(written by Rising STAR, Meryssa)

Hey readers it’s Meryssa!

So last week I was at the trade school that I go to during the school day and they were having a college fair. As my class was walking to the college fair I started to really think about my future. Don’t get me wrong I think about my future a lot but never in this much detail. As we entered the college fair I made it my goal to ask a bunch of detailed questions of the college representatives working for schools that offered classes for nursing because that is what I want to do as a career.

I asked questions about the price of everything from room and board to how the food tasted. The questions you ask should be what you want to know about and are interested in. The main questions I think everyone should ask are: how much does it cost for all the things you are going to need in class such as books, tools, anything of that nature, how much room and board is (NOTE: If you are not going to live on campus you do not have to ask this question), how hard is it to get into the classes you need to take to fulfill graduation requirments, as well asI if financial aid is available if you need it.

Another great way to find out about colleges is to go on the college’s website. There is also an amazingly helpful website called www.campusexplorer.com  On this website you can type in where you want to go to school and what you want to study or you can also just type in a name of a college you are looking at and it gives you a list of schools that meet those requirements. Then you can click on the name of the college and it gives you information including a list of expenses, size of the school, facts about the campus, and pictures!

There are even websites that grade colleges. www.collegegrader.com is a great one. Keep in mind that the information on there is completely subjective and many schools only have a very small percentage of their students providing reviews.  It is interesting to look at, but I would not recommend basing your college decision on the content. There is also other information on scholarships and loans on there as well.

Finally, another search site that I recommend is www.bridges.com  On here you can search for schools based on location, major, size, cost and more.  Call the Center for College Planning at 888.7.GRADUATE x.119 and ask for the username and password to begin searching for FREE today!

Hope this blog helps make college browsing a little bit fun and easy for you.

Happy surfing,
Meryssa