How to Use Pinterest to Stay Organized During the College Search

Pinterest is the perfect platform for keeping the college search organized. Since you always have your smartphone available, using an app to stay organized makes perfect sense.

First, if you’re not on Pinterest, you need to join. It’s painless and just takes a few minutes. If your preferred photo playform is Instagram, you can easily pin the photos you take on to a Pinterest board.

Next, create the boards. Here’s a list of boards that will help you keep all your college search interests organized:

Boards for each college

Set up separate boards for each college that interests you. Search for the school’s Pinterest board (e.g. “Penn State Pinterest”) and you will find multiple boards created by the colleges. Follow the colleges of interest and pin the pins related to admissions, scholarships, and any other pertinent information for prospective students. Sift through the pins that you will need when applying and pin them to the boards you just created.

College visits

Take photos on your college visits and pin them to this board. Once you take the photo, open the Pinterest app and use your smartphone to upload it to Pinterest. The iPhone and Android phones allow you to upload the photo immediately to Pinterest and choose a board. If you don’t have time during the visit, you can also pin the photo from your camera roll once your visit is completed.

It’s easy to forget which campus you visited and what each campus looked like. Taking photos and pinning them will help you remember key areas of interest and specifics about each school.

Boards for scholarships

Pinterest is an excellent social media platform to search for and organize scholarships. You can create separate boards by types of scholarships (age-specific, essays, no essays, etc.), or sort them by deadlines, or if you prefer you can create just one board for scholarships. Use Pinterest’s effective search tools to filter the scholarships of interest and pin them to the boards.

Essay tips

Use this board to collect tips to help you craft the perfect college essay. You can start by searching for “college essay tips” and begin sifting through the helpful pins. Also helpful is the fact that Pinterest will suggest pins once you start pinning. This means once you search the first time, your home page will be populated with pins related to your recent essay tips search.

Financial aid

Who doesn’t need help navigating the financial aid maze? Create a board, search “financial aid college” and you can start pinning tips. You will find pins related to how to prepare the FAFSA, how to decipher the financial aid award letter, how to find scholarships and grants, and even how to pay for college. Pin those pins and check them when questions arise (and they will).

Once you have finished your applications, delete all the boards of the colleges you did not apply to and keep the ones that you did.

After you are offered admission

Once the offers of admission arrive and you make your final college choice, you can create a new board for the college you choose specifically related to new student information. Then, create boards to help with the transition to college: things to do before leaving for college, college move-in day, dorm organization, study tools, etc.

Pinterest is an excellent organizational tool. Instead of keeping information scattered on desk tops, in your back pack, in your car, on your bedroom floor, and on the kitchen table, you can organize it and keep track of it on your boards. And, you are saving trees!