College Information

• The College Board’s engine for matching student preferences with colleges
• Website for North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities
• Website for North Carolina Community Colleges
• Website for North Carolina public universities
• A listing of online programs available through North Carolina public universities
• The website for the College Foundation of North Carolina.  Features profiles of all North Carolina colleges, public and private, four year and two year.

Standardized Tests and Free Test Prep

• The College Board’s website.  Includes information on the SAT, SAT II Subject Tests and AP courses.
• The ACT’s website
• Website featuring colleges that are standardized test optional in their admissions processes.
• Free online standardized test prep services (testprepreview)
• Free online standardized test prep services (freesat1)
• Free online standardized test prep services (number2)
• Comprehensive site from Peterson’s which features free online SAT and ACT prep, as well as college and career exploration and help locating scholarships.  

Financial Aid

• Very comprehensive financial aid site.
• Parent and Student Financial Aid Resource Center on the website of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.  
• Site that allows you to compare various student loan options, including public and private loans.  
• Federal Student Aid Information for students.
• Help in completing the FAFSA.
• FAFSA on the Web and Federal School Codes.
• An early estimate of a student’s eligibility for federal financial aid.
• Financial Literacy guide by CFNC.
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
• CFNC’s page with financial aid tools and calculators.
• The College Board’s discussion of Estimated Family Contribution.
• Features a variety of calculators to allow families to explore different funding options to pay for college.
• Sallie Mae’s tips for understanding Expected Family Contribution.

Scholarships

• Best known free scholarship database.
• Free scholarship search and information about financial aid.
• Free scholarship search database (scholarships)
• Free scholarship search database (scholarship experts)
• The College Foundation of North Carolina’s list of scholarships available to North Carolina students attending North Carolina colleges.
• Grants available for minorities: African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Latinos, and Native Americans.
• List of Minority Scholarships compiled by the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.  This is a great resource for corporate scholarships and scholarships by professional field.
• The Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s list of scholarships for Hispanic/Latino students.
• The Hispanic College Fund’s list of scholarships for Hispanic/Latino students.

Students considering transferring from Gray Stone to an adult high school diploma program:

• Site that helps students locate their regional adult high school diploma program coordinators.  
• Contact person information for Stanly Community College’s Adult High School program.

Recommended Reading

New Rules of College Admissions by Steven Kramer and Michael London.  This book, written by private educational consultants, is a comprehensive look at college admissions.  The book is particularly helpful in illustrating changes in the college admissions process over the last twenty years.

Admission Matters:  What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting into College by Sally P. Springer, Jon Reider, and Marion R. Franck.  Like the book above, this is a comprehensive look at college admissions.  This book has an excellent appendix of worksheets from collecting data from college visits to financial aid to teacher recommendation letters.   

The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price by Lynn O’Shaughnessy.  This book focuses on maximizing students’ chances for scholarships and financial aid.  The author includes tips on how to use research found on the web to discover which colleges will offer the most financial aid.  The information provided is valuable to all students, not just A+ students.  

Conquering the College Admissions Essay by Alan Gelb.  This book attempts to walk students through the process of writing college admissions essays in ten steps.  It includes lots of examples of writing from students as they prepare their essays, including different drafts of essays.  The author is a professional writer and this book is useful not only for students seeking to write great essays, but to anyone who would like to improve their writing skills.

What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out of College by Don Dunbar.  This book is presented as a series of common admissions mistakes, and how students can avoid them.  The author, a former college counselor at Phillips Academy in Andover and current private educational consultant, argues that character is often the key to admissions at highly selective colleges.  He defines character as intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for the community, tolerance and inclusiveness.    

The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg.  Steinberg is an educational reporter for the New York Times.  This book is his account of a year spent with admissions officers at Wesleyan University and offers unparalleled insight into the admissions process at this highly selective university.  The book includes the stories of six real applicants’ applications, interviews and outcomes.