CollegeLab - A Tool to Help Students Find Colleges They May Like

A long time ago when I was a high school student trying to decide where I should go to college the process was a rudimentary one. I flipped through the U.S. News and World Report's giant book of college rankings, looked for ones that I thought I could possibly get into (my GPA was not the best), and the ones that I could possibly afford. Then I went to the college fair at my high school and looked at the pictures of the campuses to finalize my application decisions. In the end, I didn't end up at any of those colleges that had fancy pictures at the college fair. I've probably turned out okay...

Today, there are better ways for high school students to learn about colleges than through the rudimentary method that I used and that you might have used. One of those better ways is to use an online tool like CollegeLab. 

CollegeLab recently removed their paywall to make it free for high school students (ages 16 and above) to use to identify colleges that fit with the criteria they choose. Students can enter information about themselves to find colleges that could fit with their needs. Some of the information students can enter include GPA, SAT score, ACT score, academic interests, type of school, size of school, and location. CollegeLab then takes that information to find potential matches for students. 

Part of what CollegeLab includes in their matching tool is an acceptance probability calculator and an ROI calculator. The ROI calculator shows debt-to-earnings ratios associated with different majors at different schools, scholarship information, average repayment time data, and loan options. 

Tools like CollegeLab can be helpful in starting the process of identifying the colleges to which students may want to apply. That said, I don't think they can replace getting one-on-one advice from a good high school guidance counselor and or other adults who have gone through the selection and application process. 

How to Work While Going to School

Last month I started watching a new Crash Course series called How to College. The series is a great one for students who are first generation college students and or those who just don't have anyone to seek out for advice about things like paying for college and picking a major. The latest video in the How to College series is titled How to Work in College. 

Watching How to Work in College took me back to my days of loading trucks at RPS (now known as FedEx Ground) at night and in the early mornings to pay for my college education. I was fortunate that RPS put an extra 50 cents per hour into a tuition reimbursement fund that I used every semester to pay for my textbooks (they were a lot cheaper 20-something years ago). It's little perks like that and the networking opportunities that can come out of working in college that How to Work in College does a good job of explaining in the video. 

How to Work in College also does a good job of trying to help viewers understand the importance of scheduling their time and it provides some tips for blocking distractions when it is time to focus on school work. 

For more information about how to pay for college beyond working a part-time job, students should watch Crash Course's How to Pay for College.

A Crash Course in Decisions About College

The folks at Crash Course have developed a new channel and series of courses called Study Hall. One of those courses is called How to College. 

How to College is a great series for high school students and first year college students. The course covers everything from deciding to go to college to picking a college to picking a major and how to pay for it all. It's a series that could be particularly useful to first generation college students who don't have anyone to rely on who has gone through the process before them.

I watched the How to Choose a Major video this morning. And while I can't say that it would have stopped me from changing majors a couple of times, it would have given me more ideas about what could be done with the degrees associated with those other majors I tried before getting a degree in history. 

If you're curious about the picture I selected for this blog post, it represents what drew me to Maine when I was a college student, fly fishing. For someone like me who didn't have the grades or the money to go to an elite university, picking a school based on my hobbies was about as good a selection criteria as any 25 years ago.

Last Minute Packing Lists for College-bound Students

College students will be moving into dorms in droves over the next couple of weeks. College Packing List is a free service designed to help students plan their moves to college. A categorized default list of items is provided by College Packing List. Students can add or delete items from each category as needed. If there is an item on the packing list that a student needs to purchase he can move it to a shareable shopping list. Students can share their lists with roommates through Facebook.

Applications for Education

College Packing List could be a handy resource for students as they plan their moves to dorms in the fall. Sharing the lists between roommates via Facebook could be helpful in avoiding duplicate purchases of some items. 

College Students Can Now Get 5GB of Free Dropbox Storage

The online storage service Dropbox is giving away an extra 3GB of free storage to college students who sign up for the service between now and December 10, 2012. This means that students who sign up using their university/ college email addresses will get 5GB of total storage for free.

The extra free storage is part of Dropbox's Space Race promotion. To get the free storage students do need to be at an institution that has at least 25 Dropbox users. So if you're a student who wants to make sure that you get the free storage you need to refer classmates to Dropbox.