Preparing your first college tour and not sure where to start?

Here are some suggestions for schools to visit, grouped by region, to get you rolling. Each list includes 5-6 schools that offer a range of sizes, settings and selectivity to help imagine the possibilities.  We also suggest others worth considering and why.  

Cities currently covered include Boston, New York City, Syracuse, Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  

Click on the Continue Reading link below to see our suggestions, or try our College Tour Planner to build your own custom campus tour itinerary.

Early admission results continue to roll in.  Here's a summary of what's been reported as of 5:00pm PST December 20:

The University of Pennsylvania admitted 1,316 early decision applicants to the Class of 2019.  

With early decision applications up 6% from the previous year to 5,489, this year's admission rate fell slightly from 25.3% to 24%.

This year's early admittees are expected to comprise 54% of this year's targeted class of 2,420.

Click here for the news release.

Williams College admitted 244 applicants to the Class of 2019 under early decision.  

With the total number of early decision applicants at 593, the early admission rate remained unchanged from last year at 41%.

This year's early admittees represent 44% of the targeted class size of 550.

Click here for the news release.

Need-blind schools do not take financial aid into consideration when making admissions decisions.  Knowing these schools can be invaluable for making sure you or your teen's application is getting maximum consideration with regard to financial aid.

Here we've compiled a list of private schools that practice need blind admission for full-time, first year, U.S. citizens and permanent residents.  Please note that not all of these schools offer financial aid to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Note also that the list isn't exhaustive—it's meant to cover the more competitive 4 year institutions in the nation.

This list is integrated into the latest update to College Kickstart. 

Need-Blind Schools

By now, most of you are quite familiar with the Common Application ("Common App").  And most of you that are applying to competitive institutions are painfully aware that there are often extra essay or short answer prompts to complete.

The good news is that this isn't always the case.  Recently we introduced a new feature in College Kickstart that identifies Common App schools that don't require additional essay or short answer prompts.

Put another way, these are schools that you can apply to easily once you've completed the core common app.  It's another useful way to narrow down your list choices, or to consider new ones that may be a good fit and don't require extra effort to submit.

Enjoy!

Note: the list isn't exhaustive—it's meant to cover the more competitive 4 year institutions in the nation.

The List

Early admission results are now rolling in.  Here's the latest as of 5:00pm December 21:

The number of applicants for early admission are now starting to be reported by major colleges and universities. Here's the list as of December 10th: