Additional Resources for High School Students
Direct from the Campus
College Admission Guide (from U.S. News & World Report)
Figuring Out What You Want to Do
Direct from the Campus
Sign up at Picture Yourself at Berkeley! to get invited to Berkeley admission functions.
Check out the UCLA Admissions Blog for the latest admission information directly from the source.
Register on Zinch.com and create a profile to show colleges why you are the ideal student for them. The UC campuses currently using the site include Berkeley, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. In your profile, be sure to highlight your academic strengths, extracurricular activities, leadership skills, special talent, and/or special circumstances.
College Admission Guide (from U.S. News & World Report)
The people who brought us the college ranking system have now compiled an archive of admissions articles. While I'm not a huge fan of the rankings, the articles do provide fairly good guidance on a variety of admission related topics like college essays, financial aid, test prep, and more. Keep in mind the articles are very generalized and do not apply to all colleges. Take everything you read with a grain of salt and when in doubt, check directly with the college admissions office.
If you can rate restaurants and professors, why not college? Unigo.com declares that it is the "new platform for college students to share reviews, videos, photos, documents and more with students on their campus and across the country." The reviews can be helpful when you are in the process of deciding where to apply; the comments range from general campus atmosphere to academic life to the social scene. For those of you who are accepted and deciding on where to attend, Unigo offers you the opportunity to peek into the campus life. But keep in mind that what you see at Unigo is only a slice of campus life and you should never base your college choice only from what you see there. Gather as much information as you can, including a personal visit while the campus is in session, before you decide where to go.
College Prowler is making their single-school guides available for FREE online. I like these guides because they look at all different aspects of the campus (academics, safety, dining, athletics, nightlife, social scene, drug scene, housing, parking, weather, and lots more). Each category is assigned a grade based on student feedback and the grades are backed up by several representative quotes.
Move aside, CollegeBoard! Check out the fancy College Navigator from the U.S. Department of Education, complete with color graphs and hard-to-find facts. Aside from the usual enrollment and financial aid stats (but in full color bar graphs and pie charts), you can also find stats for retention/graduation rate, size of enrollment for each major, team size for varsity athletics, campus crime rate, and federal student loan default rate.
The Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), a program of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), allows students in participating western states to enroll in some two- and four-year colleges at 150% of the college's regular resident tuition. WICHE member states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
To get the most accurate and up-to-date WUE admissions information, you must call the college's admissions office and ask to speak to someone who is familiar with WUE. You may need to follow special application instructions in order to qualify for WUE consideration. Some WUE colleges may honor AB 540, you will need to contact the college's admissions office to verify.
Figuring Out What You Want to Do
The Career Chronicles
Maybe you are not ready for college or maybe your dream school didn't accept you, but instead of sitting at home, why not take advantage of a Gap Year program and see the world (and enrich your personal statement for your college application next year)?
Opportunities are available through organizations like Student Conservation Association, City Year, and AmeriCorps. You can also use the Volunteer Matching Services to find additional opportunities. There are a also a variety of study abroad and exchange programs available and many offer scholarships to cover part or all of the expenses. Here are couple programs that offer full scholarships: Sojourns Abroad and Youth For Understanding.
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