Resources for the College Process

Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope
Originally written twenty years ago and recently revised, this is an excellent resource for those looking for colleges that go the extra mile for their students. It lists colleges known for close relationships between students and faculty, and it espouses the idea that as consumers of colleges, students (and parents) should take a close look at how a college educates its undergraduates.
https://ctcl.org
https://www.amazon.com/Colleges-That-Change-Lives-Schools/dp/0143122304

Looking Beyond the Ivy League. Finding the College That is Right for You by Loren Pope
There are many colleges out there that will set your student on the path for a fulfilling and successful life. You just have to look! Loren Pope sets out the twenty myths that can jinx your college choice and shares sage advice about selecting a college.
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Beyond-Ivy-League-Finding/dp/0143112821

Fiske Guide to Colleges by Edward Fiske
The Fiske Guide is the go-to guide for information on over 300 colleges and universities. Edward Fiske has compiled the important stats on each school, along with an insightful description of academic and social life on campus. The Guide is index organized by state so schools are easy to find.
https://www.amazon.com/Fiske-Guide-Colleges-2016-Edward/dp/1402260660

The Gap Year Book by Lonely Planet
Fun and informative, this book includes an excellent explanation of gap year options, including information on well-supervised vs. less-supervised programs; trip planning advice from Gappers - routes, itineraries, and experiences to be had; plus hundreds of gap year organizations and resources.
https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-Year-General-Reference/dp/1740598652

The Insiders Guide to Colleges by Yale Daily News
The Insider’s Guide lets students know what it’s really like at hundreds of colleges and universities. Students who have interviewed hundreds of their college peers compile the information shared here, and they tell students what they really want to know about life on campus!
https://www.amazon.com/The-Insiders-Guide-Colleges-2015/dp/1250048060

The Best 373 Colleges by Princeton Review
Like the Fiske Guide, The Best 373 Colleges is a great resource for hundreds of colleges and universities. It’s full of information about campus life, academics, financial aid, admissions, student feedback and more. Keep in mind, this is only one way to rate colleges, but with 373 best colleges listed it’s quite a comprehensive list.
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/best-colleges

Where You Go is Not Who You Will Be by Frank Bruni
This is a favorite in Greystone’s office. New York Times writer Frank Bruni writes an uplifting account of why character, and making the most of your experiences, is far more important than the name of the school you attend. He uses real life examples that will stay with you long after you put the book down!
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/frank-bruni/where-you-go-is-not-who-youll-be/9781455532704/

You Majored In What? By Katharine Brooks, ED.D.
Another favorite of ours for its refreshing outlook on forging a career and its sense of humor, so often lost on this topic. According to Katharine Brooks, the Director of Liberal Arts Career Services at University of Texas, Austin, a circuitous route to a satisfying career might just make a lot of sense, especially in these times of rapidly changing technology and unsteady job market.
https://www.amazon.com/You-Majored-What-Mapping-Career/dp/0452296005

College Disrupted by Ryan Craig
https://us.macmillan.com/collegedisrupted/ryancraig

The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg
Jacques Steinberg, then a writer at the New York Times, gets the invaluable experience of embedding himself into the admissions office at Wesleyan University. This is a telling account of what goes on behind the scenes that helps us understand how admissions offices work and all the moving parts that can impact a university’s admission decision.
https://www.amazon.com/The-Gatekeepers-Admissions-Process-Premier/dp/0142003085

College Board
www.collegeboard.org
This is the place to register for the SAT and SAT Subject Tests. College Board also has many tools for researching information about colleges such as how to find good match colleges and how to pay for college.

Common Application
www.CommonApp.org
You will become very familiar with the Common App. This is the college application used by hundreds of schools. High school students can open a Common App account on August 1. The Common App links with each student’s high school Naviance account.

Unigo
www.unigo.com
This is a great resource for students researching U.S. Colleges. It’s fun and pertinent because it is a compilation of hundreds of student responses to the questions High School students want answered. Helpful input abounds from students currently attending U.S. colleges and universities.

Fairtest
www.fairtest.org
For students that are not strong standardized test takers, Fairtest lists the colleges and universities where submitting standardized tests (SAT, ACT) is optional. These schools give more weight to other parts of the college application.

https://www.Finaid.org
You will find financial aid information that is very useful to those new to the world of financing a college education. Finaid includes information on scholarships and loans, and instructions on the use of online calculators, essential for financial aid help.

https://www.collegeboard.org/css
This is where you can learn about the CSS/PROFILE, the financial aid application (in addition to FAFSA) used by many private and a few public colleges.

https://www.fafsa.ed.gov
Use this site to access the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This essential resource answers a ton of financial aid questions about loans, grants and much more!

Net Price Calculator
Found on all college financial aid pages, this tool helps give a rough estimate of your family’s eligibility for financial assistance.

We spend a lot of time on college campuses asking questions with our students’ needs in mind. We talk to students, faculty members, and admission officers, visit classes and read the school newspaper, as well as attend athletic and arts events to get an in depth feel for the campus culture.

Below is a list of the colleges we have toured, by region:

NEW ENGLAND REGION
Bates College, Lewiston, ME
Bentley University, Waltham, MA
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Boston University, Boston, MA
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Brown University, Providence, RI
Champlain College, Burlington, VT
Clark University, Worcester, MA
Colby College, Waterville, ME
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Endicott College, Beverly, MA
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Merrimack College, North Andover, MA
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Providence College, Providence, RI
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, VT
Tufts University, Medford, MA
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
Yale University, New Haven, CT

MID-­ATLANTIC REGION
Bard College, Annandale-­on-­Hudson, NY
Barnard College, New York, NY
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA
Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA
Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
Columbia University, New York, NY
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Fairleigh Dickenson University, Madison, NJ
Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Haverford College, Haverford, PA
Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
Lafayette College, Easton, PA
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
New York University, New York, NY
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Stockton University, Galloway, NJ
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Union College, Schenectady, NY
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Villanova University, Villanova, PA

SOUTH-ATLANTIC REGION
American University, Washington, DC
Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Duke University, Durham, NC
Elon University, Elon, NC
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
The George Washington University, Washington, DC
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA

EAST NORTH CENTRAL REGION
Butler University, Indianapolis, IN
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Columbia College of Art, Chicago, IL
Denison University, Granville, OH
DePaul University, Chicago, IL
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
Loyola University, Chicago, IL
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH
College of Wooster, Wooster, OH

EAST SOUTH CENTRAL REGION
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

WEST/NORTH CENTRAL REGION
Washington University in St. Louis, MO

WEST/SOUTH CENTRAL REGION
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
Rice University, Houston, TX
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
University of Texas, Austin, TX
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

MOUNTAIN REGION
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO
University of Denver, Denver, CO

PACIFIC REGION
University of California, Irvine, CA
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
University of California, San Diego, CA
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Pomona College, Claremont, CA
University of San Diego, San Diego, CA
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

INTERNATIONAL
Franklin University, Lugano, Switzerland
McGill University, Montreal, Canada