The world is changing. The student, who entered college at age 18 or 19, took four years to earn a degree, and moved on to a career, is gone. Today’s students are juggling school with full-time employment, raising families, looking after aging parents—or all these things at once. And they need the skills for today’s economy: >digital fluency in addition to expertise in math and science; high-level communication skills in addition to faculty with numbers.
This article will discuss five apps that can help you prepare for this new reality. These apps provide you with everything from an education search engine to scholarships tailored for your specific needs.
1. The College Board
The people at College Board always have your back. The app itself offers a plethora of different options and functions. You can create a customizable profile so you can keep track of particular colleges you’re considering. There’s also an education search engine that allows you to find which kind of school you’re thinking of applying to. The app also has a scholarship search tool powered by MillionScholars.com, the ability to take practice AP tests, student profiles that allow you to keep track of your GPA and upcoming deadlines, state-specific information about testing requirements, and many others.
For example, you want to study in the northeast. There are plenty of great colleges there, but there’s no sugarcoating it when people say the University of Vermont is one of the top schools in the region. You’ll want to know the requirements for UVM’s SAT so that you can prepare yourself for the big test. The College Board app can help you find that information and much more.
2. iGrad
iGrad is the perfect app for the busy student because it has tons of tools to save you time and energy. On top of providing a scholarship search engine powered by ScholarMatch and CollegeXpress, there’s also a GPA calculator, college prep checklists, real-time access to student financial aid deadlines, and much more.
If you want the best calculator on the market, iGrad’s is it. It supports combinations of advanced functions like parentheses, cosigns, roots, logs, and others that will help you get through pre-cal or calculus in no time. You can also keep track of your college prep checklist to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Fastweb
Fastweb has been around since 1999, making it an industry leader for helping you find financial aid for college. It offers scholarships tailored to different demographics—women, African Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, students with special needs, and more. Fastweb’s app has a scholarship search that considers your location, GPA, major, ethnicity, and college choice. It allows you to use filters like “show me all scholarships in the US” rather than manually doing it. You can also sort scholarships by the deadline, date posted, and time remaining. Other valuable features include a scholarship tracker and a customizable profile to keep track of your saved scholarships and applications.
Fastweb’s app is available for free on iOS and Android.
4. Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors’ app provides you with all kinds of tools that will help you both in school and afterward. Through the app, you can watch video lessons from its vast library for subjects like math, English, science, foreign language, and a whole lot more. You can also download study guides that will help you prepare for tests or brush up on old material. Another great feature of the Varsity Tutors’ app is that you can store all these study materials for offline viewing and stream them on your mobile device.
Varsity Tutors’ app is available for free on iOS and Android.
5. Scholly
It’s time to stop paying people off to get money. Whether you’re looking for college scholarships, graduate school grants, or free federal grant money to pay for your education, Scholly can help you find it. The app has an education search engine that enables you to find scholarships tailored to your needs. It allows users to save their searches and compare them side by side and see which ones are a better fit. Scholly enables you to save each article as a unique entry in your profile if you want to keep track of the different contests you’ve entered.
With Scholly, it doesn’t matter what stage of education you’re at or what kind of financial needs you have. The app has scholarship opportunities for high school students, college students, grad students, and parents, so you’ll be sure to find something that matches your situation. It recognizes your location, how many kids you have in your family, whether or not you are a part of different social groups, among other things.
Scholly is available for free on iOS and Android.
Even if you’re not quite sure what you want to study in college, there are many apps out there that can help. Whether it’s helping you find scholarships tailored just for your needs or giving you the tools and tutorials needed to succeed at whatever school of choice, these five handy apps will help get you ready for college.
