Fantasy Football and Finding the Right College

fantasy football playerI didn’t make it to the championship in fantasy football this year. Even though I’m tied for the number of championships in the league, that’s not what really bothered me this year. This year I lost twice to “Stan”-not his real name. Stan always finishes towards the bottom of the league. But this year he came in third and it wasn’t because of any brilliant player moves or insight into drafting. This year, Yahoo drafted for him and he played the players as assigned and he had his best season ever.

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50-50 Highlights: Trinity University, Penn State Erie-Behrend College, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Trinity UniversityTrinity University in Texas offers Languages Across the Curriculum where students can take classes in the humanities, social, and natural sciences taught in a foreign language.?  Mexico, The Americas, and Spain is an interdisciplinary program that collaborates with the Monterrey Institute of Technology to train future leaders. The program includes first-year seminars, service learning trips, and stipends for students working at local non-profit organizations.

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College Search Websites: Princeton Review and US News

Plastic numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in green and orange colors are leaning against each other on a white background, reminiscent of how us news college rankings often line up universities in a tidy sequence.

Number 1 to 6The last two college search websites, The Princeton Review and US News College Rankings, take a different approach than the previously reviewed sites. Rather than provide different factors for you to rank and search on, they essentially rank the schools for you. The user is expected to use the rankings to select colleges for consideration and then take a look at location, school size, graduation rates etc. Both sites have multiple rankings to choose from but do allow for a basic search with US News being much functional than the Princeton Review’s.

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College Search Websites: College View

Three directional arrows on a pole, labeled "Good" in green pointing left, "Better" in red pointing right, and "Best" in blue pointing upward—perfect for comparing college search websites.

Good Better Best Steet SignsThe College View website is a comprehensive search website along the lines of Big Future and College Data in that it includes more than just the search function. The site includes information on Financial Aid and the Application Process. It also has sections on Campus Life and Careers & Majors. The Student Lounge is basically a selection of posts and other resources from College Confidential which is done by the same company.

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College Search Websites: College Results Online

A rolled diploma tied with a red ribbon rests on top of various official documents, beside the screen displaying college results online.

Graduation DiplomaThe Education Trust’s College Results Online website is based on the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) which is the same data used by the College Navigator reviewed last week. Obviously the differences between the two sites will be presentation, access, and selection of the data available.

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Strength and Conditioning for Incoming College Freshman Student Athletes

male working outIf you read any books on college athletic recruiting, you’ll come across a section that discusses the biggest surprises to new college athletes coming from high school. I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t mention the dramatically harder strength and conditioning programs. In fact, I’m willing to bet it would come in first by a wide margin over anything else.

“Student-athletes we interviewed overwhelmingly reported that one of the hardest adjustments they had to make was in the level of physical endurance and fitness they were expected to meet to perform at the college level.” From Win a Sports Scholarship

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College Search Websites: College Data

Family using College Data to search for colleges

Man sitting and looking at websitesThe College Data Your Online College Advisor website has a variety of interesting features besides its College Match service.  Registered users can track college admission results based on test scores and GPA entered by other website users. They can also calculate their chances for admissions at different colleges and estimate net cost.

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College Search Websites Reviews: Big Future by the College Board

A young boy in a striped shirt stands in tall grass, looking through binoculars, dreaming of a big future.

(You can see an updated review of Big Future here.) Boy looking through binoculars to review Big Future college search websiteBig Future is the college search website by the College Board. Since the College Board is the source of all things SAT, you would expect it have a pretty good college search function. It is also a member of the Common Data Set consortium which means it has access to data that isn’t readily available to other websites.

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College Search Websites: Introduction

A person in a blue shirt points at multiple floating webpages displayed on screens in front of them, depicting various website designs and layouts for college search websites.

Man looking at web pagesIf you were to visit the major college search websites, you would conclude that people have just a few considerations when choosing a college. Based on the search options common to eight of the most popular websites, students want to be able to pick a college based on its location, the location’s setting, size, tuition, selectivity, test scores, majors, whether it’s a community college or four-year institution,  and if it’s public or private.

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