September 1997 — Exclusive
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A Tour of the World Wide Web for School Counselors
The World Wide Web is exploding with information. It contains over 500,000 web sites and new sites are developed every few minutes. With connectivity in the guidance and counseling office, students and professional personnel, with a few clicks of a mouse, have access to a wealth of relevant information. The purpose of this paper is to expose school counselors to some of the more important counseling-related web sites.
College and University Information
Secondary school students are constantly seeking information concerning colleges and universities. Most colleges present detailed data concerning a variety of topics -- from specific programs to admission policies -- on their Web site's home page. If the URL address is unknown, counselors can use the web to find any college on the web.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology site (www.mit.edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html) lists higher education institutions both alphabetically and geographically. By clicking on the names of the schools on the list, students and counselors have instant access to a virtual library of school catalogs.
Peterson's Web site (www.petersons.com/) is another excellent source of information concerning educational institutions. It includes data related to K-12 schools, colleges and universities, studying abroad, careers and jobs, language study, testing and assessment, and vocational-technical schools.
College costs are always a major concern of any potential college student. To find financial information students need to check the FinAid site (www.finaid.org/). This web site reviews topics related to loans, sources of aid, newsgroups and related links.
To compute the costs normally paid by the family, students can use The College Board site (www.collegeboard.org/html/calculator000.html). This site also includes a program that calculates the monthly repayment associated with loans. The student can also learn whether his/her borrowing plans are realistic, given the income potential for the chosen career field.
Psychological and Learning Problems
Both elementary and secondary students can develop psychological problems during their school years. The American Psychological Association Home Page (www.apa.org/) is an excellent site for school counselors . The site contains a newsletter, membership information, and the "PsychCrawler", an Internet browser related to psychological topics. "PsychCrawler" is an excellent tool for reviewing a large database of information.
