The Key To Making College Nights Worthwhile is SIMPLE...

PREPARE IN ADVANCE!

Here's your challenge: you must talk to at least five (5) colleges that you know nothing about!! Who knows what you might discover.

GPS and McCallie will be hosting 60 colleges and universities from Washington and California to upstate New York and Pennsylvania and many states in between on Monday, August 31 at 7:00 pm.  By planning ahead and doing just a little bit of research in advance you will be embarking on a thoughtful and individualized college search which will ultimately result in excellent options of schools that fit you: your academic AND personality profiles.

Small, liberal arts college are often located in rather isolated areas  (think Berry College in Rome, GA or Sewanee on the Mountain) and if that type of setting appeals to you, talk with reps from Colgate, Hamilton, Kenyon, Presbyterian or St. Lawrence.  Rhodes is a good example of a small liberal arts school in a major city, but others you may not be familiar with include Arcadia and Lafayette
(Philly), Denison (Columbus), Goucher and McDaniel (Baltimore), Pomona (LA), and Reed, Portland).  I'm sure all of you have heard of the SEC schools - but learn more about other state, flagship research institutions including University of Central Florida and Colorado State.

If studying graphic design (also know as digital arts) might be in your future, learn more about the programs at Stetson and the University of Montevallo. 

Have a head for business or entrepreneurial studies, talk to the reps at Butler, Dean, Queens, TCU, and Wittenberg.  

Many GPS students are budding engineers and while you might initially think of Clemson when you hear engineering, don't discount Case Western Reserve, Drexel, Lafayette, Lehigh, Merrimack and Rice.    

Or, if you can imagine yourself as a nurse or in the healthcare field google Coastal Carolina, Loyola Chicago.

As mentioned above, your goal should be to talk to at least five schools that you know little or nothing about.  Sometimes that's the way you find that diamond in the rough!