Top 6 Tools for College Exploration in 2023

Beginning the process of College Exploration and List Building can be tricky!

On the one hand, there are more resources than ever before to learn about colleges. On the other hand, sometimes having too many options can lead to overwhelm. Below are my top six ways to start to learn more about what individual colleges have to offer, help teenagers begin to determine what they want out of their own college experience, and eventually build a list of schools to apply to that they LOVE!

1- College Fairs

Virtual and in-person College Fairs can be a great way to begin the process of college exploration and help teenagers learn more about what makes each school unique! However, they can sometimes be overwhelming and, without a plan, time and energy can be wasted. This is especially so at in-person College Fairs. The larger, more well-known colleges will always have long lines of people waiting to talk to the representative. I recommend spending time talking to college reps from some of the smaller colleges and asking what makes their school amazing! I also created this bingo board to encourage students to be fully engaged at college fairs. The bingo board helps them treat the college fair similar to a scavenger hunt where they need to find a variety of different schools and it helps them learn the individual differences that make each college special in its own unique way.

Looking to add a College Fair to your Spring calendar? Here are a few offered both in-person and online.

2- Campus Visits

There are some individual differences among college campuses that students really need to experience before they can develop a vision of what they want out of their college experience. When students are trying to define the basic parameters around their college search, they need to know preferences around characteristics like the size of the student body, diversity, campus setting, etc. Most teenagers I’ve worked with tend to focus on larger schools until they visit a smaller school and see the many opportunities available. They also seem to resonate with a type of setting once they’ve had a chance to visit different types of colleges. Whether they like being immersed in a large city or enjoy feeling more connected to nature with wide open spaces, visiting campuses with different settings can help them figure it out. There is a lot to consider when planning a college visit! Be sure to grab my free Guide to Campus Visits before you begin the planning process!

3- College Scorecard

If you are looking for a quick and easy database to search for colleges and quickly learn the basic statistics for each school, The College Scorecard is the place to go! Type in the name of a college and you will immediately be looking at things like graduation and retention rates, annual cost, average SAT/ACT scores, and student body demographics. You can also see the top fields of study at a particular college and what the average student earns after graduation. The College Scorecard is a great place to start when building a college list.

4- Campus Reel

Want to hear about a college directly from the students? Campus Reel is a video-based tool for college exploration that is a fun way to research colleges. Each college has videos from several different students that provide quick snapshots of college life. From favorite hang-outs to academic insights, Campus Reel has it all with a wide variety of student perspectives that feel like your best friend is talking to you about their school.

5- The Fiske Guide

The Fiske Guide is one of my all-time favorite resources for learning about colleges beyond statistics. It is the big green book your teenager has probably seen in their high school college counselor's office and my go-to resource when I want to learn about campus culture. The Fiske Guide has detailed descriptions of approximately 400 colleges from around the country and even a few overseas! It provides a great insider’s look at what it’s really like to be a student at each college.

6- Net Price Calculator

If you are trying to determine whether or not a college is within your family’s budget, the Net Price Calculator (NPC) is the tool you are looking for! Each college is required to provide an NPC on their website to give families a realistic idea of what to expect for actual cost. Why? Unfortunately, posted tuition, room, and board do not include need-based and merit-based aid that may be plentiful (or nonexistent). So, running the NPC will give you a better idea of what the total cost will look like for your specific family. In order to access the NPC, just go to the college’s website and in the search bar type in “Net Price Calculator”.

Do you have a favorite tool for College Exploration? Let us know!