StudyBuddy's director decided to say yes when asked to be an Alumnae Admissions Representative for one of her alma maters. (It's one of those expenses-paid volunteer things.) A spin-off was taking the time to pull together some great resources for those who bent on impressing admissions offices. I got enough interested to investigate a few sites for families with younger kids too. Take a look

Teens, whatever you're doing, I'd recommend starting from the Public Library's site. In San Francisco, it's http://www.sfpl.org/. That's because your library card number gives you access to a lot of really pricey databases you wouldn't want to pay for yourself, for example Lexis Nexus (for legal stuff), Rand (for statistics) World Almanac, EBSCO, Proquest, and InfoTrac. (On the same site, without entering your card number, take a look at Teens: Eight Steps Helping You Decide. Better yet, this is useful even for those of you who want to postpone a college decision and work for a while after high school. I hope I haven't lost you parents with this comment. Sometimes it's a good idea.) If you're in Marin County, you can access the subscription databases through MARINet, and if you're on the Peninsula it's the Peninsula Library System. All of them require your library card.

My second highest-used resource is the Internet Public Library, put together by the School of Information of the University of Michigan (another of my alma maters.) On this one, there are ten main subjects heads, each with a dozen sub-heads. I particularly like a service called Pathfinders, put together by the IPL staff, which is intended to help guide us in our searches.

Another place I like to start looking for things is Vivisimo. It's what's called a clustered search engine. That means you get results in a few major headings. Click on each heading for multiple sub-heads, and on those for individual relevant sites. It seems like a time-saver, although I haven't actually done timed comparisons. I like it because it's visually open, and less daunting than a simple list that makes me guess how relevant a site is.

Another one that's clustered is Wisenut. One search I tried returned 135,00 hits in three groups. I found this simple breakdown appealing, but when I checked through it, the sort was less useful than Vivisimo's.

A general site geared especially to students is the Education Index. It's set up according to Life Stages (defined as Infant, Preschool, Primary, Middle school, Secondary, College, Distance Learning, Graduate, and Continuing Education) and offers 55 subject headings. I found 54 useful. Skip Languages unless you want Chinese, Japanese, Welsh or Turkish. (I didn't.)

The following are special subject sites I really like:

For Algebra, I like Purple Math, and for all Math, Math Forum. It offers you all levels, through graduate, and lots of choices.

For General Science I usually start with the site of the California Academy of Sciences. At the left, select Academy Library, then Electronic Resources, and you'll be taken to the Librarians Index to the Internet. Individual subject headings are comprehensive and informed.

For World History, http://www.hyperhistory.com/, although it makes a late start (1400 A.D.), offers timelines and maps that are a great help in grasping the big picture. For specific events, your best bet is to start with the general reference works available on the Public Library site.

If you're studying Art History, you can't do better than Art History Resources, put together by Dr. Christopher Witcombe of Sweet Briar College in Virginia. It's organized both by region and by chronology. It's thorough, visually pleasing, and a site I go to simply to enjoy. It packs plenty of the information you'd need in an Art History class.

If you're studying music, you want the wonderful site put up by Sibelius Academy in Finland. Whether you want to play, study, or just listen, this is a rich resource.

For families who have younger kids too: be sure to check out Education Place, put out by the publisher Houghton Mifflin. Across the top, you're offered Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.

Less useful, but easy for younger kids to use, is Dogpile. It's visually open, with a cluster list on the left. It doesn't have a lot of depth.

For all you smart families who have fun with Science, don't miss The Why Files. Currently there's news on Nobel Prizes, a recent earthquake and hurricane information worldwide, and an article on how the genes of a giant tortoise revealed a volcanic eruption that happened 100,000 years ago. (I loved this one.)

_ Read about tonight's sky, and check the sky forecast for the rest of the month, on EarthSky. Then, for really great visuals, see what the National Space and Aeronautics Administration wants kids to know. See http://spacelink.nasa.gov/ and select For Kids. Have a good time! _