Reviewing colleges

The Collegeboard website is really useful. Register first so you can save your searches then go to college search then click on college matchmaker. Here you enter your search criteria and then show results to see those that match. It's important at this stage not to limit your search by cost of tuition as you will miss seeing colleges that you like and may get scholarship funding to attend. We narrowed our search geographically first, we only knew one person in America and they lived in Colorado so that seemed a good reason to look there. We discovered a beautiful state, a tolerant culture with magnificent scenery.

Once you'ved narrowed your list have a really good look at the colleges own website, all the ones we looked at were very good. The distances involved in the USA mean that many Americans only visit a short list of 2 or 3 colleges in person so the web sites have to be comprehensive. Many have virtual tours and there will be separate pages for athletics (which is all sports). Have a look at the admissions criteria as it may vary a bit from that published on the Collegeboard site. 

Most things can be done via e-mail but I would also recommend speaking to the International Admissions Officer to get a feel for how they handle international students. Skype is good for making these calls with or without video.

If visiting is feasible, definately do it. We saw 6 colleges in one state in 5 days and got to have a look around the surrounding area too. All offered tickets for varsity basketball games and we got to see 3 which were excellent. Arrange your visit in advance, we joined some open days and at other colleges we had a personal tour and meetings with faculty. We arranged to see basketball coaces too, this involved separate correspondence to make the initial approach and then copying in the coach and the international admissions officer to all relavent correspondence. We had personal meetings with coaches and tours of the sports facilities in addition to the general tour of the campus.

Regarding the cost, the 3 of us flew out via Toronto and into Denver. We hired a big 4x4 as snow was predicted and we didn't want to get stuck. We stayed 2 nights in cheep hotels all in one room and the others with our friends, we ate out twice and bought picnic food or ate for free at the college or with friends the rest of the time. The whole trip cost about £2,000.