Study These Sites

Preparing to go to college can be a lot of hard work, capsizing you in a flood of pamphlets and applications. These days, there are myriad online tools to help look for colleges and funding--minus some of that overwhelming paper.

For those still trying to decide where to apply, several sites can help. To start, try some of the big names. Check out U.S. News and World Report’s .EDU (https://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu). There, you can get college rankings and take a personality quiz to help find a suitable match. You also can fill out work sheets to help organize the process of selecting a school and applying, and find information about more than 1,400 colleges and universities. The site includes a detailed application organizer, with explanations for several items, a grade-point average calculator and a class scheduler. There’s also a scholarship search.

Peterson’s https://www.petersons.com/ugrad offers similar services. In addition, it runs https://www.collegequest.com, which offers practice tests for both Windows and Mac. From there, you can download free software for one full-length test and one half-length diagnostic and receive a customized score report and study plan for each.

Less in-depth sites offer similar features.

* https://www.icollege.com helps search among institutions and lets you fill out and file applications online for free. The site’s system automatically inserts common information into subsequent forms.

* https://www.collegeispossible.org offers a guide to planning for college and links to search sites.

* https://www.collegenet.com provides official Web-based applications for more than 500 colleges and universities.

* https://www.embark.com links to online applications to participating undergraduate, graduate and professional institutions.

* https://college.snowball.com has content, links and searches targeting college students and students aiming for college.

* https://encarta.msn.com/college helps identify which colleges might be a good fit and offers online applications, college rankings and essay-writing hints.

* https://www.xap.com provides planners for college and beyond, campus searches and online applications.

* https://features.yahoo.com/college/search.html lets you look up colleges by majors offered and technology connectedness.

If you’re looking for community colleges, check out https://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cc. This site has links to 1,160 community colleges in the United States, Canada and elsewhere around the world.

Getting in is only half the battle. Figuring out how to pay for college can cause as much stress as filling in timed-test bubbles and tons of college applications.

There are many scholarships available--you just have to know where to look.

FastWeb (https://fastweb.com), boasting a college directory of more than 4,000 schools with information on admissions and financial aid, can help find some of the many scholarships for which you are eligible.

Sallie Mae’s https://www.wiredscholar.com connects you to more than 600,000 sources of financial aid. You also can find out the average cost of attending certain schools, the average financial aid awards they offer and how much you might expect to pay out of pocket. The site provides tools for students and families who have more time to save for college.

Other free search sites include https://www.collegenet.com/mach25; https://search.cashe.com; https://www.srnexpress.com and https://www.collegeboard.org/fundfinder/html/ssrchtop.html. These sites might ask for personal information or the privilege of sending a bunch of advertisements. Be sure to check out what you’re giving up before searching for the “free” stuff.

For a taste of what’s happening on campus, you can check out college Web sites and their student newspapers at https://www.newsdirectory.com/college.

And pre-frosh, one good tool to pack away for the trip to the Ivory Tower is https://www.sparknotes.com. As a resource used in conjunction with class texts, SparkNotes can be a terrific guide. The site says the notes are written by students and recent graduates. In the “To Kill a Mockingbird” section, for example, the notes include a synopsis of the book, explanations of who Boo and Calpernia were to Scout and Jem, a chapter-by-chapter summary and study questions. It also includes notes on how to cite SparkNotes as a resource. (But remember, this should be a resource, not the source.) The site also offers translation of words or whole sentences.

For students looking toward the future, there’s the Wall Street Journal’s CollegeJournal at https://www.collegejournal.com. It offers job-hunting tips and a database of thousands of companies with job openings.

A similar site is https://www.collegegrad.com, offering job search hints and resume templates for entry-level employees and recent grads.

Michelle Maltais is a broadcast producer and copy editor at The Times.