Tracking Potential Colleges on a College Search Spreadsheet
Keeping track of potential colleges is one of the most overwhelming things when your high school student is starting to think about college. Your student mentions schools he or she might be interested in, you think of schools you would like to visit, friends mention schools that sound interesting. How are you going to remember them all and keep them straight? Use a College Search Spreadsheet.
When my oldest daughter was a sophomore in high school, I created a simple Excel spreadsheet to track schools we might want to look into further and potentially visit. I referred back to this spreadsheet often when we talked about college and I added new schools as they came up. I used it to keep my daughter’s search organized as we went along by listing school visit days and then determining when we were going to visit each school. I recorded each scheduled visit date so we kept them straight. After the visit, I would enter feedback from my daughter for each school. That really helped keep the schools straight when we talked about them later. If you have a student who takes the initiative to keep the spreadsheet updated herself (or himself), that’s even better!
Currently, my second daughter is a sophomore in high school and I have just started a college spreadsheet for her. When I think of a school that might be a good one for her to look into further, I add it to the spreadsheet. That way, when she’s ready to research and start visits, I can tell her to start with those.
You can download my College Search Spreadsheet template for free by clicking on the link and then change it up to meet your needs.
Here are a couple articles that may help you to customize your spreadsheet:
Use a College Search Spreadsheet to Track Your College Search