Building the List

Everything in the college process hinges on a student’s college list. As a counselor, providing suggestions while also allowing the student freedom to navigate the process on their own, is a difficult tightrope to walk. I like to direct the student to the resources available and then provide a space to listen as they weigh the priorities and discover what is important to them. These are a few of the sites that I use regularly and depend on for valuable guidance.

Self-Evaluations

Student Self-Evaluation

From the NACAC High School Counselor Toolkit, an example of an assessment for students to determine what is important to them in a college.

Self Survey

The online version of the iconic college match self survey from Dr. Steven Antonoff’s book, College Match. An 80-question document to help even the most indecisive of students.

30 Questions

College Express breaks down the college search to 30 questions a student should ask themselves when choosing a college. Good for getting a student thinking.

College Tours

YouVisit

This site provides a personal tour and guide for over 600 colleges across the nation. Virtual reality capability is available as well, and a 360 degree view of each campus.

CampusTours

Campus Tours brings all the college tours into one location, just search a college name and it links you to their own website, tours, and maps.

Road2College

Do you have students visiting colleges in person? Here’s a handy website for questions they can ask admission officers, tour guides, or other students on campus.

Search Engines

This site has a lot to offer, but the feature I use most is the College Lists. Finding a school using a specific feature, this website goes hand in hand with the book, College Finder, by Steven Antonoff. Students can create an account and save favorite lists, use the self-assessment feature to generate new ideas, and even search for scholarships. A must-have site to bookmark.

BigFuture

Created by The College Board, Big Future is a planning site that allows students to enter in a number of criteria important to them and get a list of colleges that match those requirements. I’ve found the site to be buggy sometimes, but when it’s working it is worth the wait. Students get to see how adding different criteria changes the number of available colleges in real-time, and there is a great variety of filters for them to choose between.

College Lists Wiki

Similar to CollegExpress, this site has a searchable database of lists that is especially helpful in the college list building stage. It also includes resources for students looking at summer programs, taking a gap year, career search, and state-specific information. The site is open to all parents, students, and counselors and is updated regularly by college admission officials and college counselors.

The Princeton Review

Similar to BigFuture, this site allows students to enter a number of criteria and filter out the schools that don’t meet their preferences. I like using both sites to see the different schools that are suggested using similar filters. Because the site is hosted through the Princeton Review, students can also opt to search based on ranking, allowing those students who are concerned with the most highly selective colleges to be brought to the front of their results.