College, Career and Life Readiness
College and Career Counseling Goes Virtual
“Where are you applying?”
“Have you heard from your top choice?”
“What are you going to major in?”
High school students are peppered with these questions -- from friends, family, and even strangers. Inner debates over scholarships, in-state tuition, majors and distance of schools from home are constantly swirling. Wouldn’t it be great to get some non-biased advice? Whew – that would help, right?
Great News! Over the past few years, new web and mobile apps have emerged to provide students (and parents) with greater insight into college and career planning.
My Top 5 College & Career Counseling Applications
- Career Connect: Resulting from a partnership between CareerVillage.org and ConnectEDU, this Facebook application enables high school students to ask career professionals relevant questions. Ultimately, the application provides a forum for students to gain real world knowledge on career pathways of interest to them, while obtaining advice on the value of career-related high school clubs, internships, post-secondary degree selection, and more.
- College Abacus: Designed to be a one-stop, secure research site that enables families to compare the net price of over 4,000 post-secondary institutions. College Abacus helps solve the mystery that is the college financial aid process. Harnessing the information in federally mandated, post-secondary institution’s Net Price Calculators, this free service enables families to project their cost of education at targeted institutions or simply identify institutions that will align with their budget.
- NerdScholar, brought to you by Nerdwallet, is dedicated to helping students make informed decisions regarding their education. The FAFSA assistance tool, especially, provides a user-friendly tutorial. The website delivers college comparison and career planning tools in addition to a host of other practical resources, even recommendations for students with unusual family circumstances.
- FastForward: A tool in the collection of Unigo, one of the largest college resources on the web, this application allows students to identify potential careers and visualize a pathway to get there. Using a Facebook-like timeline, this tool allows student to search careers, match themselves to a career, and identify additional resources and skills that will empower them to succeed.
- TractusInsight: This fee-based application enables students to compare college choices, and most importantly, select the right school. TractusInsight operates as a professional college counselor, enabling students and families to identify schools of interest through their recommendation tool and elaborate search parameters. After a 30-day free trial, access to the robust searching and comparison tools, video tutorials, and personal planning components is available for $9.99 a month.
Whether you are looking for more information on financial aid, specific career requirements, or FAFSA forms, the tools above can help you, your parents and your guidance counselor to jumpstart your college planning process.
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