4 Sites You Wish Were Around When You Were Applying To College

Fzzzztt!  Sparks are flying out of my computer like it’s the 4^th of July, and after a few seconds the plastic around the keyboard begins to transform into a molten soup of graphite-colored pudding.

I work with high school seniors and counselors. As my laptop spirals down into an epic – and literal – meltdown, I can’t help but wonder what this sort of catastrophe would have meant for the college applicants of the past (i.e. before the year 2000). It would have been horrendous. Fortunately, the advent of cloud-based apps solved that problem.

But what about the basic challenges related to building a decent college list, finding essay requirements, finding scholarships, and preparing for standardized tests?

Those challenges have not gone unnoticed by the educational technology community, and thanks to the innovative work of a handful of enterprising organizations, the college application landscape is changing in spectacular, mind-blowing ways. So….without further ado, here are four college planning sites you wish were around when you were applying to college:

1. Zoomita

This application essay management system is truly revolutionary. Zoomita’s arrival has made the hardest part of the college application process a lot more manageable- and its free.

• What does it do? Students create a college list. Then Zoomita reveals all of the required, optional, “sometimes required”, and program-specific essays for that list. Zoomita is also a sweet document management system that organizes all essay drafts in chronological order.  The concept of a doc management system without files or folders is….awe-inspiring.
• Why is this important? Essays are the most time-intensive, anxiety-provoking part of college apps. Zoomita cuts through all of that like a samurai sword through tissue paper.
• Social? Students can invite anyone to review a draft, much like Google Docs. The Zoomita team is also building a crowdsourcing system with anti-plagiarism technology that will allow students to get their essay reviewed by anyone on the app.
• Drawbacks? We really want to see the crowdsourcing stuff. Please build that already.

2. Raise.me

Microscholarships. The coolest…thing…ever. Even better, it’s free.

• What does it do? High school students automatically earn scholarship money for getting a good grade in a class, participating in an after-school activity, volunteering, etc. Raise.me essentially rewards students for things they are already doing, and helps incentivize students to keep up the good work. Brilliant.
• Why is this important? The cost of college is a major roadblock for many students and families. This site lowers the price-tag for college, while incentivizing exactly the type of behavior that makes students more attractive as candidates, and helps them succeed in college. Whoever thought of this is a straight-up genius.
• Social? Most of the app is organized around individual performance, but students can earn additional scholarship money by inviting other students to the platform.
• Drawbacks? Hard to think of drawbacks, other than the fact that the scholarships are not actual cash in your pocket, but are deductions from the cost of attending college.

3. Khan Academy

This online course juggernaut has an entire section dedicated to standardized test prep, and another section dedicated to college admissions. There are tons of exercises and practice materials available here, free of charge.

• What does it do? Students take classes, watch videos, and browse exercises to develop their test-taking and application-building skills.
• Why is this important? College applications in the United States favor students with a higher socio-economic status. Khan Academy is helping to level the playing field.
• Social? Each lesson includes a thread where students can ask questions, provide comments, vote on responses, etc.
• Drawbacks? It’s pretty hard to complain about free, high quality test prep.

4.  Big Future (College Board)

The publisher of the SAT offers a suite of college matching, career exploration, and financial aid resources on its Big Future website, free of charge.

• What does it do? Students can search for schools by type, location, majors, test scores, and a variety of other factors. Students can then create their own college list from the search results. The site also includes videos and articles on a range of other application-related subjects.
• Why is this important? Applying to college is really about finding the right match. With close to four thousand U.S. colleges to choose from, it is nearly impossible for students to find all of their potential matches without the help of college-matching apps like the one on Big Future.
• Social? Not really.
• Drawbacks? It would be nice if the financial aid information for each college broke down average tuition by income.

It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in the last 10 years. Who knows what the next 10 years holds? I can’t wait to see.

Featured photo credit: COD Newsroom via flickr.com

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