College Admission Resources

General College Admission

• AdmissionsAdvice.com: A private college counselor offers sane advice about choosing a college, writing essays, interviewing, etc.
• College for Tennessee
• College Source Online: Complete college catalogs from many, many universities.
• College Bound Network: Articles, news, and advice
• Campus Tours: Online tours of many colleges 
• KnowHow2Go: Step-by-step help for planning to go to college
• National Association for College Admission Counseling

Many Web sites offer online wizards that suggest college matches based on information that you enter. Some include:

• ACT Student Center
• The College Board
• Collegenet
• Collegeview
• Counselor-o-Matic
• My College Guide
• GoCollege.com
• Petersons
• Xap.com

Financial Aid & Scholarships

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
  The FAFSA is a form that students and usually their parent(s) must fill out in order to apply for need-based financial aid at virtually all colleges.
• Broke Scholar
  Free scholarship search service
• FinAid
  Very comprehensive website for planning for college costs and paying for college.
• FastWeb
  FastWeb will e-mail you with scholarships that match your criteria. Helpful, efficient and absolutely free.
• The Federal Trade Commission Scholarship Scams
  Because things that sound too good to be true generally are, the FTC uses this site to alert parents and students of suspicious scholarship opportunities. Before you pay a service to research scholarships for you, be sure to log on here first. 
• Financial Aid Resource Center
  Join in this incredibly helpful and well-organized Web site's discussions on financial aid concerns or request a copy of the free newsletter.
• Mach25
  Unlike most other free scholarship searches, you don't have to wait for an email reply or divulge contact information about yourself.
• The College Board
  This section of the College Board's Web site, devoted to financial aid information, includes a scholarship search and Top 20 Things You Need to Know about Financing College.

Athletics

Attention Athletes!!
It is your responsibility to become familiar with the eligibility rules of both the National Collegiate Athletic Association Clearinghouse and the colleges and universities to which you're applying. If you are applying to an NCAA Division I or Division II institution, YOU MUST REGISTER with the NCAA Clearinghouse, or risk losing your chance to accept invitations to "official" on-campus recruiting visits and your freshman year of intercollegiate athletics.

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), another college sports governing organization that includes mostly private colleges

Testing

• Number2.com
  FREE test prep resources
• The College Board Online
  You can find test dates,  register for the SAT, and read about & complete the CSS/PROFILE (a financial aid questionnaire that some selective colleges use). The SAT Learning Center offers planning strategies for test day.
• ACT
  The ACT is another college entrance exam. You can register for the test and try the FREE Financial Aid Need Estimator, which allows you & your parents to estimate the amount of financial aid for which you are likely to qualify.
• Fair Test
  An advocacy organization working to end the abuses, misuses and flaws of standardized testing and ensure that such tests are fair, open, and educationally sound.  Includes a list of test optional colleges that do not require standardized test scores for admission.
• GoCollege.com
  Offers free practice tests
• TOEFL Online
  Official Web site for the Test of English as a Second Language programs and services.
• ETS Net
  Addresses many issues concerning standardized testing
• Kaplan Test Prep
  Enroll in a test prep course, purchase books & software, and commiserate with other test-takers on the message boards.

Books

Available at many libraries, bookstores, Amazon, etc.

Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges by Frederick E. Ruggs.   Updated annually.  Recommends undergraduate programs in various majors.  Available directly from the publisher.

The College Finder: Choosing the School that's Right for You by Steve Antonoff.  Provides a wide range of categories of colleges.

Colleges that Change Lives, published by Penguin Books. Some colleges that may not be household names, but which foster character development and service. Participating colleges also conduct their own college fairs across the country each year.

Fiske Guide to Colleges by Edward Fiske.  Updated annually.  One of the most comprehensive and best-known college reference guides, it includes candid descriptions of some 300 universities. Read excerpts before you buy.

Harvard Schmarvard by Jay Mathews. Contains good suggestions on lowering the stress of the college search, choosing a college based on a good match rather than prestige, and other sane, helpful admission advice.

Colleges Unranked by Lloyd Thacker. College admission deans speak out against the obsession with college rankings.