The college search and application process can be a tedious task to navigate for high school students. There are a lot of steps that need to be taken when proceeding with college research and applications. It is completely normal for students to feel slightly overwhelmed during this process with maneuvering through all those individual steps. Thankfully Bishop Blanchet has an innumerable amount of resources for students to utilize to prepare for their college journey.
My biggest piece of advice for those unsure how to get started is to set up a meeting with your counselor. Bishop Blanchet has four school counselors, which students are separated by last name and assigned to. Blanchet also has a student life counselor and social emotional counselor. Regardless, setting up a meeting with your counselor is a surefire way to get initiated in the college process. “What I tell students a lot is that we have many different ways to approach college search. We typically use Maia Learning and College Board, which are both so easy to navigate for starting the college process,” said college counselor Stephen Russell.
Typically there are two resources your counselor will supply you with for your college prep voyage. One of the resources you’ll be introduced to is College Board (bigfuture.collegeboard.org). College Board is an amazing resource that many students will easily familiarize themselves with, due to the fact that college board is connected with AP classroom. On the website there is a tab called career search which allows students to brainstorm their future career path and discover possible majors for college. After completing the career search, go under the tab ‘plan for college’ and explore different schools that could be the right fit for you. College board allows you to save the schools you’re interested in by easily clicking the like button. After exploring that tab, students should already have an individualized head start on their college searches.
The second resource your counselor will mention is Maia Learning (app.maialearning.com). Maia Learning covers all the bases for college prep, but it’s a lot easier to navigate after developing a solid list of schools you’re interested in. Start off with the resources tab on Maia Learning, which offer a bunch of hyperlinks for students to understand what needs to get done. The university tab Maia learning offers is unique from other college prep websites. When searching through the colleges students are able to save schools their considering and view the school’s admission history from Bishop Blanchet. “Maia Learning has made the college search so much easier,” Zach Roque ‘25. This is extremely helpful when trying to determine if the school is a good fit for you. All of these resources are a great way to begin this somewhat strenuous process.
