If the Internet has altered any grueling life process, it’s the hunt for a college education. There are no more piles of applications waiting to be typed. Information is available when you want it, along with plenty of advice and financial aid forms that almost make sense. And, maybe best of all, some colleges and universities let you check the status of your application on-line any time.
Virtual tours? Yes. Virtual interviews? Nope, still no substitute for the personal touch.
The biggest problem might be sorting through all the material. The best place to start is either the Web sites for schools that interest you or one of the many sites focusing on college education.
For the former, you usually can guess the Web address by placing www. before and .edu after the school’s name or initials-most are that easy. But you may be better off starting with a search engine like Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/Education/higher-Education/Colleges-and-Universities/ , which offers a hefty index of higher education on-line organized by country and state and by status (public or private). XAP, an online-application software designer, provides links to other comprehensive lists of links at www. xap.com/xap WWW/Cool/ collegelists.html.
Warning: Using any of these services requires patience and a comfort level with filling out forms and sending data to a third party.
Many sites are based on a single service like on-line applications, but include significant amounts of useful information about all aspects of the application process.
Look for sites that are updated frequently. CollegeEdge www.collegeedge.com is an all-things-to-all-people site that claims to have more than 30,000 pages. Luckily, it’s well-organized and makes good use of search engines.
You can apply on-line to more than 200 colleges and universities, 182 with a common application.
But CollegeEdge offers more than an application. One option, the CollegeEdge Recruiter, puts your profile (without contact information) in a database accessible to colleges looking for students with specific qualities. If an institution indicates an interest, CollegeEdge notifies you, and you can decide whether to ask for more info or no more contact. Other features include scholarship searches, financial aid help, a special sub-site for MBA wannabees, and another for guidance counselors.
Warning: In order to access some of the most useful features you must create a CollegeEdge user account. Accounts are free, and CollegeEdge promises security and confidentiality (star) (star) (star)
The colleges and universities featured on College XPress www.collegexpress.com are all private, which makes sense because it’s a service of Carnegie Communications Inc., publisher of Private Colleges & Universities magazine. The graphically pleasing home page is laid out like a small college campus. Click on the school bus for a search engine that helps you locate schools that match your interests by plugging in region and category and by setting parameters for cost and size. Click on the sports complex for help with questions about student athletics. For realism and some cash, the study break area is sponsored by Domino’s Pizza.
This isn’t an on-line application site, but registering gives you the chance to request information by mail from several schools at once.
These folks are blunt, warning: “No matter how automated, applying to college is still a process.” Dr. Ken hartman, author and Internet columnist, even offers tips on how to find unofficial info on the net at http://www.collegexpress.com/admissions/use-the-net.html including:
– Finding e-mail addresses for students in activities related to your interests and conducting a random e-mail survey to find what existing students like and don’t like about the college and their field of study there.
– Reading back issues of the student newspaper, sorting for items about your interest.
– Checking out the faculty by looking for evaluations on student home pages.
Warning: Many of the site’s features require registration, the profiles are provided by the institution and they don’t have links to the school’s sites. Pluses: Registering puts your name in the mix for a $10,000 scholarship and other prizes.
Prospective applicants can download on-line application software at Apply Technology’s www.weapply.com, which features a particularly useful option that searches for up to six schools at a time, then checks off the schools whose applications are to be downloaded.
Warning: The pool is not very wide or deep, so check the list carefully before spending too much time here. A search for schools with California in the name brought up only five choices – all relatively small. And the files can be big. Downloading three schools could take up to a half-hour. Those with slow connections might prefer the CD-ROM version of Apply! ’98 that includes more than 600 applications; the free CD-ROM can be ordered on-line. (star) (star) (star)
CollegeLink www.collegelink.com is a single-purpose site where you can download free CollegeLink software, enter the data once, pick colleges you want and upload results to CollegeLink by modem or send a disk by mail. They custom print the applications to match each institution’s form and send them back to you. The first application is free while each additional one costs $5. A nice plus is that some colleges waive or reduce their application fees if you use CollegeLink.
Warning: CollegeLink’s software is available only in Windows this year. (star) (star)
EXTRA CREDIT
With the costs of higher education getting higher, most of tomorrow’s college students also will be financial aid applicants.
Created by Mark Kantrowitz, author of The Prentice Hall Guide to Scholarships and Fellowships for Math and Science Students, FinAid www.finaid.org/, offers a free, comprehensive guide to the complicated process of getting financial aid. The site is sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators but promises to be independent and objective. It’s nothing fancy but it is frequently updated and encyclopedic. If FinAid doesn’t have something, it probably has a link to it. (star) (star) (star)
For nearly two decades, The Princeton Review college board review courses, workbooks and software have helped students successfully make it out of the early morning torture – oops – entrance exams.
Now the Review brings its experience to the Web at http://www.review.com. Yes, it’s a commercial site, but you still can get something out of it even if you don’t buy Princeton Review products. Possibilities include admissions directors giving advice in the “Dean’s List,” test takers reviewing the latest college boards, the REMIND-O-RAMA, which sends nagging little e-mail messages before each major deadline, the Counselor-O-Matic, which provides a series of questions that helps calculate an unscientific admissions rating, and sample tests that can be taken on-line. (star) (star) (star)
Anyone interested in attending a minority college or university will want to bookmark MOLIS, the Minority On-Line Information Service http://web.fie.com/web/mol/, where you can search by state, name and majors for detailed profiles. There’s also a scholarship database for qualified applicants. (star) (star)1/2
If you`re thinking of joining a fraternity or sorority, try The Greek Pages. https//www.greekpages.com/ with links to hundreds of rraternity and sorority chapters with Web sites. You can add yourself to the rush list at some campuses by filling out a digital form. Brothers & Sisters http://www.stepshow.com/ is dedicated to African-American fraternities and sororities. (star)(star)1/2
Even if you don’t want to go there, take a virtual tour of the University of Dayton http://www.udayton.edu/admission/VirTour/montage.htm just to see how well it can be done. The Virtual Tour consists of six panoramic views with scrolling information. It requires a plug-in most people probably don’t have, so be prepared for a download. (star) (star) (star)
And, for a look at the digital way things might be once you get accepted, try http://my.ucla.edu/joebruin.htm , a sample home page for a typical UCLA student. (star)(star)(star)
