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Students
Finding the perfect fit for college begins with Your Visits, continues with Your Words, and leads you to make Your
Decisions. Welcome To College will allow YOU to take control!
Search schools – Big campus in a small town? Small campus in a big city? Want to stay close to your hometown? Can’t wait to move far, far away from home? Do you want to be in a city that will surround you with professional sports, great food, arts & culture, and/or outdoor activities? Search for and identify the schools you plan on visiting in order to select your desired home away from home.
My schools – See the schools you’ve added based on your interests, while seeing how others have rated them.
Plan a visit – Pick the best date to visit and see if your favorite burrito, wings, or burger joint is close to campus! Nail down a list of schools you want to visit, and you can show your parents and high school counselors just how motivated and organized you really are.
Rate and compare – Just click, slide and jot down your notes. Following your visit, you will rate the school you visited according to four categories to help you track those “gut feelings” you always hear people talk about. Then, compare your ratings with national averages and see how your favorites stack up.
My Dashboard – It’s your turn to hand out the grades! This will help you keep track of your visit ratings and top ranked schools, upcoming visits, and what peers are sharing about their visits.
Parents
Welcome to College will help you assist your child in finding the perfect fit for their college experience. We know you play a crucial part in the college search process and more importantly with reaffirming the decision they make. Your ability to assist with planning, providing transportation, as well as food, hotels, and other travel expenses is invaluable. Through Welcome to College you will be able to go along on the campus visit experience ride with your child all the way from the first visit to move-in day.
In the end, Welcome to College wants to make sure parents understand the college visit and selection process. This is a resource for you to use in order to have meaningful conversations with your child as they find their perfect fit.
Search schools – You will have an opportunity to search for schools based on a variety of criteria. In order to assist your child with the search process, ask them to think about some of, but not limited to, the following:
- How close or how far do they want to be from their hometown for the college experience?
- What size school do they want to go to?
- Do they want to go to a private or public institution?
- Is the perfect fit for them in a rural or big city setting?
My schools – You can add colleges to your My Schools page. After a conversation with your child you could input some of the key points they're interested and find schools that match their criteria. Or you could sit down as a family and identify a list of schools you plan on visiting. All the while you can keep track of those schools on you My Schools page. You'll be able to read comments, post your own, upload pictures, see upcoming events, and even read ratings of each school.
Plan a visit – Time to pack up the car and take a road trip. More than likely you'll be the ones driving, arranging hotel accommodations (although this information is included on the My Schools page, so your child could always take care of it!), or in some cases purchasing/organizing airfare. Nevertheless, the plan a visit page will allow you to see how to get there, where you can eat, and where you can sleep. Impress your kids by telling them their favorite burrito joint is only .4 mile from campus!
Rate and compare – You will be given a chance to track your "gut feelings" too. Just as your child will rate and compare schools after a visit, so can
you! Following each visit you can rate the school based on four categories. Track your feelings and you could compare your notes with your child's. Through it all you can even see how others felt about the same school.
Your report card – As the process moves along it will come time to make a decision (the national deadline for college enrollment is May 1). But through process you will have your very own report card of all the schools you've visited as a family. Once it's time to make a decision you will be able to have a meaningful conversation with your child about nailing down the perfect fit for the college experience.
High School Counselors
We appreciate the efforts of high school counselors! Welcome To College is a fun tool that will help you and your students
identify the best college to fit their individual needs.
Students are able to identify and keep up on schools they’re interested in, track their “gut feelings,” and ultimately compare
and record their school visit experiences. You’ll no longer need to nag them about writing out a “Pros & Cons.” The site makes it fun and easy.
Here are some of the ways Welcome To College will help make your job a little easier:
Search schools – Imagine if all of your students were saying, “I already know what types of schools I’d like to visit.” You’re thinking… “Awesome!” Welcome to College enables students to search for schools based on criteria that will help them find the right fit. Some questions to ask include:
- How close or how far do they want to be from their hometown for the college experience?
- What size school do they want to go to?
- Do they prefer a small town or big city setting?
- Do they want to go to a private or public institution?
My schools – Your student’s My Schools page will give them an opportunity to review and add schools to their favorites. If they enter their college counseling meeting as junior without a list of schools, you can help them determine what criteria is important to them when trying to find their fit.
Plan a visit – Visiting a college simplified. This page will allow your student to Plan a Visit, as well as see what’s around campus. If you know your student can’t live without their favorite burrito place, they’ll be able to find out if one is close enough to campus.
Rate and compare – Your student can finally track those “gut feelings” you’re always telling them about. Following their campus visits, you’ll be able to sit down with them and have meaningful information to work with. Not to mention, if you create your own account, you’ll be able to track your impressions when your visiting college campuses. You can even take your own pictures and upload them to your account!
My Dashboard – Everyone who has an account will have their own dashboard, providing a high-level view of what’s going on at their schools of interest. As a high school counselor, you can add your students’ favorites to your own list of favorites. You’ll have heightened awareness for what’s going on at campuses across the United States, giving you an opportunity to stay “in the loop” with your students and their interests.