Long Beach

General Resources

  • List Building

    Corsava: A free tool to help you sort and list your preferences in a way that will help you figure out what you want from your college experience.

    CollegeXpress: Students can search from an amazing set of lists according to their interests. Students can type in anything from “Schools for the Free Spirit” to “Great Private Colleges for the B Student” and get a list of results compiled by experts. 

    Niche: Rankings/Niche Grades are based on rigorous analysis of academic, admissions, financial, and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education along with millions of reviews from students and alumni.

    BigFuture: The College Board's free college planning tool, designed to support students in the planning process and discover best-fit colleges. Provides tools to discover interests and career options.

    College Navigator: Created by the US Department of Education and its National Center for Education Statistics. 

    Appily: Tool that allows you to input your weighted and unweighted GPA, your test scores, and your college preferences. It will match you with schools that meet your preferences and provide a rough sense of your chance of admission. Bonus: Appily will give you the average Net Price paid by students (which is different from the sticker price) as well as the merit scholarships that are available at each school to which you are applying under the “Scholarships” tab. This will show up once you’ve added your colleges on Appily.

    Unigo: Provides a student perspective. You can read students’ opinions on their schools. Read multiple reviews, in particular, the “What’s the stereotype of students at your school?” and “Is the stereotype true?” You’ll get a sense of the school vibe.

    CollegeData: TONS of data on the average test scores, general acceptance rates, and average GPAs of incoming first-year college students. It also provides data around average financial aid packages offered, specific financial aid packages offered to students who were admitted, and other numbers that might help you and your family plan for college costs. 

     

    Virtual Tours

    YouVisit: You can search by college name or by fun rankings such as best campus food or coolest dorms. The videos are a nice complement to the tours found on college admissions websites.

    CampusReel: For virtual campus tours. Not only shows what a campus looks like but really lets you get a sense of what the college campus feels like. 

    College Tours: Offers videos and campus maps as well as general information about the colleges. It also provides videos by category of interest.  

     

    Alternative Institutions for Coursework

    UC Scout: Online approved UC A-G high school courses.

    Apex Learning: Online for original credit or f credit recovery towards grade-level advancement and high school graduation. 

    National University Virtual High School: Online AP, UC (A-G), or elective courses to achieve academic goals.

    Language Bird: Online language courses for high school credit. 

    Laurel Springs Online School: Online UC (A-G) approved courses.

    Tilden Prep: A unique, WASC-accredited, college preparatory school. Teaches UC-approved courses one-to-one and in small groups. Utilizes mastery of learning, teaching students to 80% (B) or higher level of mastery before moving forward. The individualized pace and teaching methods address a wide range of learning needs.