Can Virtual Campus Tours Replace the Real Thing?

university web search boxSince I’ve mentioned several times that it’s not necessary to do campus visits, I thought I should discuss some of the alternatives. The obvious one is a virtual campus tour. Most college websites offer some form of online tour through either video, 360 photos, or a map-based walking tour of the campus.

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Help Me Find a College: Michigan

Where to Start Looking to Find a College in Michigan

Michigan Highway SignThe Michigan CAP (College Access Portal) allows registered students to enter high school information, upload documents, and invited other users. You can search for Michigan colleges and view their profiles. It has a section on paying for college which includes a EFC Estimator, a long cost calculator, scholarship search function.? 

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10 Steps to Help Your Child get Recruited by a Coach

lacrosse stick and helmetThe following is a guest post by Joie Jager-Hyman, college consultant and author of B+ Grades, A+ Applications. Joie was an Assistant Director of Admissions at her alma mater, Dartmouth College, and has a Doctorate in Education Policy.

Many students dream of playing sports on the college level but most athletes don’t know how to get started with the college recruiting process. How can you tell if you’re good enough to play for a university?

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Help Me Find a College: Georgia

Where to Start Looking to Find a College in Georgia

Georgia Highway SignStudents and families looking for colleges in Georgia should start at the GAcollege411 website. Users will find tools from planning high school to career exploration. There is the usual planning timeline and college search function. Students will also find test prep help for the SAT, ACT and the Georgia High School Graduation Test and End of Course Tests.

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Best 100 Universities and the Ticket to the American Dream

A graduation cap rests on a stack of books in front of an American flag, symbolizing the educational journey and the significant percentage of freshmen receiving Pell Grants.

American flag with books and graduationThanks to US News College Rankings, we know what are the “Best” 100 universities in the country. If you want to know specifically what they are best at, you can find out here. But how good are they at making sure that attending the “Best” University isn’t limited by economic need?

After all, despite the current economic situation, college graduates still make more money than high school graduates so a college degree is considered a ticket to the American Dream. And if you can get into one of US News College Rankings top 100 Universities–that should be a first class ticket.

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Do College Rankings Matter?

Undergraduate Institutions attend by Med Students
Where did they come from?

The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has done everyone a favor. It has a table that displays all of the undergraduate institutions of students who have attended the school.

Don’t get it? US News and World Report ranks Washington University as one of the top medical schools in the country. And you may have heard, they rank undergraduate institutions as well.

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Been There, Done That, Ready to Write the Tuition Check: The Results

acceptance road signLast week Wendy Nelson shared her experience of working with her daughter through the college application process. This week she has graciously agreed to reveal the results of the process. Her daughter’s choice, Valparaiso University, is a 50-50 school with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, among the best for institutional aid, in the top 30 for ACT scores,and offers D1 sports. Wendy has an excellent blog, My Kid’s College Choice, where she shares lessons she has learned.

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Been There, Done That, Ready to Write the Tuition Check

Reality sign postFamilies are stressed out about college. And why shouldn’t they be? If all you hear about college admissions is what gets reported in the media, you would be certain that outstanding students everywhere are being denied admissions in the schools they so rightly deserve while taking out massive loans for jobs that don’t exist.

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Useful Information or Just Data: Library Facilities and No Test Colleges

spreadsheet on a laptopI spend a good amount of time browsing through?  the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) checking on data available for inclusion in the DIY College Rankings College Search Spreadsheet. There are a lot of variables to choose from and as I scroll through the various lists, I start thinking, “Really? There’s more than one answer for this?”

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