College search hits high-tech
highway
Wausau Daily Herald
and The Associated
Press
The ritual of applying for college is going high-tech. High school
students are now heading to the Web to get information instantly and
conveniently.
From the venerable College Board, which runs the SAT college entrance
exams, to upstarts such as BestSchoolsUSA.com, online research services
want to help students pick schools, write essays, even pay for tuition.
Most sites are free.
Traffic was heavy at many sites, anticipating Monday’s application
deadline for early decision and early action at several leading colleges
and universities. But peak season has yet to come, with traditional
application deadlines of December or January.
Though seniors are the ones most focused now, high school juniors are
already surfing the Web for college data even though they have a year to
go before applying. "The Internet is like a bridge to tons of
information," says Ashvin Dewan, a junior at Hightower High School in
Missouri City, Texas.
His guidance counselor, Paula Cox, is grateful. She says online
services have allowed students to research schools themselves, freeing
counselors to focus on advice.
Sue Clairmore-Dix, guidance counselor at Wausau West High School,
said many students at Wausau West are turning to the Internet to
research colleges and their programs. Wausau West has 13 computers with
Internet access in its career center which students use often.
"I think kids are using the Internet for wonderful things --
researching colleges as well as researching financial aid
opportunities," she said.
The Internet has also become a good tool for parents of college-bound
students, because they can access that college information at home, as
well, Clairmore-Dix said.
Other counselors urge caution, however. Just about anyone, they point
out, can set up a Web site catering to a high school audience.
Commercial Web services might lure students into a scam or give bad
information, such as an incorrect application deadline.
"Web sites information can be very, very unreliable," says Stephen D.
Singer, director of college counseling at the Horace Mann School in New
York.
Clairmore-Dix recommends that students go directly to colleges’
official Web sites.
One site in particular, ecollegebid.org, irks Joyce Smith, executive
director of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in
Alexandria, Va. That site treats selecting a college like an auction.
Families bid for a certain amount of tuition, and schools willing to
accept that then respond.
"It’s a totally different spin on college," she says. "It’s more like
a novelty than the start of an education process."
Even though Internet sites allow guidance counselors to focus on
guidance and counseling, Smith worries that some students might try to
bypass counselors completely and forego their advice.
"A child can sit at a computer for hours searching for information,
and the only way a high school would know," she notes, "is if the child
has to ask for a transcript."
Eliminating the relationship is never the goal, insists Young Shin,
president and chief executive of embark.com in San Francisco. He says no
site can meet all of a student’s needs.
Besides the basic research available on the Internet, "every student
always needs special counseling and advice," he says.
Leading Web sites such as The Princeton Review’s www.review.com and
Peterson’s www.collegequest.com let students narrow their choices based
on size, location and other personal preferences. Before, students had
to use CD-ROM services at their schools’ computers or leaf through books
and college brochures.
The nonprofit College Board has a site, collegeboard.org, offering
similar services. It recently announced plans to create a for-profit
site, collegeboard.com, to offer additional features this spring.
Some sites compile details on academic requirements and campus life,
and many link directly to the colleges’ own Web sites.
Students can also apply to some schools online through some of the
commercial sites, using a special form or digital image of a college’s
own application.
Help is also available with tuition. Embark.com planned to announce
Monday a promotional sweepstakes drawing with a grand prize of four
years’ tuition, or up to $80,000. Embark and other sites have databases
with scholarship information.
"You’d be amazed at how much money is out there and how much money
goes unclaimed," says Evan Schnittman, vice president at the New
York-based Princeton Review.
Not for lack of searching. The number of registered users at his site
rose at least five times this year -- and should increase as peak season
nears.
Of course, the computer will not write the application essay --
although, for $60 or more (major credit cards accepted), several
services will edit essays and offer suggestions on content. Others offer
sample essays and writing tips for free.
Heather Goode, a high school senior in Davie, Fla., relied on
BestSchoolsUSA.com and other sites to explore colleges in her area. She
wants to remain near her family, so she is thinking of the University of
Miami.
She prefers the Internet over visiting her guidance counselor’s
office during the busy school day. "You can do it at your leisure," she
says. "If you’re bored at 3 o’clock in the morning, you go online."
The results won Mammen Zachariah, a freshman at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh.
"If you use the Internet, you get more information about each
individual college," he says. "If I didn’t have the Internet, I wouldn’t
have applied here. Through the Internet, I knew it was a good school."
"I think it’s making all of us, the counselors as well as the
teachers, get on top of accessing the Internet," Clairmore-Dix said. "
... It’s been a learning experience for all of us."
