COLLEGE PLANNING RESOURCES
Contact YRTTF OC College Advising Mentor at collegehelp@yourunthistownoc.org for additional support.
CAREER AND COLLEGE WORKSHOP
GENERAL COLLEGE PLANNING
- CollegeData.com, Big Future (Collegeboard), College Navigator – Great sites for searching for individual college data as well as filtering for colleges using selected criteria
- CollegeWise– Great free college planning resources including guides,articles, tip sheets
- The College Essay Guy (CEG) – offers an incredible amount of free resources starting with advice on how to choose a college and How to Create a Great College List. Check out the very comprehensive College Application Hub
- California Colleges.edu – state of California’s official college and career planning platform
- icangotocollege.com – CA community college information
- CA Career Zone – Assessments to help students find what careers may be of interest
- O-net online – career and occupation assessments and information
- WUE – Western Undergraduate Exchange – Through WUE, eligible students can choose from hundreds of undergraduate programs outside their home state, and pay no more than 150 percent of that institution’s resident tuition rate
- College Guidance Network– Designed for high school counselors, but has numerous free resources including free live events and on demand videos
- Schoolbuff.com – Steven Antonoff – well known author of the book The College Match shares excellent free information on his website including worksheets to help students assess their interests and identify schools that will be good matches.
- Corsava – free online tool for students to sort and rate preferences in a way that will help you figure out what you want (and don’t want) from your college experience.
- College Transitions – Dataverse college data lists– Aggregated lists for almost any college related data, i.e. admissions stats, application deadlines, direct admissions programs, colleges with generous scholarships, etc.
- DIYCollegerankings.com – Free college guidance resources
- Road2college.com – Free college guidance resources
- Apprenticeship.gov – Search open apprenticeship job opportunities from employers and apply directly, or connect with apprenticeship programs
APPLICATIONS
- Common App, UC Application and Cal State Application
- AXS Common App Completion Guide– Free, online resource designed by professional consultants to be used side by side with Common App as student works through the application. Includes explanatory videos for each section, tips, glossary of terms, links to resources. You can go directly to the AXS Companion or read about the project on my blog. The AXS companion is free and available to any student or counselor to use, and free to share. No registrations or accounts are required.
- Collegewise Common App Guide – another guide to completing the common app
- CEG’s College Application Hub – help with every aspect of the college application process, including UC specific guidance (search the site)
- UC Guide for First Year Admission – powerpoint presentation Sept 2021 with helpful links
- Guide for UC Admissions – designed for counselors, but extremely detailed guidance
- Advice from Prompt Essay Service- answering the UC Personal Insight Questions (PIQ’s)
FINANCIAL AID and SCHOLARSHIPS
- YRTTF OC Powerpoint Presentation on Financial Aid financial aid
- Studentaid.gov – Access the FAFSA form and guidance for all aspects of federal financial aid, as well as:
- CA Student Aid Commission – detailed info on CA state aid programs- Cal Grants, Middle Class Scholarship
- Finaid.org – education regarding financial aid and various calculators for projecting loan payments.
- FAFSA Mistakes to Avoid
- Need based and merit aid aid data by school– compiled by BigJ Consulting.
- CA Blue and Gold Scholarship – free tuition at UC’s for students with family income less than 80K
- EFC Explained by George Schneiderman– very detailed explanation of the FAFSA calculation/the EFC and a detailed spreadsheet to estimate EFC
- Scholarships Resources – list of scholarship search sites and strategies for finding scholarships
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS
- Collegecampaign.org – interactive map showing CA Campus locations with resources/support for undocumented students
- UC Guide for Latinx resources at UC Campuses
- LAIST Article -Resources for Special Situations – support resources for college seeking students with backgrounds including foster, first gen, formerly incarcerated, etc.
