In this Facebook Live presentation, Shellee Howard, founder of CollegeReady, walks families and students through a step‑by‑step framework for selecting a college that truly matches a student’s needs, even when campus visits are impossible. She begins by urging viewers to decide which fit—academic, social, or financial—is most important, then explores how to assess a student’s identity, talents, and goals. Howard highlights the role of location preferences, from proximity to personal interests (e.g., horses, beaches) to regional career prospects. She advises a deep dive into prospective majors by reviewing course listings and syllabi on each school’s website to gauge genuine interest before applying. The talk also addresses the COVID‑19 landscape, noting how public and private institutions are handling online, hybrid, and in‑person instruction, and acknowledges the confusion many students feel. Finally, Howard offers concrete support: a free personalized strategy session, a Facebook group (College Ready Debt Free), and the option to join a Zoom follow‑up for more detailed guidance.
Chapters
Hello, my name is Shellee Howard and I am the founder and owner of CollegeReady. Thank you so much for joining us on Facebook, and I hope that you will get such great information out of today. I'm actually going to do something unique. I'm going to share my screen with you shortly and show you exactly the best way to find the best match school. But before I do, there are some things that you want to consider. So if you can't go to the campus itself, obviously there's some wonderful virtual tours, but I think it needs to start way before the virtual tour to find the best match college. Now we work with students from as young as 8th grade all the way through grad school, and everybody is in a different position. So when your student is ready, what we start to do is to figure out what they want, who they are, their gifts and talents, and how we can help them. So with that, the first thing you want to think about is what's most important to your student and to yourself. Is it an academic fit, a social fit, or a financial fit? It would be fabulous if it was all three, but if we had to prioritize, what would you say? So say you wanted an academic fit that's most important to your family. Whatever the school costs, you're happy to pay it, and socially your student will just fit in. So if that's the case, then I would encourage you to think, would your student be big fish in a small sea, small fish in a big sea? Are they looking to apply to grad school? The academic fit is, will they have what it takes to compete at that school, graduating at the top of their class, Secondly, not in my order, but in some people's order, the financial fit. Does the academic and the financial fit make a good return on investment? And then socially, I've touched on this before, if your student's not happy, then we have to figure out something else prior to them going there. So we do know a few things about what's going on with COVID We do know that the Cal States have decided to go online this year. We do know that the UC schools are going to do some kind of a hybrid. We do know that the private schools need your dollars, and so they're going to try to go back safely. We do know college is going to continue to go on. We do know there's a lot of misinformation out there, and we do know that your student is feeling overwhelmed, confused, and exhausted. I'm getting phone calls every single day where students are just completely out of their minds with frustration and being out of control. So, finding the perfect fit. What does that look like for your student and your family? I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen and I'm gonna show you what that looks like. So, as you think about, oh, Technical difficulties. Okay, um, won't be sharing our screen today. Um, so as you think about what is a good fit for your student— I love working from home— um, is the fact that every school is unique and different. So prioritize what is most important to you and then build your school list around that. Let me give you an example. So say location is everything to your student. I've had students in the past who've asked me to find colleges within 30 minutes of a barn or a stable for their horse because they want to be able to ride every opportunity they can. I've had students who say, I'm not willing to go an hour from the beach, all the way around the United States. I've had students who say, "I only want to study abroad. I want to go to Europe and I want to go to an art or design school." Students, you have the opportunity to pick what the next 4 years looks like. So the first thing to figure out is who are you and what do you want? And I smile because some students really struggle with just that piece right there. We're asking them to pick a major, pick a career, and they still haven't really figured out who they are or what they want. So number one of finding the best match school is figuring out who you are and what you want. Secondly is deciding location. Where do you want to live? Let's talk about pros and cons. So you have schools on the East Coast, the West Coast, South, Southeast, all of these opportunities. Where do you want to live after college? What college is going to give you the best alumni group? Which college will get you a job right out of school? Internships while you're in school? There are so many things to consider. So what I recommend that you do, and I say you do because this is going to be different for every single student, and yes, this is going to take your involvement because this needs to be a fit for you. I recommend that you take your 3 most desirable schools, and then go on their website, directly on their website, no third party, and look for the major you think you want to do. Then go into the classes that you need for that major. Then go into the syllabus for those classes. Are you really excited yet, or are you feeling like, hmm, maybe this isn't for me? It is so important that you figure that out way before applying. If you're applying because somebody has a national champion football team or basketball team and there's no basketball or football next year because of situations, will you still be happy there? Do you want to live on campus? Do you want to be a commuter? If you're still feeling completely overwhelmed, if you are like, I don't even know where to start, I just need somebody to guide me, We are happy to do that for you. We're offering a free strategy session. You can call me personally. You can reach out to us via the website. You can respond to us here on Facebook or just join our Facebook group, College Ready Debt Free, and we're sharing free information because your knowledge equals making good decisions, and that's really what we're hoping for. So if you would like to reach out to us and let us help you figure out who you are, what you want to do for a major, what kind of college, what career, how are you going to get there, what is your path, we want to help you. Thank you so much for joining us today, and we'd be happy to show you, um, the actual information that I wasn't able to share today on Facebook Live, unfortunately. But we can share, uh, via Zoom, and we hope that you can join us there. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next weekend.
