The Five P’s of Finding a School that Matches and Meets Your Needs

The Person
Describe yourself.  Are you hard working, impulsive, artistic, lazy, a leader?  Do you have special needs?  What’s your academic comfort level?  Are you looking forward to four more years of additional education? Or do you want to be more career directed such as attending a career school?  What are your numbers?  Do your test score and GPA come in the same range as the average test scores and GPA’s of the current freshman class of the college?

http://www.allaboutcolleges.com

This lists all the college websites and high school course requirements, range of test scores and average GPA of the freshman class.

http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional – list of schools that do not use the SAT or ACT for admission
http://www.9types.com – What’s your personality type?
http://www.Ida.org – Learning Disabilities
http://www.ahead.org – Special needs
http://www.chadd.org – ADD & ADHD

The Place
The place – should it offer sororities, honor classes, study abroad, and athletics.  How far away should you consider?  East, West Coast?  Midwest?  Mountains?
http://www.campustours.com – a source for virtual college tours with web cams, etc.
http://www.ncas.org/eligibility – NCAA athletics/Eligibility
http://www.studyabroad.com – Information for overseas programs
http://www.ctcl.com – Colleges that Change Lives

The People
What kind of people do you want to be around?  People of the same religious beliefs?
http://www.smart.net/~pop/hbcu/hbculist.htm – a list of historically black colleges
http://www.hillel.org – foundation of Jewish Campus Life
http://www.ajcunet.edu – Jesuit Colleges and Universities
http://www.womenscolleges.org – Women’s colleges

The Price
Learn about the four types of financial assistance.  What’s the difference between merit based and need based help?  Scholarship?
http://www.finaid.com – An easy way to learn about financial aid/financial calculator
http://www.pin.ed.gov – your PIN number
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov – FAFSA
http://www.collegeboard.com – CSS Profile
http://www.fastweb.com – a free college scholarship search
http://www.collegeanswer.com – a free scholarship search and loan info

The Program
What are your favorite classes?  When you grow up, what do you want to be?  Think about people whose careers you admire, what careers come to mind?  Have you used the DISCOVER (by ACT) Career Program Assessment
http://www.careercruising.com – career assessment
http://www.bls.gov/oco – occupational outlook
http://www.careerview.com – career search

College Search
Now that you have a list of your needs, go to online college searches
http://www.petersons.com
http://www.mycollegeguide.org/index
http://www.collegeview.com