10 Essential Clues Students Miss When Researching Colleges

Sherlock Holmes representing researching colleges

Dictionary defiition of research representing researching collegesUnless you’re willing to just pick one set of college rankings and use it to decide between colleges, at some point you’re going to have to dig deeper and actually start researching colleges. The fact is that once you get past adding or removing colleges from your list based on things like size, majors, and locations, most students will still need to narrow down their lists. There’s no magic formula for deciding between schools–what’s important to one student won’t be for another. And given the cost of college, students should commit to researching them further to find their differences. But how do you research a college?

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It Takes More Than Rankings to Find Good Colleges

Person looking out of computer screen for good colleges

Face looking from laptop for a good collegeWhy? Because it all depends on how you define good colleges.

And that’s the problem. How do you know what makes a college “good?” Are good colleges the ones where the good students go? After all, the colleges that admit only a small percentage of students with high GPAs and college test scores are the ones that show up at the top of the college rankings. But does that mean the school is good because it admits good students or do good students go there because it is a good college?

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8 Things Parents Paying for College Must Know

Student happy because parents paying for college

Student happy because parents paying for collegeWhen my son was small and I would tell him to do something, he would ask why and I would tell him because “it’s in the parent’s manual.” He got really curious about that manual. Where was it? (I wasn’t allowed to tell him.) When did we get it? (At the hospital, of course, you don’t think they would let us leave without it?) Was there a kid’s manual? (You mean you lost yours?)

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8 Steps to Study for Free in Germany

students researching how to study for free in Germany

students researching how to study for free in Germany(By KC Raj of KCR Consultants) Since 2016, the number of students from the United States studying in Germany has increased by 17%. Many international students choose to study in Germany to take advantage of its excellent universities and quality of life. However, even more appealing is that students can attend college for free in Germany.

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COVID-19 Wreck Your College Plans? Here’s the One Thing You Must Do

College student happy about post COVID-19 College plans

Student happy about post COVID-19 college plans at TuitionFitThe excitement generated by acceptance letters so many high school seniors received before April 1 has morphed into anxiety if not outright panic as families’ finances have been turned upside down. What was an affordable college before COVID-19 may not be any more. Athletes face uncertainty about scholarship availability. And there are students who would just rather stay a little closer to home than when they first created their college list.

So now what?

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Are They the Best Colleges in Texas for You?

University of Texas tower representing best colleges in Texas

University of Texas tower representing Best Colleges in TexasWith 81 public and private higher education institutions with 500 or more full-time undergraduates in Texas, how do you decide which are the best colleges in Texas? Well, a lot of people will just look at US News Best College Rankings and consider it problem solved. In that case, the list of best colleges in Texas is easy:

US News Best Texas Colleges Ranked Nationally
Rice University (16)
The University of Texas at Austin (42)
Southern Methodist University (66)
Texas A & M University (66)
Baylor University (76)
Texas Christian University (80)

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Before Your Teen Applies to College, Make Sure You’ve had “The Talk”

Alarm clock with money representing the need to talk about money as part of college admissions

alarm clock and money representing if you have had the college money talk yetAs families approach the college planning process, there’s one thing they need to do before anything else and that is have “the talk.” I know, parents have been putting it off because it can be embarrassing. Who wants to discuss such potentially intimate details with their teenagers? Besides, you’re pretty sure the school counselors have covered the topic so there’s no point in having to suffer through the rolling eyes and general awkwardness if you don’t have to.

Well, I’m telling you right now that you have to because “the talk” I’m referring to isn’t the “birds and the bees” but something just as important, “The College Money Talk.”

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14 Unique Reasons to Attend SEC Schools Besides Sports

Quarterback representing bigtime sports at SEC Schools

Quarterback representing bigtime sports at SEC SchoolsIf big-time college sports are an important consideration for your college list, you’ll need to take a look at the Southeast Conference (SEC) schools. If I have to tell you why you should consider SEC schools for big-time sports, then we are definitely working with different definitions or you have been living under a rock since sometime in the last century. SEC schools claim 43 national football championships, 21  basketball championships, 13 College World Series, and 20 gymnastics championships among many others. Yet, the 14 universities that make up the SEC Conference, actually have a lot to offer other than sports.

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Where to Find the Best Scholarships

2 kittens trying to find the best scholarships on the computer

kittens trying to find the best scholarshipsSometime during their senior year in high school, students will start receiving notices from the counseling office on tips on how to find scholarships and news about the various available college scholarships. These scholarships will probably range in the $250 to $1,000 range with a few hitting $5,000. They’ll be encouraged to start using the different scholarship search websites so that they won’t have to take out student loans. By January, they’ll hear that if only they would get organized and be persistent in their scholarship search, they can take advantage of all the college scholarships out there that haven’t been taken because no one applied.

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