For students who are starting their college searches, several Web sites offer one-stop shops that include searchable databases of college information, test preparation aids, virtual tours and online applications. The CollegeBot search engine looks at college-related Web sites. Gives students a head start on the admissions process, starting in eighth grade, by leading them through questions about high school courses and the types of colleges they would like to attend. An online version of the federal financial aid form. A database of scholarships and grants.
Students can search for colleges based on a profile of the types of schools they are interested in.
So when he decided that he wanted to go to a college with a strong music program, he applied the same discipline to the college-search process. He logged on to the Internet, searched online databases for colleges with music majors and came up with 30 that seemed to match his criteria. He visited the colleges' Web sites, scanning for photos or news stories that would show devotion to the subject he loved. He pored over online statistics of placement rates, data that told him how often a college's graduates find jobs. After months of research, he narrowed his choices to three, including two colleges he had never heard of when he started.