Recommended Websites - Your College-Bound Kid

National Alliance on Mental Health/a> : Lisa tells us how to use the helpline to get help for any student in danger of suicide or any other serious mental health problems. (Ep. 195)
Student Loans and Guidance on Ways to Pay for College - MEFA (Ep. 194)
Federal Student Aid : The place to go to get a FSA ID. At least one parent and the student will need to get their own FSA ID to access Federal grants, loans or the Federal Work study program. (Ep. 192)
College Transitions : A great source for curated lists on a number of very relevant topics. (Ep. 191)
Hillels Guide to Jewish Life at Colleges and Universities : A sensational resource for anyone who wants to know which colleges serve Jewish students well. (Ep. 190)
Hillels Guide to Jewish Life at Colleges and Universities : A sensational resource for anyone who wants to know which colleges serve Jewish students well. (Ep. 190)
Corsava : A card sort online test that helps identify the qualities in a college each student will thrive at. Mark and Lisa have Corsava subscriptions and we use this test with all of the students that we counsel. Students enjoy this and it takes only about 12 minutes. (Ep. 189)
Niche : Look at the poll results at niche.com to their question, what one word best describes your school. (Ep. 187)
CollegeVine : A tremendous free resource for many things including a college admissions calculator and live streams. (Ep. 186)
The Process : Hear from Eric Furda (former Dean of Admissions at U Penn) in his own words about his SiriusXM’s show, The Process, the monthly program serving students and families with valuable insight into the college search, can be heard on SiriusXM Stars (Ch. 109) on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as On Demand. (Ep. 185)
Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast : The podcast did two episodes on the college rankings. The first is called Lord and the Rankings and the second is called Project Dilliard. (Ep. 183)
Poets & Quants : This website is an excellent source of information for anything related to the best business schools in the US and abroad. It covers undergrad business programs and MBA programs. (Ep. 182)
College Admissions Counselors : The group brings admissions counselors and college counselors together in one place. The group has almost 18000 members. It is a private group that is only for who can prove they are in the profession. (Ep. 180)
Grown and Flown Parents : A Facebook private group with almost 200,000 members. It is private but most people who apply for membership will be approved. (Ep. 179)
Paying For College 101 : A Facebook private group with almost 105,000 members. It is private but most people who apply for membership will be approved. (Ep. 178)
College Web LD : A great source to see how well various colleges serve students with learning differences. (Ep. 177)
The Character Collaborative : An attempt by an almost 300-member organizations to change how admissions is done. They want to see character count more in admissions. (Ep. 173)
Unigo : A great source for college reviews, college scholarships, college data and answers to challenging questions. (Ep. 172)
THE STATE OF COLLEGE ADMISSION REPORT : The State of College Admissions, a NACAC annual report. (Ep. 170)
Transferology : Transferology makes transferring easy. It helps you know whether your credits will count at the schools you are considering transferring to. Mark strongly recommends any transfer student utilize this website. (Ep. 168)
The College Tour : This is a new Amazon Prime TV show that takes 60 minutes per episode to tour various college campuses. You get introduced to about ten students who attend the college and you get to really learn a lot about each college. You also get to see the campus, just like on a real college tour. (Ep. 167)
Six Colleges : This website has very helpful videos from admission leaders at six highly selective small colleges that many people are not familiar with. The videos discuss applying to college, but they also describe some of the resources available at these campuses. (Ep. 166)
BlueVine : A great place to get your forgivable loan through the PPP program if you have a business. This can jump start your college fund. (Ep. 165)
Verified Scholarships : This website has over 3 million scholarships that have been pre-screened to make sure there are no scholarship scams. (Ep. 164)
The Higher Ed Newsletter : Click the sign-up button and receive a daily email with some of the most interesting and compelling stories about Higher Education that are in the News. (Ep. 163)
College Vizzy : A great source for finding virtual college visits, as well as for finding a fun list of things to look for on these visits. (Ep. 161)
Summer Programs : An excellent list with links to well over 100 hundred summer programs for high school students to attend. (Ep. 160)
Politico’s weekly roundup of stories related to education (Ep. 156)
National Student Clearinghouse : This is the definitive source for tracking vital formation like college enrollment, retention and graduation data. (Ep. 154)
Canada.ca : If you want to know more about studying in Canada go to the official website for the Country of Canada. (Ep. 151)
College Insights by ROAD 2 COLLEGE : A great website for seeing merit and need based awards that students received. It also provides other helpful data on each college. (Ep. 149)
going merry : Mark’s favorite website for searching for scholarships. (Ep. 148)
ABET : A non-profit organization that serves as an accrediting agency to validate the quality of academic program in areas like engineering, computer science, applied and natural sciences for associates, bachelors and masters programs. (Ep. 147)
Campus Safety and Security : The Department of Education’s website for studying crime and safety on each college campus. (Ep. 145)
Study in Europe : This is a fantastic website if you want to explore going to college in Europes. (Ep. 143)
The MEFA Institute: A Deep Dive Into the CSS Profile with Gail Holt of Amherst College : The best CSS PROFILE Walkthrough Mark has seen. It is by Gail Holt, Dean of Financial Aid at Amherst and she does this for MEFA. MEFA did a second CSS PROFILE Walkthrough that Mark also recommends. (Ep. 142)
A Complete FAFSA Walkthrough by Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA) : Mark’s favorite resource for helping students and parents with the 2021-22 FAFSA (Ep. 141)
Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast (Ep. 140)
City-Data.com : Mark’s favorite website for researching the surrounding area around the college (Ep. 139)
apstudents.collegeboard.org : If you want to know whether or not you will get college credit for your AP scores, or if you want to know what each schools AP policy is, then you want to go to apstudents.collegeboard.org (Ep. 138)
Coalition for College Virtual Fair on 9/16 : Come meet colleges from the 130 Coalition for Colleges (Ep. 137)
Direct Admit Nursing Programs : Mark’s favorite source for a list of BSN Direct Admit programs (Ep. 135)
If you are interested in learning more about 28 Jesuit colleges I recommend the Association of Jesuit colleges (Ep. 133)
Raj Chetty’s incredible research on colleges and so much more (Ep. 132)
Mark shares a summary of the important work Professor Scott Galloway of the Stern Business school at NYU is doing to sound the alarm about the dire financial straights that many colleges are in. Here is a link to sign up for a 90-minute session Prof Galloway is leading on Thursday, August 6th from 6-7:30 pm (Ep. 131)
Another great source to find scholarships that have been pre-screened and confirmed as viable and legitimate scholarships (Ep. 130)
A fantastic blog full of tips on how to win private scholarships (Ep. 129)
NYT Article-A Timeline of Key Supreme Court Cases on Affirmative Action (Ep. 128)
This website lets you know what the fall re-opening plans are for almost 300 colleges. It is updated multiple times in one day. (Ep. 126)
A great article by Shannon Insler of Student Loan Hero on the 8 best private student loans (Ep. 125)
Parent Loan Repayment Calculator (Ep. 123)
The Chronicle of Higher Education : They are tracking what each school’s plans are for the fall. They have an alphabetized list of schools with a hyperlink taking you to their plans and the best news is, they are updating it pretty much every day. (Ep. 122)
College Scorecard - US Department of Education (Ep. 121)
The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (Ep. 120)
Gap year Research Consortium at Colorado College (Ep. 119)
IPEDS - Use the Data : A link to help you access IPEDS data that you can use to assess the financial health of each school. (Ep. 118)
Navigate 2020: Virtual Conference and College Fair : A huge online college fair and conference from May 4th through May 6th. (Ep. 118)
Admissions Testing Policy Updates in response to COVID-19 : A list of test optional schools that is being updated daily. (Ep. 118)
NACAC’s College Admission Status Update : A central resource of information about changes in college admission as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. (Ep. 117)
The Impact of COVID-19 on College Admission and Testing : A panel discussion with three admissions officers on how Covid-19 will impact testing and admissions. (Ep. 116)
"Historical Waiting List Data (2017-2019)" by Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy : A document that uses Common Data Set information to let you know for specific colleges how many kids they wait list and how many students they take off the wait list for the last 3 years; here is the document. (Ep. 115)
"Historical Waiting List Data (2017-2019)" by Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy : A document that uses Common Data Set information to let you know for specific colleges how many kids they wait list and how many students they take off the wait list for the last 3 years; here is the document. (Ep. 115)
Common App : Take out a username and password, make sure you are logged in and then search for any college you are interested in and on their main page, you will see a hyperlink that says virtual tour, click this link to see which virtual tour a college wants you to see. (Ep. 114)
NCES College Navigator : College Navigator includes institutional data on programs offered, retention and graduation rates, prices, aid available, degrees awarded, campus safety, student loan defaults and accreditation. (Ep. 112)
CollegeScorecard.ed.gov : The College Scorecard is an online tool, created by the United States government, for consumers to compare the cost and value of higher education institutions in the United States. (Ep. 111)
CEED Directory of Cooperative Education & Internship Programs : A great source for information on the top colleges for co-op programs. (Ep. 110)
Your Free Career Test : Answer these 63 questions and get great insights into the careers that best match up with your interests. (Ep. 109)
Wikipedia : A great source for researching the history of colleges. (Ep. 105)
act.org : The official website of the ACT. You can track the changes coming to the ACT. (Ep. 103)
Jon Boeckenstedt blog : An outstanding blog where Jon Boeckenstedt gives his opinions on cutting edge admissions topics (Ep. 102)
Cappex Blog : A great source for articles about all topics related to college and college admissions (Ep. 101)
Scoir Blog : Another great college admission blog (Ep. 100)
Department of Education's Net Price Calculator Center : Access to all of the net price calculators in one place, plus so many other helpful links to other federal government websites about money and college (Ep. 98)
Pros and cons of the three biggest MOOCS-Cousera, EdX and Udacity : A YouTube video that covers the strengths and weaknesses of three of the largest Massive Open Online courses (MOOCS) platforms (Ep. 97)
The Chronicle of Higher Education : Well written articles about current hot topics and trends in higher eduction (Ep. 96)
Initialview : InitialView is the world leader in interview services (Ep. 95)
How to Raise a Successful Adult without overparenting (Ted Talk) : Fantastic Ted Talk about avoiding the pitfalls of overparenting (Ep. 93)
Jed Applerouth comments on the ACT : Great article on the recent changes to the ACT (Ep. 92)
Thomas Frank's 11 minute review of the best three task management apps : What the ACT changes mean for students (Ep. 91)
Common App's blog : You can hear webinars about changes to the Common App and you can read about what is new with the Common App (Ep. 90)
FAFSA 2020-2021 - FAFSA Full Walkthrough by Utah Futures : Great visual tool to help you complete the FAFSA for the current school year (Ep. 89)
List of colleges where Harvard’s current incoming law students received their Bachelor's degree : This list of where Harvard law students went to college is proof you don't have to go to an elite college to get in Harvard law school (Ep. 88)
College Board Landscape : The College Board's new tool to help colleges put SAT scores in their broader demographic context (Ep. 85)
Ulifeline : Your online guide for mental health (Ep. 84)
Coursera : Take free courses with leading college professors (Ep. 83)
Mental Health and Well-Being- How we better care for the whole student : A Barnes and Nobles report on how to help student mental health (Ep. 82)
Put the college in Google and click the News link and the video link under the Google search. Start reading everything and watching all the videos. : A tool to help us learn what is going on at a college that is newsworthy (Ep. 78)
The Twitter account for Inside Higher Ed : A great way to follow new developments in Higher Ed (Ep. 73)
This is the official Twitter account of Federal Student Aid : Follow new developments related to all things that have to do with the FAFSA and Federal student aid (Ep. 72)
The official Twitter account of the Common App : Follow new announcements and articles from the Common App (Ep. 71)
The official Twitter account of the College Board : Great source of new information on the SAT test and AP exams (Ep. 70)
Campus Reel : Campus Reel is like a YouTube that is exclusively filled with information on colleges (Ep. 69)
UCAS : The number one website for information on going to college in Europe (Ep. 67)
The official SAT app : An app that gives you practice SAT questions to help your SAT scores (Ep. 66)
How to write good recommendation letters : A guide to writing evaluations for MIT (Ep. 65)
Why This College Essay Guide + Examples : A guide on how to answer the very common, "Why should you apply to our school" essay by Ethan Sawyer (Ep. 64)
How to calculate your Weighted GPA by Prep Scholar : An excellent blog article on how to calculate your Grade Point Average (GPA) (Ep. 63)
Real essays that worked with the Johns Hopkins admissions review : Former real college admissions essays that students who applied to Johns Hopkins submitted. The website include feedback from JHU admission officers about those essays (Ep. 62)
US Department of Education : Chalked full of information about federal grants, loans, laws, data and other helpful articles and websites (Ep. 58)
Hechinger Report : In depth reporting covering innovation and inequality in higher education (Ep. 53)
College Affordability Guide : Data galore when it comes to college affordability (Ep. 52)
Inside Higher Ed's newsletter and webinars : Exceptional one hour webinars chalked full of insights on cutting edge issues that impact higher education (Ep. 51)
The blog at College Kickstart : Mark's favorite source for following trends in early applications and the decisions colleges make with these Early Action and Early Decision applications. (Ep. 47)
Official SAT past tests : Great place to find practice SAT tests (Ep. 45)
Official ACT practice tests : Great place to find practice ACT tests (Ep. 44)
NACAC College Fairs : A great resource to find large college fairs that travel to over 20 cities around the country (Ep. 43)
College Data : A user-friendly website chalked full of data on admissions, money, campus life, students and academics (Ep. 42)
Revolution Prep webinars : A great source for webinars on college admissions. Mark has done multiple webinars on this platform to help families (Ep. 41)
Applerouth Experts Corner : Mark's favorite blog about college admissions test scores (Ep. 40)
The FAFSA Walkthrough by Step Up Utah for 2019 : A great tool to help you complete the FAFSA. This YouTube video is Mark's favorite single source to help families complete the FAFSA. (Ep. 39)
YouVisit : Mark's favorite website for virtual college tours (Ep. 38)
College Results : Mark's favorite website to compare graduation rate statistics for colleges for kids from different backgrounds (Ep. 37)
NACUBO : Mark's favorite website to study endowment statistics (Ep. 36)
Public University Honors Colleges : Mark's favorite website to do research on public honors colleges (Ep. 35)
BigFuture : A visually appealing website that is one of Mark's favorite websites to do college research. This is run by the College Board. (Ep. 34)
You Science : Mark's favorite resource to help students understand what majors and what careers students have a natural aptitude for (Ep. 31)
SDP Summer Melt Handbook: A Guide to Investigating and Responding to Summer Melt : A great resource to explain what Summer Melt is, why it occurs and what can be done to prevent it (send end us an email at questions@yourcollegeboundkid.com to request this) (Ep. 30)
Saving for College : Mark's favorite website about 529 plans, and all things related to articles and resources to help with saving for college and paying for college (Ep. 29)