Once you’ve decided to go to college, selecting a few great schools and actually getting into them becomes your primary task, and it isn’t always easy. So many factors are considered during the admissions process, from test scores to socioeconomic status, participation in communities and extracurricular activities during high school, and even employment history, that it can be difficult to sort through your own personal history to put together the best application possible.
Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online, from step-by-step guides to one-on-one consulting services, to help students of all ages and backgrounds choose the right school and nail the application process. The sites listed here are numbered for easy browsing, but this isn’t an ordered ranking, just a comprehensive list of excellent resources for students at any phase of the college application and admissions marathon.
You can scroll through this list, or use the links below to jump to a specific section.
New Update: While our original list is fantastic, there were so many more resources out there to help students get into college that we couldn’t feature to keep it at 101. Upon further consideration, we decided to abandon convention and restrictive numbers to give you even MORE tools. We’ve gathered 10 additional resources featured in Honorable Mention — Check it out!
A personal admissions coach or consultant is one of the most common ways that driven students gain the edge they need to get into the college of their choice. Many admissions consultants offer free advice and planning tools on their websites, while making themselves available for more comprehensive and individualized consulting services on a for-hire basis.
Smart Track Toolkit is a professional grade tool for developing a plan for getting through every aspect of applying for college, including maximizing financial aid options, test prep, and filling out application forms.
Get Motivated: Admissions Assistance
The Higher Education Consultants Association is dedicated to “Advancing Professionalism in College Admissions Consulting,” and while their website is largely aimed at professional consultants, it also has great resources for students looking for consulting services or just tips on how to go about getting into college.
Get Motivated: Directory of Admissions Consultants
Ivy Planners helps top tier students distinguish themselves as they go through the rigorous admissions process at Ivy League schools and other highly selective institutions.
Get Motivated: Admissions Counseling
New Futuro is designed to help students, in Spanish or English, with the obstacles they inhibit many from being able to attend college. The inclusion of a personalized 10-step plan is extremely useful, as it helps provide students with the resources enabling them to successfully attend college.
Get Motivated: College Plan
The College Helper is very useful to the prospective college student. Their categories include helpful advice on planning for college, managing the larger workload, as well as selecting the best college for a student, and how to apply.
Get Motivated: Surviving Freshman Year
The Newman Guide is a comprehensive tool to locating the Catholic college that is the best fit for a student. The site has helpful guides for planning college and places an emphasis on understanding what kind of catholic college a student would like to attend.
Get Motivated: College Planning Guides
The Ivy Coach is a great guide for working with students who are looking for that very particular edge to getting into one of the best colleges in the country. The Ivy Coach provides a number of valuable features, from SAT/ACT Tutoring to Admissions Counseling, and a useful blog to get valuable information on a timely basis.
Get Motivated: College Admissions Resources
College Consultants of South Carolina works with students to help manage the rapidly increasing list of college application preparations. The group works with students to understand their options concerning scholarships, curriculum choices, and more.
Get Motivated: Services
Emerson Education Consulting is a group focused on providing college students with the support to make the best choice for college and guide them through the process to do so. They provide invaluable tools for international students and even advice for prospective graduate students beginning the application process.
Get Motivated: Resources
The Admission Game focuses on helping students with college planning by keeping the focus on them and what they will need in particular situations to succeed.
Get Motivated: Programs
Educated Quest helps students get the know-how they need to be prepared for college and even provides school profiles and tips for searching for different colleges.
Get Motivated: School Profiles
Adam Markus focuses his efforts specifically on helping students get into graduate school through topics tailored to essays, resumes, recommendations, and other key statistics to getting into graduate school.
Get Motivated: Intake Forms
The Association of Independent California College and Universities helps students prepare for college by underlining their options and emphasizing plenty of preparation.
Get Motivated: How to Plan
Cates Tutoring offers a suite of services to help students pass crucial tests, finish application paperwork, and generally nail the admissions process at their chosen colleges. The company’s site offers different sections for students preparing for various undergraduate and graduate level tests, and the company specializes in helping international students find their perfect academic setting in the U.S.
Get Motivated: Cates International
College Guide is a tool for students who are preparing to figure out where they would like to attend college, but are unsure where to begin.
Get Motivated: Student Guides
Klemmer Educational Consulting provides crucial guidance for students looking to navigate the admissions and application process in a more efficient way.
Get Motivated: Educational Cents
Pamela K. Pik College Consulting pairs students with an educational consultant to look at a variety of parameters to ensure students are equipped with a list of colleges that are most in-line with what they would like to do. Pam helps identify what colleges look for and how to appeal to even the most stringent requirements.
Get Motivated: College Admissions Blog
CollegeCounselling was developed by Robin S. Groelle to give students the tools to get into the colleges they would like to attend. With information catered to international students, home-schooled students, and many particular areas, the site is great for preparing for college.
Get Motivated: What Colleges Seek
Spark Admissions is a great resource for giving students a great understanding of what colleges are looking for and how to provide it. The blog is particularly useful and the site has been featured on some of the top news publications in the country.
Get Motivated: College Admissions Services
AdmitInsights specialize in college admissions and take students step-by-step through the process of how to get into the schools they desire. After entering information and picking desired schools, a virtual counselor compiles the information and makes a comprehensive report on the students strong and weak areas to better prepare them for college.
Get Motivated: Resources
College Admissions Coaching is operated by Thalia Thompson and she works with students to hone college essays and personal statements, flesh out resumes and portfolios, and ensure students have the best presentation possible to colleges when applying. Her in-depth methods have yielded fantastic results for students.
Get Motivated: Philosophy and Approach
Cooper College Quest helps students navigate the cumbersome process of college admissions and the founder, Barbara Cooper, has worked with students for over three decades, helping countless high school, transfer, international, and adult students get into college.
Get Motivated: Services
The College Admissions Consultant assists students who are trying to gain admissions into both the California and Ivy League Schools. C.A.C. also helps students who want to focus on special programs such as Gap Year, BS/MD, and Fine/Performing Arts. They also can provide both subject and SAT/ACT test prep tutoring as well as two different types of financial aid sources for families, bringing the whole admissions process into one simple package!
Get Motivated: Our Comprehensive Programs
Admissions Consultants analyze different statistics to formulate the best approach to getting prospective college students into the schools of their dreams. With consistently updated blog entries and news briefings, it is a great tool for getting into school.
Get Motivated: College
College Connection helps students break down all of the options for college admissions with some quality links to college fairs, various workshops, and even a section called The College Whisperer.
Get Motivated: The College Whisperer
College Connections has quality resources to help students, ranging from online test preparation to educational consulting and even various events and workshops to help students figure out what the best course of action pertaining to college is.
Get Motivated: College Financial Planning
College Admission Consultants outlines the most crucial advice for getting into the schools of your dreams. They provide students with local information sessions and are actively engaged in the college admissions process.
Get Motivated: Top Ten Tips
Peggy Baker has worked with students for over 20 years on the admissions process and even teaches SAT preparation courses. Her hands-on experience gives her a significant edge when it comes to consulting and she is highly regarded in concerning college preparation.
Get Motivated: Resources
Montgomery Educational Consulting helps students stand out from the increasingly competitive application process and Mark Montgomery is even a former college professor. His experience from the perspective of inside a college is invaluable and helps set Montgomery Educational Counseling apart.
Get Motivated: Services
Coaching 4 College Admissions outlines the process to get into the college students desire and has special programs designed to help put them on the inside track. They also help with SAT and ACT test preparation and use extremely intuitive teaching methods.
Get Motivated: Services
Less Stress College is run by Dr. Sandra J. Eller who works with students, translating her hands-on experience into useful guidance for prospective high school students.
Get Motivated: Upcoming Events
Sibia Admissions was co-founded by a graduate of Harvard University, and the company’s consultants have helped numerous applicants to college, as well as to graduate and professional schools. Sibia offers unique admissions consulting packages, ranging from personal statement editing and interview coaching to course & standardized test mapping. The site also offers useful guides for parents and students navigating the college admissions process together.
Get Motivated: College Overview
Mosaic College Prep details the increasingly difficult process of being accepted into college and how to successfully get accepted. Additionally, they help students get accepted to graduate school and turn difficult processes into concise, easy-to-understand steps which help students more readily become accepted.
Get Motivated: Applying To College
Howard Greene & Associates is a fantastic resource pertinent to the college application process. Their educational counseling and consulting is highly regarded and gives students a wealth of experience to benefit from.
Get Motivated: Consulting
Deborah Shames is a fantastic choice for college admissions counseling and has almost 20 years of experience supporting students. Her personalized services set her apart from many of the other consulting services.
Get Motivated: Services
American College Admissions Consultants is great for students looking to gain assistance and valuable insight into the college admissions process. Through their unparalleled access to college admissions officials, they have the inside connection students can use to gain a better understanding of what colleges are looking for.
Get Motivated: College Admission Services
Pathfinder Counseling helps students with the college process by giving them top quality posts on college information with great resources for students and parents as well.
Get Motivated: Resources
Compass Education Strategies gives students quality information on how to prepare for college and how to get into the school students desire.
Get Motivated: Blog/Radio
College Admission Coach blogs about the best tips for getting into college and also how to navigate the cumbersome process of applying for college. The posts typically highlight particular issues and elaborate on each in depth.
Get Motivated: Teacher Recommendation Requests
Scholar Edge College Consulting works with students to understand the process of getting into desired colleges and how to best approach applying and pursuing schools a student is interested in.
Get Motivated: Our Products
Position U 4 College looks at students individual needs and tailors college coaching services to them. By looking at a variety of factors, Position U 4 College helps students get situated for the best possible outcome from applying to college.
Get Motivated: College Admissions Consultant Service
Expert Admissions helps students get into the college of their dreams by helping students stand out and emphasize their strong suits on their college application.
Get Motivated: Our Services
College Consulting Inc. is a full-service consulting firm that works with high school students looking to make the most out of their opportunities to get into fantastic schools across the country.
Get Motivated: College Success
Quest Bridge helps low-income students by pairing them with scholarships and exclusive financial aid for exemplary grades and achievements.
Get Motivated: For Students
College Admission Info.com collaborates with students to make sure they have the ability to get into the colleges they desire by properly equipping them with the resources to succeed.
Get Motivated: College Admissions
International College Counselors helps students with the most difficult parts of the college application process, from planning to financial aid, they make sure students aren’t left to fend for themselves.
Get Motivated: Services
The College Advisor has been around since 2002 and works with students to give them the tools to properly succeed at getting into the college they want, as well as handling loans.
Get Motivated: Students
College Path provides expert counseling and guidance through the college admissions process, providing useful worksheets and even a great bookstore to use.
Get Motivated: College Path
Northcoast Educational Consulting knows the best ways to approach the college admissions process and encourages students to become better educated on how to get to college.
Get Motivated: Services
A-List Education outlines the most crucial element to the admissions process to college and informs students how to successfully be accepted to the school of their choice.
Get Motivated: Success Stories
The work of College Bound Academy identifies the strong points of students and uses those to help project them above the static of students applying to school simultaneously.
Get Motivated: Our Team
College Consulting Services is great for students looking to gain that extra edge in order to get into the school they want. Through their consulting services, they are able to work with students and enable them to “stand out from the crowd” of college applicants.
Get Motivated: Services
Mercer Educational Consulting is based in Los Angeles and helps students understand the requirements that need to be met in order to succeed at the college admissions process. Their services have proven results and even work with students who don’t live in the Los Angeles area via video conferences.
Get Motivated: Services
Colleges Admissions Pathways give students the guidance and support to get into the school of their choice. They help by outlining proven methods for getting into the school of a student’s choice.
Get Motivated: Testimonials
College Coach is great for getting some first-person advice on how to navigate the college admissions process and how to ensure that students can get into the colleges they want to. They highlight all of the most important elements and their blog posts are very useful for gaining a better understanding into the process.
Get Motivated: Student Offerings
College Admissions Training provides services to help students have what they need to understand how to schedule college visits and have access to quality educational counseling.
Get Motivated: Services
The College Advisor of New York has helped students get admitted to some of the best colleges across the country through their extremely thorough college counseling service.
Get Motivated: What We Do
LaMeire College Consulting works with students to properly prepare them for college the results have yielded many of these students successfully being admitted to some of the best universities in the country.
Get Motivated: College Admissions Counseling
There are a few high-profile blogs and books that tend to dominate the conversation about college selection and admissions. These are great resources, such as the Fiske Guides and The Princeton Review, but there are also many other blogs, resources, and books available covering every part of the process, from selecting a college to applying and being admitted.
The Fiske Guides help students figure out the best approach to applying for college and how students can prepare themselves for the college application process.
Get Motivated: Updates
Esteemed website The Princeton Review is known as one of the best site for college information and their guide to college admissions is no let down either. The comprehensive overviews of particular college preparation aspects are very useful and encourages students to take advantage of the wealth of material.
Get Motivated: College Education
Get Into College Blog gives tons of awesome information to prepare students for the college application process, even including quality book recommendations and advice on college essays, and the application.
Get Motivated: Infographics
College Counseling for the Rest of Us looks at different issues prospective college students typically face and confronts them in order to help these students get into the college they desire.
Get Motivated: 17 Things to Remember in Surviving the College Decision Process
eCampus Tours saves students time and money by allowing them to take virtual tours of over 1,300 colleges across the country and better allocate their time towards applying to the schools they would like to pursue. Additionally, they help with college planning, paying for college, and campus life tips as well.
Get Motivated: Campus Tours
EduPlan outlines the best way to approach the cumbersome college application process and helps students with valuable counseling to ensure they get into the school they desire.
Get Motivated: EduPlan College, MBA & Grad School Admissions
OfftoCollege makes the process of planning for college much easier through comprehensive advice and extensive know-how on the college process. They help with college planning and the very cumbersome financial aid process.
Get Motivated: College Planning Tools
The Prospect is a refreshing take on college admissions counseling. By providing genuinely interesting articles aimed at grabbing the attention of prospective students, the site flourishes when browsing the articles on the college admissions process.
Get Motivated: College Life
YOUniversity TV provides an in-depth array of campus tours through videos and supplements with great information and pictures.
Get Motivated: College Video Tours
How To Get Into College outlines the essentials to getting into college and the best way to go about doing so. They outline the costs of college and what you will take away if you decide to go.
Get Motivated: How to Write a Successful College Admissions Essay
National College Access Network is an organization committed to encouraging a larger proportion of students to attend college and gain more skills to be successful. Through numerous initiatives, up-to-date news links, and many different events, they help students become better prepared for college.
Get Motivated: Common Measures
PossibilityU caters to students’ needs to understand the college admissions process and helps them apply, get aid, and succeed in college. The site provides numerous solutions to students who are struggling to stand out from others when applying for college.
Get Motivated: The Need
Cappex analyzes many different parameters within the matrix for applying to college and uses their database of insightful information to propagate more intuitive ways for students to get into college. They help students by allowing them to create a profile and tailor searches to what they want in a college. Subsequently, they help students identify what colleges are looking for.
Get Motivated: Correspondence Code: A College Student’s Guide to Email Etiquette
Admission Possible briefs students on the information to know when applying to college such as how to get into their college of choice, but also how to confront the financial burdens of attending.
Get Motivated: Examples/Lists
College Basics outlines the fundamentals of applying, paying, and planning for college through a variety of useful sites and equips students sufficiently to help navigate the college application process.
Get Motivated: The Application
Happy Schools Blog regularly posts about the most useful information regarding applying to school, studying abroad, as well as useful information pertaining to visas and more.
Get Motivated: Application Process
Absolute Admit by Unigo works with students to help differentiate them from the pack of similarly qualified peers and help them get into the college of their dreams.
Get Motivated: Compare Plans
KnowHow2GO breaks down the steps for getting into college for high school students into easier to digest pieces that are intuitive for understanding how to approach the process. They give tips customized to age levels ranging from middle school to seniors in high school.
Get Motivated: 4 Steps to College
The College Solution is an incredibly effective resource for students looking to gain insight on a variety of subjects pertinent to getting into college and how to make it affordable.
Get Motivated: Webinars
College Countdown uses an innovative timeline to help illustrate where exactly a student should be in the college application process and other aspects of figuring out college. Additionally, their advice for parents and teachers helps equip many others with valuable knowledge to help students.
Get Motivated: For Students
College Admission provides a wealth of quality content for prospective students. The wealth of information they provide, combined with an in-depth blog, fill out the site and help any prospective college student find some solace in the admissions process.
Get Motivated: True Admissions Blog
College Bound Network outlines the most crucial elements to getting into college, and more importantly, how to avoid many of the common pitfalls that leave students just short of entry into their preferred schools.
Get Motivated: Financial Aid
Colleges That Change Lives is a comprehensive source for students looking to not only gain a better understanding of how to get into the best colleges, but where the best places to invest time are, as well as how to differentiate themselves for the vast amounts of students applying to such limited spots in college admissions.
Get Motivated: Counselors That Change Lives
Sometimes just a few helpful tips or an FAQ covering the main points of college admission is enough to kickstart the process for students and parents who aren’t sure where to begin. These general resources, many provided by admissions consultants or other professionals in the higher ed industry, can offer everything from a basic jolt of motivation to in-depth instructions on how to optimize a college application.
askit! College Prep looks at many different areas concerning the lead-up and even the application process for college. Through their comprehensive sections covering applications, entrance exams, scholarships, and college finances, the site prepares students for anything they may encounter in their quest to be accepted into college.
Get Motivated: College Entrance Exams
Hernandez College Consulting works extensively with students to ensure that they are able to get accepted to the Ivy League school of their choice. They have an extremely intuitive application boot camp, among other useful resources.
Get Motivated: Our Results
Precision Admission focuses solely on students, tailoring programs to individual needs, which helps students get into the college of their dreams. The valuable admission guidance and counseling equips students with the knowledge to succeed.
Get Motivated: Why Us?
The Student Advisor is a subsidiary of The Washington Post and has thorough methods for the college admissions process and how to successfully become admitted.
Get Motivated: Scholarships
The Silicon Valley Education Foundation aims to work with young learners to prepare them in the most effective ways for college and how to go about educating on the college preparation process.
Get Motivated: Empowering Students
LearnMoreIndiana is an initiative to encourage more Indiana residents to not only go to college, but to equip them with the resources to plan, prepare, and figure out how to pay for college. The site is incredibly dense with helpful links and tools to get ready for college.
Get Motivated: Colleges
Learning Enrichment & Assistance Program, also known as LEAP, prepares high school students for ACT and SAT tests in order to have the most options available when beginning to look at college. They give plenty of useful advice for garnering the attention of whichever college a student would like to attend and educates on a number of areas in preparation for college.
Get Motivated: College Bound Blog
College Planning Center of Rhode Island makes the college application process much easier with guidance from experienced counselors on how to best approach college. With valuable advice on planning, paying, and understanding the best fit for each student, the site is extremely thorough.
Get Motivated: Pay For College
College Times helps students prepare for attending college with resources allowing them to view colleges around the world. Their profiles on different scholarships, clubs, careers, and degrees are particularly useful.
Get Motivated: Blog
The Neurotic Parent blogs regularly about the increasingly difficult process to getting admitted to the college of choice. Posts highlight different college admissions issues and the best ways to circumvent all of the stress.
Get Motivated: You Tour – You’re In – Science is Hard – You Graduate – You Look For Work
What Will They Learn focuses on providing students the information on colleges that isn’t conveyed in typical ranking websites. It breaks down schools and provides a ton of useful information to students about great schools that may typically get overlooked.
Get Motivated: Compare Schools
College Week Live connects students to various counselors, college reps, and more. They give students access to a ton of different events and have an extensive list of universities they work with to provide students with tools for success.
Get Motivated: Counselors
The American Council on Education features a variety of content devoted to enriching the information students have access to when applying to college.
Get Motivated: Graduate Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity: Fall 2010
Christian College Guide outlines the best ways to find a Christian college around the country that is the most closely oriented to the beliefs of prospective students.
Get Motivated: Prepare for College
Let’s Get Ready guides students from high school through the college application process and uses innovative methods for showing students how to best prepare for college. This subsequently sets the groundwork for students assisting other students with getting into college.
Get Motivated: Our Model and Impact
Clear Admit is an admissions consulting service and helps students who are working to exhibit distinguishable qualities from their peers. The site helps with many different methods to help propel students forward.
Get Motivated: Services
Colledge sets students up with valuable insight on how to get into college through a wealth of experience on how to approach it.
Get Motivated: One-On-One
South Carolina Can Go to College equips students with the resources for implementing an effective plan to attend college, from applying, to planning, to financing and paying. They provide students with useful dates and even a nice resource kit.
Get Motivated: Resource Kit
Higher Ed Utah helps students who seek consulting and counseling for getting into the college of their choice. Through innovative measures and a broad array of implementations, Higher Ed Utah is successful in working with students looking to succeed in college.
Get Motivated: Finance and Faculties
OK College Start underlines the most important elements for getting students to the college of their choice and how to pay for it. The site is incredibly thorough and works with students to have the best chance for success.
Get Motivated: Explore Colleges
In our search, we discovered so many useful tools to aid students in their quest to get into college that we found it difficult to limit it. Below you’ll find 10 additional fantastic resources that could have been included the first time around. These sites and organizations are useful to any student who is trying to navigate the complicated college application and acceptance landscape!
Scott Hawksworth is YesCollege.com's founder and podcast host. His goal with the show is to not only help prospective students gain first hand knowledge about the degree programs they'll enroll in, but to also highlight the careers of fantastic professionals in higher ed. Scott has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from The Ohio State University.