College Admission Help

SEARCHING FOR COLLEGES

There are other great ways to scope out college possibilities without leaving home. Most of them are easy, all of them are helpful, and one popular one should be avoided—read on.
A great way to find out more about a college is to let the college come to you. Many colleges send admission representatives to your high school in the fall to tell you about their college. A list of these colleges is posted in the counseling center or the main office; every Thursday, write down the colleges that will be coming next week, look them up in your college guide (more on that soon), then get a pass from counseling to visit with the rep. In some high schools, reps are only allowed to come before or after school, or during lunch, and some will only let reps talk to students during lunch in the lunchroom (whoa—talk about leaving an impression!) If your school has these rules, give up the free time and go anyway—not many students will do this, which is (everybody sing along now) exactly why you should.
The same goes for hotel visits. Sometimes reps have such tight schedules they can only hold visits for lots of students at a hotel ballroom, in the evening or on weekends. The same rules apply here—do your homework, and go if it sounds good, bringing along your compadres and family for fun, along with dinner before or ice cream after. Whether it’s in a hotel or the school’s lunchroom, take along your college fair questions, fill out a card (even if you’ve talked to this rep or visited the campus before), introduce yourself to the rep (nothing like face time), ask a great question, and write down what you think once you’re home.
If at any point you’re not sure you’re heading in the right direction, a college search might be helpful. Collegeboard.com lets you sort out colleges a million ways, from majors to location to activities to you name it. Princetonreview.com has the Counselor-O-Matic, which asks you questions to point you in the right direction. These sites and others can give you some general direction and lots of schools to consider.
Another great source is college guide—books or magazines that describe colleges and what they have to offer. Guides give you a solid look at all parts of a college; a good guide will tell you about classes, the campus, social life, and atmosphere, and a great guide will include interviews with students, who will give you the straight scoop. There are a lot of these around—try your counseling office or local public library…
…but while you’re there, avoid books or magazines with college rankings. College rankings are designed to tell you what the “best” colleges are, based on the opinion of someone who doesn’t even know what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, parents love this stuff, especially if the rankings include the opinions of university presidents. Now, university presidents are nice people, but asking them to rank the 300 best colleges in the country is like asking your high school principal to rank the 300 best high schools in the country—after about 20 or so, they’re relying more on what they’ve heard than what they know, and either way, they don’t know you. You don’t need to read a magazine to find out Southwestern Michigan State is a great college; you need to find out if SMS is a great college for you. Guides will help you with that, and rankings won’t—so save your time and money, and skip them.

SEARCHING FOR COLLEGES