Your College Planning Tools

A curated collection of trusted tools and organizations to
support informed post-secondary decisions

Resources to Support Your
Post-Secondary Planning Process

College (Re)Search Resources

    • The College Board website is not only for providing information about the PSAT, SAT, and AP Exams, but it maintains a significant and searchable database of thousands of colleges and universities. This search feature can be a good starting point for beginning to understand the variety of institutions and types of programs that could be potential options for your college experience.
    • Colleges That Change Lives is a national non-profit organization based on the book of the same name, written by Loren Pope. It is a member organization of 45 colleges and universities that have been determined to offer transformational, highly personal experiences but may not be as widely known as other more prominent institutions that often find themselves at the top of college rankings lists.
    • The National Association of College Admission Counseling is the largest professional organization for those who work in post-secondary planning and college admissions. NACAC hosts in-person and virtual fairs each year with hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world that participate.
    • The Fiske Guide to Colleges highlights 320 four-year colleges and shares quotes from students as well as straightforward information you may not learn about from the colleges’ websites or publications.

Resources for Historically Excluded/Underrepresented Students

    • The Bonner Program provides a scholarship to students in exchange for weekly commitment to intensive and meaningful service with a local community organization over the four years as an undergraduate student with their campus partners.
    • The Campus Pride Index evaluates colleges on the LGBTQ+ friendliness based on these eight metrics: Policy Inclusion, Support & Institutional Commitment, Academic Life, Student Life, Housing, Campus Safety, Counseling & Health, and Recruitment & Retention Efforts
    • College Greenlight offers resources that support underserved and historically excluded students from higher education, including campus visit programs.

College Admission & Placement Testing

Financial Aid & Scholarships

    • Besides the FAFSA form, used to determine need-based federal aid eligibility, the US Department of Education’s website provides in-depth information about types of federal aid available.
    • A secondary form from the College Board used by some colleges and universities to evaluate additional eligibility for institutional aid. Here is a list of colleges that use it.
    • The College Board’s searchable college scholarship database

Application Platforms

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