This site is a tutorial that takes the student and parents through the process of connecting to colleges. I evaluated one of the four topics discussed, "Planning for College". No author was cited for the links, but each document was identified as being copyrighted by collegeboard.com. This organization is governed by a Board, and there is in depth biographical information available on the president, Gaston Caperton. Also, names and brief biographical sketches of the trustees are available.
The publisher of this website, College Board is a respected international organization whose history began in 1900. The mission is to prepare, inspire, and connect students to college and opportunity. This site sponsors the pages and provides the web space. Further information is available about the organization from the "Contact us" link and an "about us" link.
The sites that the author page links to are reliable and support facts that are found on the home page. I found new information on some of the links about the topic. As an example, one link went to information about AP exams. This link went to another website and domain. From within the new site were other links.
A "link to" search by Google sited 10,300 links to collegeboard.com. The few sites I clicked on did not add any new information, but they supported the material found on the site. The links were from other sites and other domains---.edu. .org, .com, and .gov. One site in particular was Crown Financial Ministries which is from a different domain (.org). The fact that this very conservative organization linked to collegeboard.com makes a strong statement on the quality of this site.
There is information available on preparing for college from magazines and library resources. Kiplinger's and Smart Money (online version of Money magazine) are two magazines that would have information on this topic. Peterson's Scholarships, Grants, and Prizes is a library resource that can be found online. These pages support the facts on the author's page, and I don't see that they add any new information.
The date of publication can affect the reliability of this information. The information is current and up to date with a copyright date of 2003.
The information presented in this document was well written. There were no obvious grammatical or typographical errors, and the facts were correct. Accuracy could be judged by visiting other websites that offer information about colleges. Also, there are books on the topic that can be found in many libraries.
The site presented the information without bias and very responsibly. The information was general about getting into college, and the authors just presented the facts. Since they were not promoting one college over another, there were no emotions or persuasion in the treatment of the subject matter.
The data found on this site was both quantitative and qualitative. The quality of the information was backed by links to web pages on other sites and other domains. There is information on the page to allow one to contact the publisher. Also, in following some of the links that went outside the site, there was information on sites from which contact could be made with their publishers.
It would not be difficult to validate information found on this site. There are other websites from which information can be gathered. School counselors would have information to offer students, and colleges and universities could be contacted directly.