Selecting a College
WHAT MAKES THE RIGHT MATCH?
Selecting a College
Your first step should be an honest self-assessment of…
- your academic profile (classes taken, grades, test scores)
- your family’s financial situation (what’s affordable)
- other characteristics you bring to the college-search process (for example, your interests and goals, athletics, special talents, volunteer experience, other extra-curricular activities)
The second step is to develop a list of criteria for colleges you might be interested in learning more about. Think about…
- location
- size of school
- size and variety of classes
- residential life
- selectivity (how many applicants are admitted)
- retention rate (how many first-year students continue for a second year)
- graduation rate (how many entering freshmen graduate 4, 5, or 6 years later)
- majors you might be interested in pursuing
The third step is to gather further information about colleges that sound interesting to you. You can use catalogs that the colleges publish, their websites, college guide books—these sources will give you basic information from different viewpoints—but the best way to really learn what a college is like is to visit it and ask a lot of questions while you’re there.
These are also many college search websites that can be useful, so try some of these…
- Naviance Family Connection AHS students, to log into Family Connection, your username is your Google school ID, and your password is your 8-digit birthdate—mmddyyyy. Parents login as "guest".
- Peterson’s College Search is similar to College Board’s
- Princeton Review Online provides information on college search, careers, majors, etc.
- Colleges that Change Lives is based on Loren Pope’s acclaimed 1996 book (revised in 2000) that focuses on small liberal arts colleges and on finding the right “fit” in a college experience
NCAA Clearinghouse for student/athletes—information on Division I and II schools
For students who took the PSAT, College Board offers free access to its “My Road” site with resources about colleges, majors, and careers
- U.S. Universities by State—this site links directly to just about all accredited U.S. institutions
PREPARING FOR COLLEGE
- www.eaop.org........................................... UC Outreach Program
- www.mapping-your-future.org.................... Mapping Your Future
- www.makingitcount.com............................. How to Succeed in College
- www.educationplanner.org.............. AES Free College Planning Site
COLLEGE SEARCH ENGINES
- Naviance Student AHS students, to log into Family Connection, your username is your Google school ID, and your password is your 8-digit birthdate—mmddyyyy.
- www.collegeboard.org-This site allows you to register for S.A.T test and allow you to have access to all S.A.T I and II needs.
- Princetonreview.com- Princeton review has their own unique “counselor-o-matic” that matches schools from what you like as well as ranking colleges in all ranges of categories
- Careersandcolleges.com –this website offers college and scholarship searches, You can search over 4000 colleges and university for free.
- www.collegeview.com- This site provides detailed career, college and financial aid information.
- Unigo.com - This site has student reviews & access to scholarship search engine as well.