Want to research and tour colleges without spending money on guide books and travel? Finding college & career information and visiting schools on the Internet is easy and cost-effective thanks to the many useful search tools and web sites. If you know where to look, you can access a wide range of college-bound resources & information such as: admission statistics, graduation rates, course offerings, financial aid & scholarships, careers and majors, application forms and filing dates. You can even tour the campus and find students ratings and opinions.

College affordability is on the minds of students and parents as they research higher education options. Those seeking a quality education, without being burdened with large loans, are focused on scholarships, merit aid and financial assistance along with the underlying costs of tuition, room & board, travel and other expenses. State universities are particularly attractive to residents, as the cost of tuition for in-state students is frequently $20,000 per year less than for their out-of-state classmates. Among the excellent values are eight schools that offer tuition-free education. 

College visits are a great way to check out potential schools and light a motivational fire under prospective applicants. There’s no substitute for a personal visit when it comes to assessing how a college fits with your personality and interests. While you can get a feel for a school by just walking around, there’s a lot you can do to make college visits more useful and worthwhile. These best practice tips will help you a great deal when you visit colleges.

Many colleges and universities offer early admission programs such as Early Decision and Early Action.   It’s not unusual for competitive schools to admit a large percentage of the class through these programs.   Within the Ivy League, more than 35% of the class is typically filled by early applicants at Brown, Penn, Columbia, Cornell and Dartmouth.   Acceptance rates for early programs are typically significantly higher than for regular admission.  In addition to improving your chances for acceptance, being admitted early (usually in December) can reduce senior year stress.  But there can be downside as well, especially for those concerned about financial aid.   If you are considering applying early, here’s what you need to know:

Concerned about the cost of college? Looking for affordability without compromising educational quality? Many families are keenly focused on finding smart educational values. These 11 tips that can help preserve your budget and improve your candidacy.

For the Class of 2013, it's an unprecedented college season.  Rejection rates exceeded 90% at a number of top schools with big endowments, while other colleges and universities less able to lure students with generous student aid packages are scrambling to fill seats.  Wait lists are long at many schools as the economic recession has made enrollment yield predictions unusually uncertain.

Despite the poor economy, interest in attending many of America's most competitive colleges and universities has not subsided.

According to the New York Times, this year, 7 percent of applicants will be admitted to the Class of 2013 at Harvard, down from 8 percent last year.

The Times reported that representatives of Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown, and other highly selective institutions, stated that applications for the Class of 2013 had jumped sharply from last year resulting in record rejections from the Ivy League and other highly competitive schools.

Bloomerberg reported a decline in applications to seven of eight highly-ranked liberal-arts colleges, led by a 20% drop at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, ranked third in the liberal-arts category by U.S. News and World Report, reported a 10% decline.  Fifth-ranked Middlebury College in Vermont experienced a 12% and at Amherst College in Massachusetts, applications fell by 1 percent.

InLikeMe's 2009 College Admissions Planning Guide is now available for on-line viewing (click here) and in PDF format (PDF version for print & email can be found below) for download. 

The FREE Guide is packed full of valuable insights, strategies and money-saving advice to help students define their college goals, size up interests, research and choose the right schools, learn about student aid & scholarships, prep for entrance exams and position themselves as strong candidates for college admission and scholarships.

Researching and selecting colleges takes many forms including guidebooks, school web sites, brochures, online tours, rankings and visiting campuses. Many students and parents thirst for a centralized resource with a wealth of useful information. Check out Unigo.com, favorably reviewed by WSJ’s Walt Mossberg who called the new site “a college-information resource built for the age of YouTube and Facebook.”