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Preparing for College - Information Gathering

Some students have a hard time gathering information about college and university- just knowing where to start and what to ask can be difficult to figure out! The information that follows shows how students, and their parents, might go about gathering the kind of information they will need to make the decisions they will face.

Gathering Information

After you've looked at the types of schools available to you and you've examined the characteristics to consider when choosing a school, it's time to begin gathering information to find out which schools out there meet your personal goals and needs.

1. Get an Overview of Your Choices. First, try to get an overview of all of the different choices available to you. Then, narrow your focus by identifying schools that have most of the characteristics you selected as important.
2. Develop a Short List of Schools. Your first list of schools may be pretty large, (20 - 30 schools). You can narrow the list even further to your top 4-10 by gathering more information and deciding for yourself which school characteristics are most important.
3. Find Out More about the Schools on Your Short List. Once you have your "short list" of schools, find out more about them. Write to their admission offices for applications, catalogs, admission requirements, costs of attendance, financial aid, housing, and any other information they may have. Plan to visit the schools on your short list, if you can, and ask to meet with an admission counselor. See also if you can talk to alumni from the school, and check out their graduation and placement rates. After you've completed your research, you'll come up with two to four schools that you will probably want to apply to.

The following activities will help you decide which school or schools are ultimately best for you:

• Talk to Your High School Counselor
  If you're a middle or high school student, start by talking to your high school counselor. He or she more than likely will have a wide variety of college guidebooks and literature on schools you that can review to see which ones best meet your needs and the characteristics you're looking for in a school. Your counselor can also tell you about what kind of academic preparation and standardized tests you should start taking now to prepare yourself for college later. In addition, your counselor can provide you with some general information about applying for college and about financial aid.
• Review the College Guidebooks
  A number of different publishers put together guidebooks describing colleges and universities in the United States and around the world. These guidebooks are available at your local public library, your school or in your college library, and in your counselor's office. A number of guidebooks are also available on CD-ROM. You may also want to check out Internet Resources available on the Web.
• Attend the College Fairs
  Many high schools, school districts, and colleges host college fairs where prospective students can get more information about colleges and universities. Talk to your school counselor or contact a local college admission office to find out if any college fairs are scheduled in your area.
• Don't Forget Family and Friends
  Find out about the experiences your parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, teachers, neighbors, and friends have had. If you've already begun to narrow your list of school choices to a handful or less, see if you can find some alumni from the schools you're most interested in attending. They can tell you about their experiences at the schools you are interested in and give you valuable insight.
• Contact the Admissions Office
  After you've pored through the guidebooks and put together a short (or at least a shorter) list of schools that you're interested in, write to the admission offices of the schools on your list and ask for catalogs, applications, and any other information they have about attendance.
• Visit the Schools
  If possible, visit the schools on your short list. Call the admissions office to find out about college tours and to see when would be convenient to visit and maybe talk with a school counselor or admission officer. When you do visit, make sure to go off the beaten path to see what the school is like beyond the guided tour. Talk to students on campus. Try to get a feel for the place. And see if you can visit the dorms while you are there as well. If possible, see if you can stay in a dorm room during your visit.