WEBPOINTERS : WEB SITES HELP STEER STUDENTS TOWARD FUTURE.

Byline: Kitty Williams

You are a high school or college student, or the parent of one. Thoughts about the future are eating up your waking hours.

College, graduate school, career - what are your options? What should you do now to ensure that you are where you want to be a year, four years or 10 years from now?

You can gaze into a crystal ball, consult the stars or just set off blithely, trusting that everything will turn out. Or you can do a little research and develop a plan and some strategies to help you accomplish it.

Mapping Your Future, a Web site sponsored by Federal Family Education Loan Program agencies, offers lots of help.

Financial aid is the meat of this site, but it is not the only thing here.

If you are a bit confused about what to do and when, if you are feeling pressure not to miss important deadlines, the Financial Aid and College Admissions Calendar is a useful guide. With hyperlinks to clear, concise information about the various components of the college application process, it can help a high school senior and his parents decide what to do, when and why.

If you have any questions about the alphabet soup of standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, click on SAT, ACT in the September entry for a brief explanation of each, telephone numbers and links to on-line information if available. If you want, you can jump to The College Board Online site, check the test dates, and (with a credit card) register on line for your SATs.

In October's entry, the words ``financial aid'' are linked to a page with information about the various types of Federal financial aid available and how to get a Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Most of the site sponsors are institutions and companies offering student assistance. Hyperlinks to their Web sites are at the bottom of the Mapping Your Future main page.

Specially valuable are the job and career links found under ``Other Internet Resources.''

They include America's Job Bank, Career Resource Library - New York State Department of Labor, The Catapult, College Grad Job Hunter - WWW Home Page, Hiatt Career Development Center, University of Virginia OCPP Documents and Handouts, Getting Past Go - A Survival Guide for College Graduates, Career Mosaic, State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee.

All of these sites are rich with resources, and well worth a visit.

ADDRESS BOOK

Mapping Your Future

http://mapping-your-future.org/

College Board Online

http://www.collegeboard.org/

Online SAT registration

http://www.collegeboard.org/sat/html/satform.html

1996-97 Occupational Outlook Handbook

http://www.bls.gov/ocohome.htm

The Catapult

http://www.jobweb.org/catapult/catapult.htm

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