Resources We Love

This site allows you to register for the SAT and PSAT and has good SAT prep and college admission resources for students and parents. Also, use the College Search function to create a custom short list of your desired schools, track admission deadlines, and more.

This site allows you to register for the ACT and to indicate that you want your previous ACT scores sent to the schools of your choice.

The Natl Center for Education Statistics manages this site. It provides comprehensive information on thousands of colleges, listing stats for admission, retention rates, graduation rates, majors, and a host of other essential topics.

The Common Application is the application accepted by over 900 universities. It is a centralized and efficient system for students to manage their applications. Many Scholarship Gold students use the Common App exclusively for their applications. Students can start completing their Common App as early as the 9th grade, saving and updating their data year to year until they apply to college as a senior.

Parents can file for FAFSA starting Oct 1st of the student’s senior year. Even if a parent doubts they will qualify for financial aid, it is still recommended that they file it this first time. Why? Many colleges have a policy that a FAFSA must be on file for a student to be considered for merit scholarships.

This is an additional needs-assessment tool (similar to FAFSA) required by some universities to be considered for generous grants from their generous and deep pockets. Not all scholars require you to submit a CSS Profile. You can do an internet search for “Colleges that Require CSS Profile” to see which schools want it.

This site provides information on services and classes offered by Princeton Review and allows you to register for free strategy sessions and practice tests.

On the home page, enter your zip code in the top right corner and press Enter. Then click on the Free Events tab.

See our store to get the premium on-line prep package

This site has thousands of expert videos explaining and teaching various topics. The person narrating, Sal Khan, has degrees from Harvard and MIT and is a gifted instructor.

On this site, clicking “programs” will show users specific college programs that let students shorten the time it takes to become a doctor. Instead of 8 years (4 undergrads and four medical), these programs can be condensed to only 6 or 7 years.

The Congressional Award is the only non-profit run by Congress. It allows youth between the ages of 13.5 and 24 to set and attain goals in fitness, volunteerism, personal growth, and an expedition to earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Congressional Medal. It is an excellent way for students to excel and achieve remarkable goals outside of the classroom.

This site hosts a scholarship search engine that provides students worldwide with access to scholarship opportunities.

This site tracks millions of dollars available from various sources to help students pay for college. Users complete an online profile that is then used to match the student to scholarships that might fit them. These scholarships are mostly from 3rd party (aka “independent”) sources, such as corporations, foundations, and civic groups.

Students wishing to play sports for a Div 1 or Div 2 college must register with the NCAA in their sophomore or junior year. This site is the complete source of all registration information and related resources.

This is a great site created by the government on all things related to financial (need-based) aid. Also, look into StudentAid.gov.

This foundation recognizes 40 colleges and universities throughout the country that CTCL believes have the most impact on the lives of their students.

This government-generated site allows users to research hundreds of different career paths and investigate salary ranges, education and training requirements, and fields with extraordinary growth in the coming years.

US News, World Report, and Forbes magazine create lists of the national college rankings each year. These college rankings are based on a statistics matrix, such as average freshman test scores, retention and graduation rates, faculty resources, selectivity of admission, and more.

Bigfuture is a great free resource to explore your future career, find colleges that offer the degree you want and search for scholarships to help you pay for it all.