From earning good grades and top SAT or ACT scores, to coming up with a plan to make it affordable, many parents and students view the path to higher education as a multi-year journey that ends in triumph when the acceptance letter arrives in the mail. But it’s equally important to ensure that your son or daughter ends up at the college or university best suited to his or her aptitudes, interests and needs. Here are some resources for guiding the way, according to the people at Huntington Learning Center, a test preparation center located in Cave Creek, Arizona.
Guidance Counselors and College Fairs. In a perfect world, you and your son or daughter have already spent a bit of time talking with guidance counselors about college choices by his or her sophomore or junior year. But if you haven’t, you should. These professionals are generally well-equipped to respond to questions about everything from the college application process to academic requirements to which institutions may be best-suited to your child’s needs. Make sure you also take advantage of college fairs, which usually take place in secondary schools.
Web sites and View books. Today’s higher education “marketplace” is extremely competitive, and many colleges go to great lengths to promote their offerings. For this reason, most have Web sites with virtual tours and other resources that give online visitors a detailed view of everything from academic offerings to extracurricular activities to campus life. Most also offer glossy “View books” which also describe their offerings and are available via special request.
Ranking Guides. Most school libraries also have magazines and books that spotlight institutional offerings and rank colleges and universities according to several factors. U.S. News & World Report publishes a well-known America’s Best Colleges Guide every year. The guide offers information on affordability, academic offerings, graduation rates and much more. The magazine also presents a rich array of informational offerings on its Web site.
Other Online Resources. The Internet can be a gold mine of information as long as students stay with Web sites created by reputable organizations with their best interests at heart. One of the most effective is the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Visitors can obtain information about financial aid packages, college fairs, insight about “early admissions” policies, a college prep and admissions calendar and help in avoiding the numerous “scholarship scams” at play on the Internet. Another excellent resource is the Web site for the College Board. Created by the organization that administers the SAT, the site includes a college search engine, a great deal of information on how to determine which colleges and universities are best suited to different types of students, and plenty of information on the admissions process.
While all of these resources are excellent sources of information, they should never take the place of a campus visit. Experiencing the offerings of a school firsthand will give students the best sense of how they will fit in – and generate even more excitement for this important new phase of your son or daughter’s life.
