Best Free College Prep Resources For Families

by Janis Brett Elspas

Time for college prep?  With admissions being more competitive than ever before, helping our kids navigate the system to get ready for college has never been more important.

With 3,762 college options to choose from and so many great apps and websites to guide you in making one of the most important decisions impacting your child’s future, it can be overwhelming.

Not to worry. As a mom of four kids born within a year (including triplets) who are all now thriving at four-year universities, I want to assure you that you too can survive the arduous college prep and search process.

Here are the top college prep resources I found to be particularly helpful as we planned a unique college prep and search strategy for each of my very different daughters and sons.

College Prep Websites

JLV College Counseling

JLV College Counseling, founded by a former college admissions officer, is rich with helpful how-to college prep blog posts on every imaginable subject; there is much a prospective college student’s family can learn from.

Topics include everything from how to succeed academically, to tips on writing college application essays, to choosing and tours potential colleges, and much more. 

Sign up for a free e-newsletter subscription and you will not only get updates on new posts on this invaluable blog, you’ll also receive information on hundreds of scholarship opportunities your child might consider applying for.  

CollegeWeek Live

CollegeWeek Live is another fantastic college prep site to help guide you through the process of figuring out which colleges and universities are best suited for your student.

In addition to having the opportunity to attend virtual college admissions fairs throughout the year, once you sign up for free, you will be able to chat online with representatives from hundreds of college and universities to find out what they offer and ask questions.

You can also attend live presentations by educational experts on such topics as SAT and ACT Test Strategies as well as find out about lots of scholarships available.  

The College Board

The College Board, regardless of which testing service you choose to go with for your standardized exams, is an excellent place to find all kinds of information about the college application process.  

The College Board is a good college prep resource on how to get started with college planning.  Among the many other valuable resources you’ll discover on this site, their College Search Step-by-Step interactive guide helps narrow down your options by filtering your preferences by major, type of school, test scores, costs, housing, diversity, and much more.  

College Prep Apps

Common App onTrack

Common App onTrack is the college prep app no student seeking college admission can afford to be without for those applying to one or more of the almost 700 colleges accepting the Common Application.

The Common App onTrack app will keep you organized as it allows you to view each school’s application deadline and submission status.

Using this app you’ll also be able to search each college’s writing requirements, invite/manage your recommendations, and get push notifications of impending deadlines and important events, and even include your own to-do list or notes.  

Quad2Quad

Quad2Quad, as well as individual schools, offer Virtual College Tours. Visit the websites of the school(s) you are interested in to see if they have any virtual tours that may be accessed online by perspective students.

This is a great way to see a lot of campuses and get a feel for what they are like if you lack the time and/or budget to go on a college visit trip.  

If your school is not listed there, visit the individual college website(s) you are considering and check to see if they have virtual tours available.

A Mom’s Perspective

Definitely tap into as many of these free resources as possible. As I learned by personal experience, it’s not too early to start thinking of your child as a college-bound student shortly after they leave elementary school.

Believe me, none of my own kids (when they were in junior high) had so much as a clue as to what they would major in when they finally arrived at college.

Turns out it’s a rare child who knows what they will do at such an early age, so there’s no point in worrying about it.

Instead of hyper focusing on the specifics at that stage, you’ll be at an advantage if you instead begin to lay the foundation for their post-high school general academic success early,  like I did.

One of the best ways to jump-start the process is to educate and familiarize yourself with what all is involved.

Additionally, there are many college scholarships kids in their tweens can apply for even before they get to high school, and you should definitely begin pursuing those now because the cost of tuition and living expenses if expected to continue to increase.

Please Leave a Comment

We love hearing from our readers. So, please leave a comment and share with us your own college prep experiences as well as with the sites and apps we suggest in this article.