College Search I: www.princetonreview.com

By Priscilla Sam, High School Senior (Bronx Leadership Academy) and LGR Intern

There are plenty of websites to help college-bound students like myself, research and learn about colleges and scholarships. While enrolled in a college-prep program during my junior year of high school, I signed up for free accounts on collegeboard.com, princetonreview.com, and fastweb.com. Some have proven to be more effective than others.

At princetonreview.com, you can search for colleges, scholarships, majors, and much more. There is something that makes Princeton Review stand out from the rest of the college-related websites. It is called Counselor-O-Matic. Counselor-O-Matic matches students up with colleges based on their academic record (test scores, GPA, class ranking type of classes), extracurricular activities (volunteer work, jobs, sports, etc), preferences (size and location of college, majors offered, campus activities), and ethnic background. After completing the Counselor-O-Matic, which takes anywhere from 20-30 minutes, Princeton Review periodically sends emails connecting you with colleges that match your interests and preferences based on your responses while completing the Couselor-O-Matic.

Through this, college recruiters from all over the nation are able to contact you and introduce you to their prospective colleges. If interested in learning more about a specific college, you can click on the link provided by Princeton Review. Taking part in this opens your eyes to colleges that you never heard of or knew about before. Plus, it is free. The only thing you have to do is make sure you provide accurate information. If you fail to express and specify your interests and preferences, you would be bombarded with countless of emails from college recruiters from states where you have no interest in attending or colleges that don’t even have your intended major. You would get annoyed by this, and thus, unable to enjoy and effectively use this feature.

--posted on behalf of Priscilla Sam, LGR Intern