College Craze

By Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 8/1/1998

Preparing to help students in their college search is an investment in your future sanity.

Straight from the .GOV

For students interested in objective information about schools, help is out there, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). My favorite site, Project EASI: Resources for Education Beyond High School, is a collaborative effort among government, business, and education leaders. Visit EASI's "Plan" section and take a look at "Select-a-School." Then jump over to the "Apply," "Receive," and "Repay" sections for information on government loan programs. Getting Ready for College Early is a guide for parents as well as students. (Available in HTML and PDF formats.) Chapters include "Why Going to College Is Important," "Taking the Right Courses," and "Paying for College." For additional information about federal loan programs, be sure to link to The 1998D99 Student Guide: Financial Aid. This site is a primer on all the loans available from the DOE. (Available in HTML, PDF, and text formats.) Finally, check out Preparing Your Child for College, a guide for parents and teachers. Visit "Exercises and Checklists for You and Your Child," which includes career-planning discussion topics.

Get PreppedMost college-prep Web sites contain either lots of ads, lots of links to books and tapes for sale, or information about only selected colleges. But a few sites also provide valuable information. For students in need of SAT information, start with Starting Points for Students and Parents, sponsored by the College Board (the folks who administer the test). Check out the site's "Preparing for College" section. Students can also fill out the interactive "Career Search Questionnaire." (Try it yourself to find out if you should be a librarian.) Steer students or parents who need information on federal and private loan and scholarship programs toward FinAid, sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Go to "Assistance," where you can learn about financial aid scams. Finally, check out the "Tools" page for handy financial aid "calculators."

CollegeView and CollegeNet are similar to other college websites, yet they stand out from the pack. They made the cut due to their scope, user-friendliness, and up-to-date information. Both sites provide college profiles and links, online applications, and information on scholarships and financial aid. CollegeView, created by Hobson Publishing, has a few too many references to Hobson books, but offers a searchable database for more than 3,700 colleges, as well as links to virtual reality campus tours. "AppZap" provides free, downloadable college application forms (a real time-saver). CollegeNet, sponsored by Universal Algorithms, has annoying banner ads at the top of most screens, but provides a "College Search" section that includes links and profiles of both two- and four-year colleges. Check out the "Collegenet Search Engine" and search for schools by enrollment, major, tuition, and intercollegiate sports.

Career Moves

Whether or not teens decide to go to college, they all need information about career paths. Be sure to visit JobSmart -- Guides for Specific Careers. Created for public libraries by the Bay Area Library & Information System, this site contains many links to professional and educational sites that offer introductions to careers from accounting to zoology.

Web Addresses

Project EASI: Resources for Education Beyond High School
easi.ed.gov/index.html

Getting Ready for College Early
www.ed.gov/pubs/GettingReady/CollegeEarly/

The 1998D99 Student Guide: Financial Aid
www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide/1998-9/index.html

Preparing Your Child for College
www.ed.gov/pubs/Prepare/

Starting Points for Students and Parents
www.collegeboard.org/toc/html/tocstudents000.html

FinAid
www.finaid.org

CollegeView
www.collegeview.com/

CollegeNet
www.collegenet.com/

JobSmart -- Guides for Specific Careers
jobsmart.org/tools/career/spec-car.html

For previous "Surf For" links, visit SLJ Online at www.slj.com/links.html.