My husband tells this story of rounding with his pharmacy students in the hospital.
In one patient’s room, he asks the students how the patient is doing.
They respond with various lab test results, what drugs have been started or stopped, and a summary of the physician notes.
He then asks the students if anyone has bothered to actually ask the patient how she’s doing.
Embarrassed silence follows.
That’s his cue to ask Ms. Smith how’s she feeling today and the lesson really begins.
What does this have to do with colleges?
Well, in the process of trying to collect data so that we can objectively compare colleges on significant data points, it’s easy to miss a major source of information–the college itself. More specifically, the college’s website.
I spend a lot of time on college websites doing my 50-50 Profiles and have found that they contain valuable information not found anywhere else. It’s really not surprising when you think about it but it’s just not something mentioned when creating college lists.
Starting May 21st, you can learn how to get the most out of college websites as part of your college search process by reading:
Creating College Lists: Your Guide to Using College Websites to Pay Less for a Better Education
As a bonus, everyone who downloads the book will also get a copy of The Scholarship Toolkit which includes:
- Ratings of 16 major scholarship search websites
- Overview of 7 websites with lists of scholarships
- Listing of resources to organize and track scholarship applications
- 46 often overlooked state websites for scholarships
- Information on how to apply for scholarships including checklists