed at parents; may be useful to check out when planning live campus visits. There is a demo guide.
  • YouTube, Reddit, Unigo.com, and Facebook groups: Generally the best way to find unbiased student opinions on colleges, dorms, majors, admissions, etc. Search by college name, and look at a few hits/read through the string to get multiple perspectives.
  • Current College Students: People you know (and who know you) are often the best resources for finding a good campus fit. Consider who you know through family and classes above you in high school that go to colleges of interest. Also: I may know or be able to connect you with a student at a particular college through my professional network.
  •  Naviance (or SCOIR/Maia):   If your child's high school subscribes, these are great predictive resources for building a college list and understanding chances of admission. The Scattergrams feature allows you to see the likelihood of admission at a college to which a statistically significant number of students from your high school has applied from in the last 3-5 years. Great for identifying colleges as reaches, targets or likelies. NOTE: Because of new test-optional/test blind protocols and broadening college priorities, Naviance is less predictive now than it was even just a couple of years ago.
  • College Supports  Subscription-based website developed and updated by LD specialist consultant. Provides info and reviews on college LD and academic support programs. You can pay for comprehensive browsing or to search by individual institution.
  • The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students With Learning Differences, 15th ed. At the bottom of this list, because a printed reference for this subject gets outdated quickly. Smart to look online at each school’s website, or check out site directly above.
  • And, Seniors, please don’t forget this one, as you are working on your applications:
  • [email protected]  Helps you to trouble shoot in the Common Application. The "Writing Requirements" tab provides all supplementary writing questions for individual colleges in a single list.
  • SACAC workshops are a phenomenal free resource!: