by Michael Finley
Copyright © 1997 by Michael Finley

Being 13 raises a lot of issues, many of them dire in extremis. But let's focus on the ancient issue of college, and how do we figure out which one.

In the old days, you chose a college by sending their admissions office. In two or three weeks they sent you a fat white envelope containing a colorful brochure, course catalog, and application and financial forms.

Where the course catalog usually featured a picture of the college's bell tower, the brochure was livelier, depicting college students wearing fashions sufficiently out of date to horrify most high schoolers, engaged in various collegiate activities -- cheering, studying, or crossing through the quad in a letter sweater.

But those days are gone. Colleges eliminate delays, postage, and four-color printing today by meeting prospective students on the Web. Nowadays, it's a snap for high school sophomores and juniors to do their research online. The college website is a virtual book students and parents can read and interact with.

One physical book you may still want, however, is How to Get Into Your Dream College Using the Web, by Shannon Karl and Arthur Karl ($24.99), put out by Coriolis. The Karls are a career counselor and a computer expert respectively, and their book assumes you are starting this important process with no knowledge of either of the two worlds it explains -- college or the Internet.

Written more for the student than for the parent, the book covers the essential ground, explaining how to map out a college plan, what to look for in a college, plus issues we never used to think about, such as on-campus safety and whether any of that school's graduates have gone on to actual employment. A favorite section for me was "The Top 10 Wrong Reasons to Choose a College" (#9 "They have ivy on the walls -- or something").

The detail the book goes into shows just how mammoth the task can be. It lists actual web sites for 130 schools, from Abilene Christian to Yale University. It lists dozens of online college resources. It explains college rankings, and how much they matter. It explains the importance of entrance exams like the PSAT and SAT, and gives hints how to do well on them. Then it leads you through the actual process of applying.

The part that interested me was the application essay. When you apply, you are expected to write a short essay telling why you would be terrific addition. Some topics are less apropriate than others. Do write about your values, your ambitions, your hopes, the book says. Avoid like the ebola virus topics like sex, politics, religion, and how much you love yourself.

And their advice keeps going, and going. Chapter 11 is about money, and how to pony up the $25,000 per year colleges like Harvard charge, or to get someone else to pony it you for you. It helps you pack for dorm life, choose a Greek house, and deal with obtuse roommates. And it warns you about the dangers of depression, caffeine addiction, and midnight munchies that await you away from Mom and Dad and Skipper.

Plus, tucked inside the back cover, you will find a CD-ROM that contains programs and links to help you thread your way through the college maze. It contains a practice SAT practice courses, interactive entrance exam tests, programs to help you build your vocabulary and critical thinking skills, a calculator to help you get a handle on what it's all going to cost, and even a "Lifegoal" module that actually helps you plan what to do with your heretofore sorry, but soon to be glorious, letter-sweater-wearing life.

Note that How to Get Into Your Dream College does not suggest you abandon one of the most traditional elements of college research: the visit. Visiting lets you to look behind the curtain that the admissions department has carefully hung over their operations. You will notice that the wholesome letter-sweater wearers are vanished from the quad. College is not the same as college brochure.

By all means, go and meet with a dean, a counselor, and maybe a handpicked, cherry-cheeked student government type.

But check out the other students, too, and the way people live in the dorms. Do the beds rest horizontally on the floor, or are they dangling listlessly out the window? Do swarms of flies hover over certain spots on the carpet? Do the students ever move, or make eye contact? You can observe a lot just by watching.

I think of my daughter out at one of these ivied beer emporiums and shudder. Honey, before you choose, remember -- if you're smart enough enough to get into one of these places, you're smart enough not to go there.

TRANSCOMPETITION

A Business Week Book

Transcompetition: Moving Beyond Competition and Collaboration
by Harvey Robbins, Michael Finley
List: $24.95
Our Price: $17.47
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Hardcover, 240 pages
Published by McGraw-Hill
Publication date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0070530823