10 Useful College Planning Apps

Tablets and smartphones have become indispensable tools in our daily lives. On top of changing the way we think about gaming and communications, these technologies are advancing our capabilities when it comes to being a student and expanding our education. The college planning apps and resources that are available to today’s students offer a huge amount of convenience in addition to access to more information than has ever been available before in unconventional and academic settings. Any student preparing for college can use any number of the following types of college planning apps in order to better prepare themselves for the opportunities that await ahead.

College Planning Apps to Keep You on Track

Time to Study

Students who are new to college can often feel overwhelmed with the increased workload that they first encounter during their freshman year. It can be difficult for them to organize their calendar around classes, studying, and due dates. However, sticking to a schedule that is geared towards academic success is critical during your first year of school. Make this task easier by using the iStudiez Pro app. This app was voted the Best Student App in 2011, providing access to extremely capable planners, alert functions, calendars, and so much more. The scheduling feature is tailored to academic schedules as well. All data that you input can be set up to function based on block and rotating schedules that are common for college classes. You also have the option to input events based on alternating weeks. The “Today View” is also handy for students, summarizing the necessities for the day while giving them a quick heads-up on what their schedule will entail. Students can also input grades and other assignments in order to keep an eye on their estimated GPA throughout the semester.

Books By the Dozen

A considerable amount of a student’s income is dedicated to purchasing textbooks each and every year. Buying these books brand-new from the college store can average hundreds of dollars in expenses each semester. Expand your textbook options with the help of BookBargain. This app allows you to browse college textbooks in a number of formats, including used texts, eBooks, and other media platforms. The App is also helpful in that it refines its search parameters based on past interests, allowing students to expand their knowledge on any given subject beyond their required text for the class. Every text that you locate offers several options for purchase. Students also gain the benefit of a price scanner and tracker so that they can easily scan titles and compare the prices that they have in front of them to other locations and resources that are available elsewhere.

Get Financed

The steps and information required to attain financial aid before attending your very first class can be overwhelming and tedious. Students often feel lost and intimidated by the process required to gain financial aid using the FAFSA resources. However, Nerd Scholar streamlines the entire process by giving students step-by-step instructions and wonderful resources at the touch of a button. The guide that Nerd Wallet puts together can answer frequently asked questions and also give you some pointers when it comes to filling out some of the more difficult sections on the applications. It also offers technical support and has built-in clarification tabs for students who have questions regarding their application or personal information.

Research and Organization

Students preparing for college can also become overwhelmed when it comes to creating papers that include substantial amounts of information and research. It can be difficult for incoming students to focus on their topics while crafting papers that are consistent throughout the writing. Prepare yourself for these challenges with the help of the Outliner App for the iPad. This handy application allows you to fully lay out projects ahead of time, create detailed outlines for papers, and organize information from a variety of sources quickly. It also offers you versatility when working on assignments from a variety of platforms. It will easily synch with Dropbox and Outliner Online in order to allow for online editing and instant sharing with professors, peers, and groups. The editing interface is extremely intuitive as well, while the additional features for searching and categorizing are exceptional. Outlines can be tagged, archived, and searched for later reference. As you continue to build your academic portfolio, your resources for future success expand.

Help When It Is Needed

It is not unusual for students to experience a high level of frustration when it comes to receiving guidance from advisers and other academic resources that are given to them by their college or university. Scheduling appointments can be a daunting process given a hectic class schedule, and the questions that you have may not always be fully answered. Logrado gives students the answers they deserve by providing a sophisticated, mobile-social guidance system. This solution represents a completely unique approach to guidance counseling and class advising. The dashboard of the App offers students progress reports given their personal goals and directs them toward helpful documents and websites regarding their inquiries. The App also gives you access to interactive videos that answer some of the most common questions asked of counselors by incoming students.

The University and College App

Nearly every institution of higher learning is jumping on the fact that apps for phones and tablets are the primary technological choices being made by their students. As a result, any school where you are enrolled is likely to have an app that offers you resources that no other resource can with any amount of success or accuracy. These apps are available to the students who are enrolled for free in most cases. This mobile resource typically includes access to academic calendars, shuttle and bus schedules, or mobile platforms that are designed exclusively for the web portals developed by the school. Using these apps, students can manage everything regarding their academic lives, from their schedule to monitoring their grades. Many of the platforms being adopted by schools around the nation are based on the highly-successful architecture that was first designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Know The Instructor

There are plenty of horror stories out there about accidentally signing up for a class that has no real bearing on your major yet being enrolled with the most difficult professor in the entire department. Freshmen rarely have the ability to ask around in order to find out about the stature or difficulty of potential professors before enrolling. Download the Rate My Professors app so that you can make some informed choices when it comes to getting core and difficult classes out of the way. This App allows students to share their experiences with their professors and comment on the feedback left by others concerning the experience that they had with certain educators. Newcomers can search the site for particular teachers or browse the listing so that they can see what their options are for taking particular classes.

Your Complete College Hub

It can be difficult to find an app that offers you everything you need to know about nearly any academic institution before enrolling or while attending your very first year. However, College Confidential gives you unparalleled resources in this capacity. This App makes it simple to tackle difficult subjects such as financial aid, test preparation, and the basics of campus life. There are forums that are open to parents and students, affording incoming individuals the opportunity to have all their questions answered and their concerns addressed. There are more than 700 areas of discussion and millions of users from campuses all over the nation. The Dashboard is easy to use, and installation takes only moments.

Unique Resources at Your Side

There are plenty of ways outside of the typical box, through federal and private loans, to get money for every semester that you are enrolled in college. There is a wealth of scholarships that are available to students of all kinds with all types of academic goals. Although, combing the Internet for hours can often lead to fruitless efforts. Allow the ScholarshipAdvisor to guide your efforts and give you the resources that you need in order to secure your academic future. New and current students can use their extensive database to find the scholarship that is ideal for their particular situation. There are 2 million scholarships and grants that they make accessible that have a combined worth of over $2 billion. The tool is completely free, and the results can be extraordinary.

Exploring Academic Grounds

No student should come to a college or university without first exploring all of the resources, classrooms, and campus culture in person. Whether choosing a school for the first time or making a switch to another university after your academic career has started, every student should get a feel for their future academic setting by stepping foot on the campus itself. It can be very time-consuming to plan a number of campus visits in a short period of time. Locating the proper offices and representatives, booking tours, and deducing when the campus will be active are all important considerations. The Quad2Quad app simplifies this process. It offers users a virtual travel assistant that organizes the most critical information concerning any college or campus for easy absorption. Additionally, it automatically directs you to the necessary channels for planning actual visits. This aide allows you to get the most amount of real information in the shortest period of time from visits to college campuses all across the nation.

When using these Apps, planning for your first semester of college, or pushing forward in your academic life should no longer be such a frightening proposition. Nearly all of these resources are free to students as well. Take the mystery and worry out of pursuing your academic career by giving yourself every possible digital advantage.