SUMMER - FALL 2008

Juniors - The summer is a good time to begin to shape your college admission strategy - in terms of school curriculum, extra-curricular and volunteer activities, test preparation and initial target college identification.

Contact www.CollegeHelp1.com for help in these areas and more!

Seniors - If you haven't started yet, it's time now to formulate your preliminary college admission strategy. Application forms are usually ready for downloading or mailing in late summer. www.CollegeHelp1.com is a great resource for support in developing a college admissions strategy - such as identifying Reach, Reasonable and Safety schools that can be part of a comprehensive application strategy.

The summer is also a good time to begin working on the all-important application essay. I suggest looking at the Common Application (www.CommonApp.org) to get a sense of the topics application essays are required to address. CollegeHelp1.com specializes in college essay editing. Don't hesitate to contact us if you think we can help improve the quality of your application essays.

Please contact CollegeHelp1.com if you would like some assistance and support at this important stage of the application process.

There are a number of useful resources available for college admission support, some are free and others require a fee. Some links we have found useful in our work with students applying to college are:

• ACT (www.act.org) - This is the home site for the ACT (American College Test) that required by some colleges, primarily in the Midwest USA. The ACT is also offered as an option to the SAT at other colleges.
• Amazon.Com (www.amazon.com) - This is an obvious choice for finding books relating to the college admissions process.
• College Board (www.CollegeBoard.com) - This is the site where you can sign up for the SAT's. College Board also provides a number of helpful pages and tools for students in the college decision process.
• Kaplan (www.kaplan.com) Kaplan provides test preparation services, including prep classes and books, and also publishes a number of guides for college admission.
• Princeton Review (www.review.com) Princeton Review offers similar services and tools to Kaplan. Princeton review's site also has a message board devoted to colleges and the college admission process. Warning: There tends to be a lot of profanity and hostile put-down messages on the Princeton Review message board, but it is still a popular resource for students seeking college admission.
• National Association for College Admission Counseling (www.nacac.com) This very useful site offers two key resources: 1) This site is the premier resource for finding information on college admissions fairs, where dozens of colleges will have admissions officers on site and offer students a chance to talk with a number of college admissions staffs at one time, and 2) In May of each year, NACAC lists those colleges that still have openings for freshman or transfer students. This is a terrific resource for those students who are less successful in gaining admission from their primary college list.