The College Student Pick Awards With The Student Credit Cards Center

In early 2008, the Student Credit Cards Center sat down and thought up ways to help our users in all aspects of their lives, beyond the tough financial choices of credit. What came from these brainstorming sessions was the reality that there are so many online tools for college students, it's almost impossible to differentiate the good from the bad and the great from the elite. Because of this, we decided to harness this reality and put together a list for our users of the best of the best. Thus, the College Student PICK Awards were born!

At the Student Credit Cards Center, our comprehensive guide to college student credit cards supplies students with the information they need to find the card that is best for their lifestyle, income, and expectations. We are proud of what we do and known for our comprehensive look at credit. Now it's time to delve even deeper. After surveying over 200,000 college students nationwide, we have narrowed 1000 potential websites down to 100 nominees for sites that aid students across many different aspects of their college career including:

• Homework Help & Reference Sites
• Online Applications for the Classroom
• Top College Student Social Sites
• Financial Management Sites
• Sites for Buying & Selling Textbooks
• College Application Tools
• Sites for Student Travel
• Much More!

The Process

We picked campuses at random, getting a broad range of universities, community colleges, and trade schools. We focused only on students aged 17 to 25, and surveyed an equal sample in each year of age. Students were not incentivized to participate, which we feel helped bring more honesty to the table. This allowed students to participate out of a passion for the sites they were reviewing, rather than out of a need to make money. We asked students to analyze the sites based on 5 simple critreia: Ease of Use, Range of Tools Available, Real-Life Application, The Site's Perceived Intentions, and Overall Opinion of the Site. The results were exciting! Now, is the time to share these results with our users and the websites that were reviewed. We are happy to present our 2009 Student PICK Award Nominees, and will work with multiple focus groups over the coming months to narrow the list down to 50 finalists, and 25 winners! If you are a nominee, we encourage you to show off your success by placing an award badge on your site!