Searching for colleges is by far the easiest thing that you will do during the process of planning for college. While searching for colleges you should keep in mind the subject or field you would like to major in. For example; if you wanted to study Business it wouldn't be a good idea to look into Johns Hopkin's Univesity, because they are a college that specializes in medical practice. You should also try to have an idea of where you would like to go to college (in state or out of state) and what locations you would prefer (a college located in a big city or one located in a rural area). You should also be concerned with the number of students and the size of the college that you wish to attend. Another important factor would be what kind of degree you are looking for. You could attend a technical college and receive a technical degree (usually an 18 month program) or you could attend a university to receive an associates (2 year program) or a bachelors degree (4 year program). Remember that you will be spending the next couple years attending classes at the college you choose so try to think about lifestyle factors that are comfortable to you. Your success in college will determine the success of your career so try to think of everything that could factor into your productivity and happiness while attending college. You shouldn't be too concerned with the price of tuition at this point because you will be able to handle that at a later stage in the planning process.

If you already have an idea of what college you want to enroll in then you are already on the right track. It is a good idea to find more than one college that offers a program in your subject or field of interest so that you can later determine the best choice for your career. You should find colleges that offer classes in your area of interest first. You can also join progrmas where colleges actually search for you. One place that takes college searches to a whole new level is EdSoup.com. They make college searching easy because colleges actually search for you! I know, it's a crazy concept, but a very simple, easy and quite effective method to finding a great college that specializes in your interests. Through EdSoup.com you can set up a free profile which can be viewed by college and university recruiters and begin receive university offers the same day. Stop searching for the right colleges - let them find you!

Once you find a college that meets this requirement you should obtain more information about the college itself. Find out how long it will take to get the degree of interest, requirements for acceptance to the college, what financial aid is available through their college, are their any application fees (most colleges charge between $25 and $250 to apply but may waive this fee if you visit the university (See Apply To College for more detailed information), and the employment rate of graduating students in your area of study (this will be important if you plan to work after you graduate from college!).

Other information should be collected like, tuition costs, average yearly tuition increase, and any other things that may be important to you. Information about the relativity of the college to your personal interests should also be collected during this process. For instance; if you like college football then you might consider picking a college that has a good football team, or if you are more comfortable attending a smaller college then the student population, as well as average class size should be an important statistic for you. Collecting this information from a few colleges of interest should help you to later differentiate between the colleges of your interest. When searching for a college you can follow the check list, provided below by SMB College Life:

Create a list of qualities that are important to you when looking for a college.

Find a college that offers a degree in your area of career interest.

Collect information about acceptance requirements, application fees, and financial aid availability. (Don't forget to include the qualities that are important to you!)

Create a chart of all of your findings for this college to be used for comparison with other colleges.

Schedule an appointment with the college's admissions office to meet with a counselor to tour the college and to ask questions about the financial aid offered, work study programs, and possible scholarship opportunities.

Collect any additional information during this appointment that couldn't be found during your initial research.

Repeat this check list for at least one more college in order to compare college choices.

College Selection

Once you have compiled a list of colleges you would like to attend and you have collected as much information as you can about each college you can start the selection process. You will use all of the information that you have gathered to compare colleges and decide whether you want to eliminate any of your initial selections from the list. The final colleges on the list will be the ones that you want to apply to. Remember that most colleges charge an application fee so you may not want to apply to ten different colleges but it is suggested that you at least fill out an application for two colleges, just incase one of them turns down your application.

As you can see there is more to the cost of college per year than the tuition itself. You should make yourself aware of all the expenses that comes with a year's attendance in college. Be sure to include all of the items listed in the college cost analysis above and add in any additional cost that you can think of encountering over the course of one year. You will need to use this total in later calculating the money that you will need for college. For item 5 listed above you should think of an amount of money that you would feel comfortable spending in one week and multiply this by the number of weeks in one academic year (anywhere between 25 and 45 weeks).

Visit College Costs for more information or to calculate your total college costs.

Best grant and scholarship books to purchase

These two books are among the best resources for finding and applying for grants. They list grants by state, major of interest, and more in about 1000+ pages.

Purchase on of the following books for more information on paying for college

Other Resources and free downloads:

Financial Aid Scholarships Student Loans College Search College Cost Calculator The Common College Application

The Official US Department of Education's Student Funding PDF for 2008-09