If you are looking to a Div 1 or 2 school for your college career, you need to begin your college search by registering at the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.  This is also the first step towards qualifying for athletic scholarships.  Once you are registered, you will go through the certification process. This allows colleges to begin to recruit you as well.  You can access the NCAA Clearinghouse online.

Div 3 schools do not require registration or certification, as they are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships.

The NCAA also dictates the way you visit college campuses.  For a visit to be considered “official”, it means that the school is covering the costs of your visit.  Since this can be seen as a monetary benefit, though necessary, the NCAA limits students to 5 official visits.  That is five visits total.  If you are a track and a football athlete, you cannot do five official visits for both sports.  The limit is five, no matter what.

Unofficial visits are visits where you and your family pay the expenses.  There is no limit to the unofficial visits you make.  So, if you are interested in schools near home, it is advantageous to pick up the tab for your visit to the close schools and let your official visits be longer distance schools.

A final bit of information to consider, your visits are limited to a 48 hour period.

Janelle Jalbert is the founder of Edusistance, a company assisting in education and business.  Currently, Janelle is heading the “Race to College Success” program to assist students with a variety of college issues including: college preparation, college admissions, general education concerns such as SAT, ACT, and other test prep, college options, college majors, financial aid, scholarships, career planning, portfolio and resume development, essay writing, and such.  Visit www.racetocollegesuccess.com for details.  You can also follow Janelle and Race to College Success on Twitter (RacetoCollege) Facebook (RacetoCollegeSuccess), and MySpace (Race to College Success).