Best College Guides

Creating Your College List

As with most aspects of the college admission process, you should focus on finding the right balance when you create and revise your college list. If you balance your list in terms of selectivity, geography, and fit, you’ll be able to open up some excellent choices for yourself during your senior year of high school.

Starting the list: Consider contrasting types
Exploring only one kind of school will expose you to a very limited set of options. There are several thousand colleges and universities in the U.S. that can be divided into distinct types or models. There are large public universities, small private colleges, two-year community colleges, urban universities, and small-town colleges, to name a few. You can find liberal and conservative environments, traditional and alternative academic programs, and religious and nonsectarian institutions.

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Article copyright 2008 Peterson’s, a Nelnet Company. All Rights Reserved. This site is in no way affiliated or endorsed by Peterson’s.

Choosing Your College: The Basics

Feel like you need to go to a big-name college to get the best education and impress all of your friends? Take a moment to consider that college is not just about getting a great education — it’s also a huge leap into a whole new world of social experiences, personal growth, and independence. (Not to mention a new level of hard work, studying, and academic achievement!) The overall culture of your college may play as big a role in your future success as your degree. Figuring out what’s important to you will help you narrow the field, and you may discover some options that hadn’t even been on your radar!

Starting your search with the basics will help you identify the colleges that will best suit you academically and personally. Each of us has unique needs and values, and what is important to you may not matter to someone else. Take location, for instance. If you don’t want to be more than 100 miles from home, then schools on the other side of the globe are out! The same goes for school size, cost, and other basic criteria. By identifying your needs early on, you can eliminate hundreds of schools and focus on the things that will make your school a perfect fit.

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Article copyright 2008 Peterson’s, a Nelnet Company. All Rights Reserved. This site is in no way affiliated or endorsed by Peterson’s.

Applying Early: The Advantages

So, you’ve finally whittled down your list of schools and are considering applying early to get the ball rolling on your college plans. By now, you should know if applying early is even an option at the schools you want to submit your applications to (and if you don’t, you should find out!) Typically, there are three ways that you can apply early and some schools may offer more than one of the following options:

• Early Action (EA), which allows you to apply to more than one school early and gives you an early answer about your acceptance. EA applications shouldn’t be used liberally by applying this way to every school on your list. Having the ability to submit multiple EAs doesn’t mean you should feel free to overuse it.
• Early Decision (ED), which also gives you an early answer, but restricts you to applying ED to only one school and requires that you’ll guarantee up front that you’ll enroll if you’re accepted. If you are, you must withdraw your applications to any other colleges. You’re committed to the school and can’t apply anywhere else, even during the regular admission season.
• Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) or Restrictive Early Action (REA) is the newest option, which limits you to applying early to only one school to get an answer in advance about acceptance. It’s not binding, but restricts you from applying anywhere else under an EA or ED application. You can apply elsewhere during regular admission and do not have to make a decision to enroll until the school’s regular deadline.

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Article copyright 2008 Peterson’s, a Nelnet Company. All Rights Reserved. This site is in no way affiliated or endorsed by Peterson’s.

Applying Early: Edging Out the Competition

There’s a lot of hype floating around that some schools accept almost all of their incoming freshmen from their pool of Early Decision (ED) applicants. While it’s true that there may be a higher acceptance rate among the ED pool, this doesn’t necessarily hold true at every school, nor does it mean that all the spots get filled up early. (It also doesn’t mean that all schools even have ED options, because some schools are doing away with them altogether.)

Realistically, all schools only have so many openings set aside for the incoming class, and they want to give those spots to the best candidates possible. If they give away every bed they have by December, then they won’t have room to accept the Colorado State Spelling Bee Champion who applies in February. Some schools hedge their bets just as some students do when applying to college. They may defer a portion of their ED applicants so they can eyeball what comes across their application desks later in the year.

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Article copyright 2008 Peterson’s, a Nelnet Company. All Rights Reserved. This site is in no way affiliated or endorsed by Peterson’s.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

If you plan on writing a single paper in college (and unless you take nothing but math and science courses you’ll probably be writing hundreds), this guide is an essential thing to bring to school with you.  It gives you citation advice, style advice, and formatting advice all in one place and will keep you from having to look at several websites that only summarize this book.  Don’t go for the substitute, buy the original.

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College

So you’ve made it through the college application process and know where you’re going to school, now what?  For help with what to expect, what to prepare for, what to do in most every situation, and how to keep a smile on your face throughout the whole experience, buy this book.  It offers no-nonsense advice in anecdotal format which is sure to make you laugh and inform you about what is to come.  This is THE manual for navigating college.  Over twenty schools require their incoming freshman to read this guide and it would behoove you to do the same.

The Real ACT Prep Guide: The Only Official Prep Guide From The Makers of The ACT

Take the ACT!  It’s a test the most school’s won’t expect you to take (so if you do poorly you won’t have to send your scores) and every school accepts it as a substitute for the SAT.  About half of people find it easier and half of people find it harder then the SAT, so why not give it a shot.  As opposed to the SAT, which is strategy-based, the ACT is knowledge-based, so if you went to a good high school you should have no problem with it.  Buy this book, take one of the practice tests, see how you do, and take the test.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The Official SAT Study Guide (The College Board)

There is an entire industry dedicated to preparing you for the SAT.  This book, published by the people who write the actual test, provides the best practice you can get for the test without attending an expensive prep course.  Take two of the eight tests offered in this book, see what your weaknesses are, study up some more on those weak areas, and take another two.  If you don’t see improvement, buy a Barron’s book relating to the specific subject and finish it.  Take another two tests and see where you are.  By this point, you should have figured out and mastered any problems you may be having.  If not, you can do more reviewing and you’ve still got two more tests to make sure you’ve got it!  This book really is the best way you can practice for the test by yourself.

A Is for Admission: The Insider’s Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges

This book by former a former admissions officer at Dartmouth is a very interesting read for any student or parent planning on embarking on the college journey.  It’s a few years old, but the advice contained within is still very true and can help guide you through the entirety of high school.  The book offers an in-depth look at exactly how your application will be treated and about what about it will help and hurt you.  If you’ve got some time left before you’re applying, read this book.  If you’re in the midst of applying now, it’s probably too late for it to do much good.

Spying on the College of Your Choice

This book doesn’t have a single bit of information about a single school.  Instead, it gives you vital information about every school.  This book, more than any other on the market, focuses on exactly what you should be looking for when you visit a college campus.  It tells you what questions to ask, what people to see, and what feel you should be having in your college of choice.  Spying on the College of Your Choice can is helpful throughout the entire process, but it will prove most valuable when you’re making the final decision about where you want to spend the next few years of your life.