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admin | December 29, 2011

College Matchmaker

So you see the sun starting to set on your high school years and you’ve realized now’s as good a time as ever to start the college searching process. There are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself before finalizing your decision. What type of college environment would best fit you? Does it matter how large the institution is? What degrees are you majoring in and where can you receive the best education? It can all be mind boggling and a tad overwhelming as there are so many good, and bad, colleges to choose from and you don’t want to be stuck at an institution for four years regretting ever filling out the application. If decided on a major, there may be colleges that look good overall but offer not-so attractive departments inhibiting you of receiving the best education in your major. On the other hand, there may be a less-than-prestigious institution with one highly-acclaimed program that can give you a better chance of finding success in your career but is hidden in obscurity. It all depends on how well you did your research and, more to the point of this article, how accurate the college matchmaker tool you used was in helping you finalize a decision. There are many college matchmakers online, but how do you know which one is right for you? Below are a few popular college matchmaking tools that, if tried altogether, might give you the best choices possible.

College Board

The College Board has been a faithful resource for college students for over a century. These guys are the ones who gave you that SAT during your junior year. But besides handing out tests, they also prove to be a valuable resource for those seeking more information about colleges and universities. They’ll provide detailed explanations on various degree programs, while giving you advice on how to pick a school with a strong department. They also have a college search tool that’ll assist you in finding the perfect institution whether your preference is on cost, majors, locations, sports, or housing programs. And in most cases, you might need help funding the high price that universities often carry, so they offer help with finding scholarships as well. College Board is a useful site that’ll prove to be a valuable resource as you weed through the college process.

Zinch

Another useful, albeit unique sounding, college matchmaker comes from Zinch. This website provides helpful tips for students searching for colleges and also has scholarship matching tools to assist you in paying for tuition. They have blogs, events, a nice little Facebook page and super Easy Scholarships like their Three Sentence Essay program that awards students one grand if they give the best three sentence answer to a question. Free money that can help lessen the average $25,250 amount in student debt (according to Project Student Loan Debt’s findings) taking years to pay off will, I’m sure, be well-received by many prospective college students nationwide. This site was named in Red Herring’s Top 100 North American Tech Startup so definitely keep this site in mind as you search for colleges.

CollegeProwler

If you want a comprehensive process when it comes to searching for college, using more than one college matchmaking tool is always a good move. CollegeProwler does pretty much the same thing the previous sites do, they offer scholarships, provide college matchmaking services and post reviews written by college students. You can also rank colleges by either highest tuition, living conditions, preferred for transfer students, oldest institutions and more. They give you recommendations based on your SAT and ACT scores and what major you’re pursuing. When it comes to finding a college, they offer a basic and advanced college search tool (depending on how much help you need), so that even if you’ve already found a college matchmaking tool, you can still compare the results from various tools, aiding in the refinement process and giving you the best choices possible.

Online College Matchmakers

There are many more college matchmaking tools out there to further assist you in the college process. Fastweb is another popular site students go to find scholarships and colleges. And if you’re searching for an online degree, Education Connection matches you with online universities so you can go the college in pjs route to attaining a career. Also, there are paid services, like College Admissions Assistance that’ll help with the college process. If you’re willing to do a bit of research, you’ll find there are a ton of resources available to assist in finding a college that best matches you. Also, be sure to investigate further the results you get from various college matchmaking tools to get a better understanding of what that institution is about.

admin | December 19, 2011

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College Admissions Assistance

Finding the right college and the means to afford it can be a challenge for students and their families. You’ll have to do a lot of researching, essay writing, studying for tests and a ton of other important tasks just to get in the front door. And since there’s such a supply of frustrated students and parents dealing with the heavy stresses of pursuing postsecondary education, there are companies who aim to meet the demand. College Admissions Assistance (CAA) is one of those companies who provide services for students and their families so they can attend the university they want, receive the financial aid they need and graduate in the ideal four-year time-frame expected. You may have heard of this company in forums or have received a letter in the mail inviting you to a conference. They have a unique business model with coaches, teams, custom proprietary programs and selling tactics that, based on forum posts across the net, tend drive some customers away.

The College Admissions Assistance Way

But the question remains, do the services rendered by College Admissions Assistance produce results? You can just visit their website and read their simple yet clearly stated philosophy about why they exist and how their services can lead to a successful, cost-effective, timely pursuit of a degree at a four-year college. They go on about how every student is unique and use very encouraging terms like “destiny”, “believe” and “dreams” to uplift and persuade you into delving in a bit deeper into business. They also produce written and video testimonials of people esteeming the help of CAA; that they might not have gotten to where they are without CAA; that thanks to their experienced coaches editing their essays, they were able to accomplish their goals, and that their test prep services gave them the scores they needed to either be accepted to a college or receieve a scholarship. It all sounds very appealing to a student or parent working the graveyard shift trying to make the best out of the college process, but is it a scam or is it legit?

Warning Signs

If you’ve done any research on the company, you might have discovered a few of the negative PR associated with some of the questionable selling tactics they perform. For example, they’ll send you a letter inviting you to a conference. At the conference, they’ll explain to you how they can help iron out the wrinkles in your college search process making your “dreams” a reality. The thing that is probably most surprising is that they require you to pay $2,000 in order to receive their help. How likely is it for a student and their parents searching for financial aid to shell out two grand on a service that might or might not give them what they’ve expected. It’s sort of an up hill battle for CAA to provide reasons why they are worth it and some have left their workshops feeling a bit pressured. Still though, quality education and a bright future for your child is important, so is the program really worth two grand?

Earning Their Value

According to the College Board website, for the 2011-12 school year, on average, the tuition costs for an undergraduate was $8,224 a year for in-state students and 12,526 for out-of-state students. Now that’s on average, if you had your eye set on an Ivy League school, you’d have to dish out somewhere between thirty and forty grand a year not including room and board. When planning financially for school, these figures become more and more important as studies show it’s taking more than four years to earn a degree (CAA claims it takes six). One of College Admissions Assistance biggest selling points is that they can help your student finish college and receive their degree in four years, in effect earning their value in the long-run. With all investments, it’s wisdom to weigh the pros and cons so that you won’t regret your decision down the road.

The Old Fashioned Way

If you still don’t feel comfortable about College Admissions Assistance, there’s always the old fashioned way of getting through the college process. Just do it. There are plenty of resources out there available to hel. And of course there are always Easy Scholarships out there for the taking. If you aren’t an English major, No Essay Scholarships that replace writing with something else are available, identifying the importance of rewarding diverse skill sets. The College Board website, the organization in charge of the SAT, offers tons help for those preparing to take the SAT. And visiting sites like College Confidential, Zinch, CollegeProwler and FastWeb are other ways you can find useful (Free!) information concerning your postsecondary educational needs. Again, the purpose of this article isn’t to dissuade or encourage you concerning College Admissions Assistance, just to provide a perspective that’ll further help you in your research.