College Resources

College Resources

Since its creation in 2001, the Department of Education College Opportunities Online (COOL) website has helped hundreds of thousands of students and families learn about colleges and universities. Now, COOL's successor, called College Navigator and located at http://collegenavigator.ed.gov offers consumers even more information in an easy-to-use format.

Launched today, College Navigator is a free consumer information tool designed to help students, parents, high school counselors, and others get information about nearly 7,000 postsecondary institutions in the United States. It offers a wide range of information previously found on COOL -- such as programs offered, retention and graduation rates, prices, aid available, degrees awarded, campus safety, and accreditation. However, College Navigator offers users valuable new information about colleges and universities, and it does so in a way that is vastly more user-friendly. Users can now:

Search by programs offered, degrees offered, institution type, price, selectivity, distance from home, school size, institutional mission (historically black colleges and universities, single-sex), extended learning opportunities for adults (weekend and evening degree programs), and intercollegiate athletics programs offered.
Modify or change their search from anywhere within the website.
Use a simple and intuitive way of selecting keywords to search among programs at a general level (communications, journalism, and related programs), drill down through a menu to a moderate level of detail, and identify highly specific courses of study (health communication).
Make comparisons of up to four institutions in one view, and maintain a list of favorite institutions from different searches
Save their sessions and receive an email with a link taking them back to where they left off.
Export search results to easily-used formats, such as Excel.

The College Navigator was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES plans continuing improvements in the content and function of the site, and there are plans for a Spanish version in the coming months.
http://collegenavigator.ed.gov

U.S. Department of Education: Info on funding opportunities, research
and statistics, news and events, programs and services, publications and
products, and on-line educational resources
www.ed.gov <http://www.ed.gov/ >

The Student Guide Financial Aid
Phone: 1-800-433-3243
http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/FYE

FAFSA Online Application-FAFSA Express
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov <http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ >

Access American-a student gateway to government program services
http://www.students.gov/index2.html

Yahoo
A search engine that provides links to government, colleges and
commercial sites such as Peterson's and Kaplan's
http://yahoo.com/education/financial_aid/

Fast Web
A commercial site that hosts the largest free list of scholarships
http://www.fastweb.com <http://www.fastweb.com/ >

College Board's Financial Aid Site
http://www.collegeboard.org/finaid/fastud/html/intro.html

College freshmen
A Resource to help the anxieties of first year students
www.collegefreshmen.net <http://www.collegefreshmen.net/ >

Advantage Ed: Offers test preparation and tutoring for high school,
college and graduate students. Includes application tips
www.study-smart.com <http://www.study-smart.com/ >

Common Application: How the common application works, and provides a
list of participating colleges and universities.
www.commonapp.org <http://www.commonapp.org/ >

Supercollege.com: Information regarding scholarships, college
admissions, and financial aid. Also features tips for school admissions
essays and interviews.
www.supercollege.com <http://www.supercollege.com/ >

Collegetips.com: College tips on applications, admissions, grants,
loans, debts, the handicap, freshmen initiation, fraternities, sports,
clubs, politics, jobs, dorm life, scholarships, and dropping out.
www.college-tips.com <http://www.college-tips.com/ >

Resources for minority students: A list of links to help you keep
informed about the information, opportunities, and events minority
students interested in the medical and health field need to know to make
the most of their educational and career plans.
www.sunysb.edu/healthed/Text/minority.html
<http://www.sunysb.edu/healthed/Text/minority.html >

Fin Aid/Other Types of Aid/Minority Students: Contains information about
scholarships and fellowships for minority students.
www.finaid.org/otheraid/minority.phtml
<http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/minority.phtml >

College View: Database of more than 3,500 two- and four-year colleges
and universities. Includes online tours, providing overviews of campus life
www.collegeview.com <http://www.collegeview.com/ >

Black Excel: The College Help Network: Helps African-American students
navigate the college admissions process.
www.blackexcel.org <http://www.blackexcel.org/ >

First-Generation College Students: First-generation college
students-college Prep-101. Information for practitioners about
first-generation college students
www.collegeprep.okstate.edu/homepage.nst/toc/first_generation
<http://www.collegeprep.okstate.edu/homepage.nst/toc/first_generation >

College411: Resource for students and parents planning for a college
education with sections on financial aid, college searches, and study
abroad.
www.college411.org <http://www.college411.org/ >

Black Voices College Bound: College resources for college bound African
American students.
www.blackvoices.com/feature/college-bound
<http://www.blackvoices.com/feature/college-bound >