Creator: College Grazing | visit site
Grade Range: 8 - 11
This site is another entry into the college search market. Designed to provide resources to prospective students, their parents, and their teachers or guidance counselors, the site offers the usual links to financial aid information, advice on writing college essays and career guidance. Many of the links lead directly to resources developed by the US Department of Education or the US Department of Labor; reliable sources, but nothing new or innovative here. The fresh content here is a series of 13 short self-discovery quizzes that purport to help students sort out their feelings about college, and determine their relative readiness to attend. In keeping with the "grazing" theme (complete with cow logos and illustrations), these quizzes are called "munchings." It’s kind of hokey, but it may be catchy enough to be effective. Once the student has completed all 13 "munchings," the site will generate a personalized report summarizing student responses. What is produced might generate interesting discussion among students or within families.
In the Classroom
Completing the 13 "munchings" might make a good independent assignment for college bound students, followed by some sort of reflection essay. The tips for writing a good college application essay might also prove helpful in a writing class. We’ll pretend we didn’t think about what generally results when a cow digests its "munchings" and hope for a higher quality end product.
At Home
The process of completing and analyzing the self-discovery quizzes isn’t rocket science, but could generate fruitful discussion between parents and students, particularly if the parents are unfamiliar with the college search process.