college article websites

The top list of academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
• Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
• Related articles: ✔
• References: ✔
• Cited by: ✔
• Links to full text: ✔
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
• Abstracts: ✔
• Related articles: ✘
• References: ✘
• Cited by: ✘
• Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
• Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
• Export formats: BibTeX

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
• Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

• Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
• Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
• Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
• Export formats: not available

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

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100 Best Websites to Find Research Articles, Papers & Journals

In the vast landscape of digital information, access to credible academic resources is indispensable for the curious mind. Navigating through a myriad of websites to find scholarly journals, articles, and books can be a daunting task. To aid in this quest for knowledge, we’ve curated a list of the top 100 websites renowned for their repository of academic treasures . These platforms serve as indispensable tools for researchers, students, and enthusiasts seeking reputable and diverse scholarly materials. From comprehensive databases to user-friendly interfaces, each website stands as a testament to the democratization of education and the evolution of digital learning.

Join us on this expedition through the virtual libraries that serve as gateways to a world of intellectual richness and exploration.

1. Google Scholar

As a widely-used academic search engine, Google Scholar provides access to scholarly articles, theses, books, and conference papers across various disciplines. Its user-friendly interface allows researchers to explore a vast database of scholarly literature, offering citations, abstracts, and sometimes even full-text access. Its citation tracking feature enables scholars to follow research trends and connect with related publications. With its comprehensive coverage and indexing of academic sources, Google Scholar is an indispensable tool for academics, students, and researchers seeking reliable and diverse scholarly content.

2. ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is a comprehensive platform offering access to a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books across various scientific disciplines. With a user-friendly interface, it provides researchers and students with a plethora of scholarly resources in fields like science, technology, medicine, and social sciences. ScienceDirect grants access to a multitude of peer-reviewed journals, research articles, book chapters, and reference works. Its advanced search functionalities and intuitive navigation streamline the process of locating relevant literature for academic pursuits.

3. ReaserchGate

As a prominent academic networking platform, ResearchGate fosters collaboration among researchers globally. Offering access to a vast repository of academic journals, articles, and books across disciplines, it serves as a hub for scholarly communication. Researchers can connect, share findings, and access a diverse range of publications, facilitating knowledge exchange and collaborative efforts in advancing scientific endeavors.

4. Springerlink

SpringerLink stands as a prominent platform for accessing academic journals, books, and reference works across disciplines such as science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences. Offering a vast collection of peer-reviewed content from renowned publishers, SpringerLink provides access to high-quality research articles, book chapters, and reference materials. Its user-friendly interface facilitates easy navigation and searchability, making it a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and students seeking in-depth academic literature and cutting-edge research in various fields.

VET-Bib serves as a specialized repository for veterinary science-related literature, catering to professionals, researchers, and students in the field. This platform offers a curated collection of academic journals, articles, and books specific to veterinary medicine, animal health, and related disciplines. VET-Bib facilitates access to a diverse range of scholarly resources, including research papers, clinical studies, textbooks, and reports, contributing significantly to advancements in veterinary sciences.

6. Academia.edu

Academia.edu is a social networking platform designed for academics to share and access scholarly papers, articles, and research. It allows researchers to create profiles, upload their work, and connect with peers worldwide, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange. Users can explore a wide range of academic disciplines, access papers, follow scholars, and track research interests. Academia.edu serves as a hub for disseminating research, accessing scholarly content, and networking within the academic community.

7. arXiv.org e-Print Archive

arXiv.org is a preprint repository primarily focused on physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. It hosts a vast collection of research papers, providing early access to cutting-edge findings before formal publication. Researchers worldwide contribute to arXiv, sharing their work and enabling the dissemination of crucial discoveries within these disciplines. Its open-access nature encourages collaboration, facilitates rapid dissemination of research, and serves as a vital resource for scholars and students alike.

8. Astrophysics Data System

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) stands as an authoritative digital library providing access to a wealth of literature in astrophysics, astronomy, and related sciences. ADS serves as a comprehensive platform offering academic journals, articles, conference proceedings, and data sets relevant to the field. Its sophisticated search tools enable researchers to explore astronomical literature, access preprints, and gather valuable resources for their scholarly inquiries.

9. Google Books

Google Books offers an extensive and diverse collection of digitized books, providing access to a wide range of academic literature across multiple disciplines. While not exclusively academic, Google Books encompasses a significant repository of scholarly works, allowing users to preview, purchase, or access full texts of books relevant to their research. Its search feature allows users to explore content, view excerpts, and locate academic publications, making it a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and students.

10. ProQuest

An extensive digital library offering access to a vast array of scholarly journals, articles, and books across multiple disciplines. ProQuest’s user-friendly platform facilitates research, providing comprehensive resources for academics, researchers, and students worldwide. With diverse content, including historical archives, current publications, and multimedia resources, it’s a go-to destination for in-depth exploration and reliable sources.

11. Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)

ERIC is a comprehensive platform offering an array of educational resources, research articles, and publications. It specializes in curating scholarly content related to education, spanning diverse topics from early childhood to higher education. ERIC acts as a centralized hub for educators, researchers, and policymakers, providing access to peer-reviewed articles, reports, and conference papers. With its extensive database, ERIC facilitates exploration and dissemination of knowledge, fostering advancements in educational practices and policies.

12. Microsoft Academic Search

Microsoft Academic Search is a dynamic platform dedicated to facilitating academic exploration and research discovery. Leveraging advanced algorithms and vast data sets, it offers a user-friendly interface to access scholarly articles, publications, and citations across various disciplines. This tool provides in-depth search functionalities, citation analysis, and semantic understanding, empowering researchers to navigate through a plethora of academic resources. Microsoft Academic Search encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovative scholarly pursuits by offering a robust platform for academic exploration.

13. Oxford Academic Journals Search

Oxford Academic Journals Search is a prestigious repository hosting a wide spectrum of scholarly articles and publications across multiple disciplines. Renowned for its high-quality content and authoritative contributions, it serves as a gateway to scholarly excellence. This platform offers access to esteemed journals published by Oxford University Press, encompassing diverse fields such as humanities, social sciences, science, and medicine. With its rigorous peer-review process and rich historical archive, Oxford Academic Journals Search fosters academic inquiry, knowledge dissemination, and intellectual discourse.

JSTOR is a revered digital library providing access to an extensive collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Catering to researchers, students, and scholars worldwide, JSTOR archives scholarly content across various disciplines, including arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Known for its archival depth and user-friendly interface, JSTOR grants access to a wealth of peer-reviewed articles, books, and research materials. Its comprehensive database and interdisciplinary approach facilitate scholarly research, critical analysis, and the exploration of historical and contemporary academic literature. JSTOR remains a vital resource for academic pursuits and intellectual discovery.

15. Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Behavioral and Brain Sciences is a prestigious academic journal that publishes target articles and commentary on significant and controversial topics in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and related fields. Recognized for its unique format, BBS publishes comprehensive articles accompanied by multiple commentaries from experts in the field, fostering in-depth discussions and debates on key issues. This journal serves as a platform for rigorous scientific discourse, shaping the direction of research and theory development in behavioral and brain sciences.

16. PubChem

Operated by the NCBI, PubChem stands as an extensive chemical database, offering insights into compound properties, structures, and biological activities. Its collection includes scientific articles, journals, and books relevant to chemistry, pharmacology, and life sciences. Researchers benefit from its comprehensive information on chemical compounds, aiding in drug discovery, bioinformatics, and chemical research.

PubMed serves as a comprehensive resource for accessing biomedical literature. With millions of articles from various fields like medicine, biology, and health sciences, it provides researchers, healthcare professionals, and students with a vast repository of peer-reviewed articles. Its user-friendly interface allows easy navigation through research articles, clinical studies, and reviews, making it an invaluable tool for staying updated on the latest advancements in healthcare and life sciences.

18. CiteSeerX

CiteSxeerX project is funded by the National Science Foundation, is a public integrated digital library, database, and search engine for scientific papers in chemistry. The goal of this project is to develop an intelligent search and database that provides easy access to relevant data for diverse community of users who need for chemical information.

19. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an academic search engine that utilizes artificial intelligence methods to provide highly relevant results for journal articles. It is designed to quickly highlight the most important papers and identify the connections between them. It currently includes on computer science and biomedical publications.

20. Web of Science

Web of Science is an online subscription-based scientific citation indexing service that provides a comprehensive citation search. It gives access to multiple databases that reference cross-disciplinary research allowing in-depth exploration of specialized sub-fields within an academic or scientific discipline.

21. Analytical Abstracts

Analytical Abstracts is a literature updating service that keeps researchers and students informed of the latest developments in analytical science. It includes details of the most relevant literature presented as individual records that are easily searchable by analyte, matrix, technique and subject area.

22. Merck Index

The Merck Index is a revered compendium of chemical compounds, providing in-depth information on their properties, structures, and uses. Widely used by chemists, researchers, and students, it offers a wealth of data on chemicals, drugs, and biological substances. With over 11,000 monographs featuring precise details, including synthesis pathways and safety information, it remains an indispensable reference for understanding and researching chemical compounds and their applications.

23. MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus is an online information service created by the United States National Library of Medicine. The service provides curated consumer health information and brings together information from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations.

24. Agricola

Agricola is a bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library. The database indexes a wide variety of publications covering agriculture and its allied fields, including, animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture, fisheries, and many more.

25. AGRIS: Agricultural Database

AGRIS is a global public domain database with more than 8 million structured bibliographical records on agricultural science and technology. The AGRIS Search system allows scientists, researchers to perform sophisticated searches using keywords, journal titles or names of countries, institutions, and authors.

26. WorldCat

WorldCat stands as a vast catalog of library collections worldwide, encompassing books, journals, multimedia materials, and more. It facilitates access to resources held in numerous libraries globally, allowing users to locate and borrow items beyond their local collection. Its extensive database aids researchers, scholars, and enthusiasts in discovering a broad range of academic resources, fostering collaborative research and access to diverse perspectives across various subjects and disciplines.

27. IOPscience

IOPscience serves as a leading platform for accessing scientific content in physics, engineering, and related disciplines. Hosting journals, conference proceedings, and magazines published by the Institute of Physics, it offers a trove of high-quality research articles, reviews, and cutting-edge studies. Researchers and academics benefit from its authoritative content, advanced search features, and access to vital information shaping the forefront of scientific exploration and technological advancements.

28. PLOS ONE

PLOS ONE stands as an open-access, peer-reviewed journal publishing multidisciplinary scientific research. It houses a vast repository of articles across various scientific disciplines, fostering accessibility and collaboration within the academic community. Known for its rigorous review process and commitment to transparency, PLOS ONE promotes diverse research findings and encourages innovation in scientific exploration.

A comprehensive abstract and citation database catering to scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences. Scopus offers access to an extensive collection of peer-reviewed literature, providing researchers and institutions with powerful tools for tracking, analyzing, and visualizing research trends and data. Its vast coverage and analytical features make it a vital resource in the academic community.

30. Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database

The Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database provides extensive coverage of advanced technology literature. It features over 26 million A&I records and more than 250 full-text titles that date back to 1962. Its topics cover aeronautics, communications, computer and IT, electronics, lasers, space sciences, telecommunications and many more.

31. Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals (AULIMP)

AULIMP specializes in curating military-centric literature, indexing journals, periodicals, and articles vital to military studies and defense. Catering to scholars, military personnel, and historians, it provides a wealth of resources covering military history, strategy, technology, and policy analysis, aiding in comprehensive research within the defense domain.

32. ACM Digital Library

Geared towards computing professionals, the ACM Digital Library hosts an extensive collection of journals, conference proceedings, and books in computer science and related fields. It offers a rich repository of cutting-edge research, enabling access to pivotal works and fostering innovation and advancement in the realm of technology and computing.

33. Project MUSE

Project MUSE offers a comprehensive digital collection of scholarly journals and books in humanities and social sciences. Recognized for its extensive coverage and user-friendly interface, it provides access to high-quality content from reputable publishers and institutions worldwide. With a focus on academic excellence, Project MUSE supports research, learning, and intellectual discovery.

34. Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory

Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory serves as an authoritative resource for information on academic journals, magazines, and other periodicals. It offers detailed bibliographic data, including publication details, peer-review status, and indexing information. Widely used by researchers, librarians, and institutions, Ulrich’s facilitates the identification and evaluation of publications, aiding in academic research and scholarly communication.

35. OAIster Database

OAIster functions as a global aggregator, collating digital resources from diverse libraries worldwide. With access to academic content spanning journals, theses, and books sourced from various repositories and institutions, it provides a comprehensive search platform across disciplines, aiding researchers in accessing a wide array of scholarly materials.

36. Beilstein Database

A renowned resource in organic chemistry, Beilstein Database aggregates exhaustive data on organic compounds, providing critical information on their properties, reactions, and synthesis methods. Researchers access a plethora of peer-reviewed articles, journals, and books, empowering scientific exploration and innovation in chemical research and development.

37. Mendeley

Mendeley, a reference manager and academic social network, empowers researchers to organize, annotate, and collaborate on research papers and articles. Its user-friendly platform enables citation management, document sharing, and networking among scholars globally. With integrated features for discovery and collaboration, Mendeley streamlines the research process and supports scholarly communication.

38. Chinese Social Science Citation Index

Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) is an interdisciplinary citation index program in China. This citation database covers more than 500 Chinese academic journals of humanities and social sciences. Many Chinese universities and institutes use CSSCI as a basis for the evaluation of academic achievements and promotion.

39. Library of Congress

The Library of Congress offers an extensive collection of academic journals, articles, and books spanning diverse disciplines. As the largest library in the world, it provides access to unparalleled resources, including historical manuscripts, government publications, and research materials. With a vast digital repository, users can delve into scholarly literature, research papers, and educational resources, making it an indispensable hub for academic pursuits.

40. CiNii Articles

As a comprehensive Japanese academic database, CiNii Articles houses a diverse collection of scholarly articles, theses, and research papers spanning multiple disciplines. Drawing from Japanese academic institutions, it facilitates cross-disciplinary research, serving as a valuable resource for global knowledge dissemination.

41. PsycINFO

PsycINFO, curated by the American Psychological Association (APA), is a comprehensive database encompassing literature in psychology and related disciplines. It indexes scholarly journals, books, conference proceedings, and other resources, providing access to psychological research, behavioral sciences, and mental health literature. With its extensive coverage of peer-reviewed content, PsycINFO aids researchers, psychologists, educators, and students in accessing credible and relevant information, enabling informed analysis and understanding within the realm of psychology and associated fields.

42. Tisch Library – Journals and Articles

Tisch Library serves as a central academic resource hub at Tufts University, providing access to a vast collection of scholarly materials, including books, journals, databases, and multimedia resources. With expert librarians offering guidance and support, Tisch Library facilitates research and learning, offering access to diverse information sources and fostering a conducive environment for academic exploration.

43. OpenEdition.org

OpenEdition.org is a digital publishing platform dedicated to the humanities and social sciences. Hosting journals, books, and research content, it promotes open access to scholarly resources, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge dissemination. With a commitment to free access and innovative publishing models, OpenEdition.org facilitates academic exchange and contributes to the democratization of knowledge.

44. Digital Library Of The Commons Repository (DLC)

DLC is a comprehensive resource housing academic works on the commons, including scholarly articles, theses, and research papers. It curates a vast collection focused on topics like environmental studies, economics, and social sciences. Users access a wealth of resources supporting interdisciplinary research on communal resources, governance, and sustainability.

45. Arts & Humanities Citation Index

The Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a citation index, with abstracting and indexing for more than 1,700 arts and humanities journals, and coverage of disciplines that includes social and natural science journals. Its subjects cover arts, humanities, language, poetry, music, classical works, history, philosophy, architecture, religion, and many more.

46. Science Citation Index

An esteemed bibliographic database, Science Citation Index, meticulously indexes scientific literature across various disciplines. It enables researchers to navigate and explore scholarly articles based on citation connections, facilitating robust literature reviews and comprehensive insights into academic trends and advancements.

47. EurekaMag Biomedical Library

Focused on the biomedical field, EurekaMag offers an extensive repository of research articles, journals, and publications. Specializing in biological and medical sciences, this library provides a wealth of knowledge for professionals, researchers, and students. Its curated collection spans diverse subfields, offering valuable insights and updates within the biomedical domain.

48. CERN Document Server (CDS)

The CERN Document Server is the institutional repository that provides acquisition, search and collaborative tools to manage collections of documents produced at CERN. This includes HEP documents, multimedia documents, bulletins, administrative documents, EU project documents and many more.

49. Open Library

Open Library stands as a digital repository, granting free access to an impressive array of academic journals, articles, and books. Its open-source platform enables users to explore a wide spectrum of scholarly content, fostering global access to educational resources. With a user-friendly interface, it supports research endeavors by offering a comprehensive collection of materials, ranging from classic literature to contemporary academic publications.

50. Ei Compendex

A pivotal resource for engineers, Ei Compendex boasts an extensive engineering database comprising journals, conference proceedings, and articles. Covering a wide array of engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering, it serves as a gateway to cutting-edge research and advancements in the field.

Embase stands as a pivotal repository for biomedical research, housing a wide array of peer-reviewed journals, conference abstracts, and articles. Specializing in pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine, it aids medical professionals and researchers in accessing crucial information for evidence-based practice and scientific exploration.

52. IEEE Xplore

A paramount platform for engineering and technology, IEEE Xplore is a treasure trove of research papers, conference proceedings, and technical articles. It hosts a plethora of resources spanning electrical engineering, computer science, and related fields, fostering innovation and knowledge dissemination among professionals and academia.

53. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN serves as a leading platform for social sciences, offering a vast repository of preprints, working papers, and published articles. Embracing disciplines like economics, law, and humanities, SSRN facilitates scholarly collaboration and dissemination, fostering discussions and advancements in social science research.

54. The World Factbook – CIA

The World Factbook offers information on the people, history, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. It provides maps of the major world regions, flags of the World, political maps of the World, world oceans map as well as standard time zones of the world map.

55. Europe PMC

A comprehensive platform for accessing biomedical literature, Europe PMC hosts a vast repository of academic journals, articles, and books. It offers a user-friendly interface, allowing researchers to explore a wealth of scientific content, including full-text articles, abstracts, and research papers across various disciplines within the life sciences. With powerful search capabilities and access to funding information, Europe PMC facilitates efficient navigation through a diverse collection, supporting scholars, scientists, and healthcare professionals in their quest for credible and relevant academic resources.

56. National Diet Library

Serving as Japan’s national library, the National Diet Library provides a rich assortment of academic journals, articles, and books, reflecting the country’s cultural and scholarly heritage. It encompasses an extensive collection of publications, archives, and digital resources, catering not only to researchers and scholars but also to the general public. With its emphasis on Japanese history, culture, and scholarly works, the library offers a valuable repository, fostering academic exploration and knowledge dissemination on a national scale.

57. DBLP Computer Science Bibliography

Renowned in the field of computer science, DBLP stands as a comprehensive bibliographic database, meticulously curating academic journals, articles, and books within the realm of computing. Its meticulous indexing covers a wide array of topics, including algorithms, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. Researchers benefit from its organized and structured platform, facilitating easy access to authoritative publications, conference proceedings, and scholarly contributions, making it an indispensable resource for the computer science community worldwide.

58. National Archives Catalog

As a treasure trove of historical records and government documents, the National Archives Catalog preserves the rich tapestry of the United States’ history. It serves as a gateway to a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books, encompassing an extensive range of topics spanning politics, culture, and society. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive search functionalities, researchers, historians, and the public can delve into primary sources, manuscripts, and official records, unraveling the nation’s past and shaping contemporary understanding.

59. University of Guelph Library

The University of Guelph Library stands as a comprehensive repository, offering an extensive collection of books, journals, and articles across diverse disciplines. It caters to the research and academic needs of students, faculty, and scholars, fostering a conducive environment for learning, exploration, and scholarly pursuits.

60. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

CAS is an online source of chemical information that provides many tools such as SciFinder and tagged keywords, summaries, indexes of disclosures and structures of compounds in recently published scientific documents. CAS has over 8,000 journals, technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings available in different languages.

61. Scientific Information Database (SID)

SID serves as an Iranian digital repository housing scholarly journals, articles, and theses across various domains. It plays a pivotal role in disseminating scientific knowledge, enabling research collaboration and providing access to valuable academic content within Iran and globally, fostering innovation and academic growth.

A leading aggregator of open-access research content, CORE collates millions of academic journals, articles, and books from various repositories and repositories globally. It offers a centralized platform, facilitating seamless access to diverse scholarly publications across multiple disciplines. Emphasizing open access, CORE champions unrestricted availability to research literature, providing researchers and students with a valuable resource for discovering scholarly works, enhancing academic exploration, and fostering collaboration. With its expansive collection and user-friendly interface, CORE stands as an essential tool for accessing credible and diverse academic resources.

63. Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)

RePEc is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers to enhance the dissemination of research in economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components, all maintained by volunteers.

64. Book Review Index Online

Offering a comprehensive collection of book reviews, this platform serves as a valuable resource for scholars and book enthusiasts. Users gain access to extensive critiques spanning various genres and subjects, aiding in informed decision-making for academic pursuits or leisure reading. Its indexed reviews enable efficient searches and critical assessments, providing a nuanced understanding of literary works and their scholarly reception.

65. IngentaConnect

IngentaConnect provides online articles from over 30000 publications. Abstracts are free; full text is available by subscription or pay-per-view. The site is ideal for publishers looking to put their content online for the first time and increase the global visibility of their publications.

66. ASCE Library

ASCE Library is an online civil engineering database that provides the contents of peer-reviewed journals, proceedings, e-books, and standards published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It offers free access to abstracts of academic journal articles, proceedings papers, e-books, standards, etc.

67. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Renowned for its pivotal role in economic research, NBER is a hub for high-quality academic papers and data-driven analysis. Catering to economists and policymakers, it disseminates groundbreaking research on diverse economic facets. The site offers access to a wealth of working papers, economic indicators, and conferences, fostering collaboration and innovation in the field.

Tailored for researchers in science and engineering, Inspec is an indispensable database hosting a vast collection of peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, and patents. Its meticulously curated content covers an array of disciplines, providing in-depth insights and cutting-edge information crucial for technological advancements and academic pursuits.

69. INSPIRE-HEP

INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics. In addition to scientific papers, It provides other information like citation metrics, plots extracted from papers or internal experiment notes and tools for users to improve metadata.

70. MathSciNet Mathematical Reviews

MathSciNet is a fully searchable database with many tools designed to help navigate the mathematical sciences literature. It serves researchers and scholars in the mathematical sciences by providing peer-reviewed articles and books.

71. African Journals Online (AJOL)

AJOL is the world’s largest online library of peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals. With AJOL, you can browse peer-reviewed journals from Africa and download full text articles. Articles can be searched by title, authors or keywords.

72. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

A champion of open access, DOAJ serves as a goldmine for scholarly literature, housing a wide spectrum of peer-reviewed journals across disciplines. By promoting unrestricted access to quality research, it empowers academics worldwide. Its stringent criteria ensure credibility, fostering transparency and democratizing knowledge dissemination.

73. JournalTOCs

Aiming to streamline academic research, JournalTOCs aggregates tables of contents from thousands of scholarly journals. This platform facilitates swift access to the latest articles, aiding researchers in staying updated within their areas of interest. Its user-friendly interface and customizable alerts enable efficient navigation through a plethora of scholarly content, optimizing the research process.

74. AcademicJournals.org

AcademicJournals.org is a broad-based open access publisher. It provides free access to research information to the international community without financial, legal or technical barriers. All the journals from this organization will be freely distributed and available from multiple websites.

75. Library Genesis (LibGen)

A controversial yet immensely popular platform, LibGen hosts an extensive catalog of academic texts, journals, and books. Known for its extensive collection and accessibility, LibGen is a resource for individuals seeking academic materials that might not be readily available through traditional channels. It has gained traction as a resource for users worldwide due to its broad range of content.

76. PhilPapers.org

PhilPapers.org is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. It’s an online source of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, open access archives, and personal pages maintained by academics.

77. SciELO.org

SciELO hosts a vast collection of academic journals primarily from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and other Ibero-American regions. It’s a rich resource for accessing scholarly articles in various disciplines, offering open access to high-quality research, fostering knowledge sharing, and promoting regional academic excellence.

78. EBSCO Information Services

EBSCO is a comprehensive platform providing access to a wide array of scholarly journals, articles, and books across multiple disciplines. With its user-friendly interface and robust search capabilities, it’s a go-to resource for researchers, libraries, and institutions globally, offering diverse content and valuable research tools.

79. Econlit

EconLit, a premier resource for economics research, curates a comprehensive database of scholarly journals, articles, and books in the field. Tailored for economists, researchers, and students, it encompasses a vast array of economic literature, including peer-reviewed articles, working papers, and conference proceedings. Its specialized focus ensures in-depth coverage of economic theories, trends, and analyses, serving as an indispensable tool for those immersed in economic studies and research.

80. State Legislative Websites Directory

This online database contains information gleaned from the websites of the 50 state legislatures, the District of Columbia and the territories. You can select to view specific website content materials such as, bills, press rooms, statutes from any states.

81. Information Bridge: Department of Energy Scientific and Technical Information

The Information Bridge serves as a hub for the Department of Energy’s vast scientific and technical knowledge repository. It houses a comprehensive collection of academic journals, articles, and books, focusing on energy-related research. Researchers and academics access cutting-edge information on various energy disciplines, from renewable energy to nuclear physics, aiding in scholarly pursuits and industry advancements.

82. BioOne Complete

BioOne Complete is a specialized database catering to the life sciences, environmental studies, and related fields. It curates a collection of high-impact scholarly journals and research articles, facilitating access to cutting-edge biological research and ecological studies.

83. Civil Engineering Database

CEDB is a free bibliographic database for all ASCE publications including journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newspapers on all the disciplines of civil engineering. The coverage dates back to 1872.

84. LessonPlanet

LessonPlanet serves educators by offering a vast repository of lesson plans, teaching resources, and educational materials. It’s an invaluable tool for teachers, providing curated content to enhance classroom instruction and streamline lesson planning across various subjects and grade levels.

85. CiteULike

CiteULike is a free online service that allows users to save and share citations to academic papers. Based on the principle of social bookmarking, the site works to promote and to develop the sharing of scientific references amongst researchers.

86. Science.gov

Science.gov acts as a centralized gateway to authoritative scientific information sourced from multiple U.S. government agencies. It aggregates a wide spectrum of academic journals, articles, and books across scientific domains. This resource facilitates comprehensive searches, empowering researchers with reliable scientific data and publications crucial for academic research and evidence-based decision-making.

87. Cochrane Library

Cochrane Library is renowned for its systematic reviews and evidence-based healthcare research. It’s a crucial resource for medical professionals and researchers, offering comprehensive reviews that inform healthcare decisions and practices worldwide.

88. CAB Abstracts – CABI

CAB Abstracts is an English-language bibliographic information online service that provides access to the world’s applied life sciences literature. It comes with CABI Full Text, giving users automatic access to over 410,000 journal articles, conference papers and reports.

Zenodo is an open-access repository for scientific research data, enabling researchers to store, share, and explore datasets across disciplines. It promotes collaboration, transparency, and accessibility in scientific research, fostering innovation and knowledge exchange within the global research community.

90. Archives Hub

Archives Hub serves as a gateway to historical archives in the UK, offering access to a wealth of primary sources. It consolidates descriptions of archives held in various institutions, facilitating academic research. Through detailed records, researchers explore diverse topics spanning arts, humanities, and social sciences. The platform enables users to locate specific materials, aiding in comprehensive and in-depth investigations. Archives Hub stands as a vital resource for scholars delving into historical records, fostering a deeper understanding of past events and societal evolution.

91. OpenStax

Dedicated to advancing access to education, OpenStax offers free, peer-reviewed, and openly licensed textbooks. As an initiative aiming to alleviate the financial burden of education, OpenStax provides quality academic resources across various subjects. With a mission to make learning more accessible, it supports educators and learners globally by offering high-quality educational materials at no cost.

92. Bioline Internationl

Bioline International stands as a prominent platform offering open-access scholarly resources in the life sciences. Hosting a vast repository of peer-reviewed journals from developing countries, it promotes global access to valuable research. With a focus on biodiversity, environment, and healthcare, Bioline International facilitates the dissemination of cutting-edge scientific knowledge. Its diverse collection empowers researchers, students, and practitioners worldwide, fostering collaboration and advancing scientific discovery in crucial fields.

93. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience serves as a global platform, aggregating scientific content from various countries and international organizations. It offers access to an extensive repository of academic journals, articles, and books, transcending geographical barriers. Researchers benefit from diverse perspectives and a wealth of information, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange on an international scale.

94. Dimensions.ai

Dimensions.ai is an innovative research platform revolutionizing academic exploration. It integrates a vast array of scholarly resources, including articles, datasets, grants, and patents, offering a comprehensive view of research landscapes. Using sophisticated analytics and visualization tools, it assists researchers in uncovering connections, trends, and emerging areas of study. Dimensions.ai facilitates efficient literature searches, empowering scholars to navigate the expansive realm of academia and make informed contributions to their fields.

95. Ethnologue

Ethnologue is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It contains information on over 7000 languages including the number of speakers, locations, dialects, linguistic affiliations, autonyms, etc.

96. Taylor & Francis Online

Taylor & Francis Online hosts a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books across various disciplines. With a user-friendly interface, it offers extensive resources in fields like science, humanities, social sciences, and more. Researchers benefit from comprehensive search tools, robust citation metrics, and access to cutting-edge research.

97. Zentralblatt MATH

Zentralblatt MATH serves as a comprehensive database for mathematical literature, covering a broad spectrum of mathematical research. With its extensive collection of abstracts and reviews, it provides valuable insights into mathematical publications worldwide. Researchers benefit from its indexing of mathematical articles, enabling efficient access to critical information, fostering collaboration, and supporting advancements in the field of mathematics.

98. PubMed Central

PubMed Central, a free digital repository, is a treasure trove of biomedical and life sciences literature. Hosting a vast archive of peer-reviewed articles, PubMed Central is a go-to platform for researchers, healthcare professionals, and students. Its comprehensive database encompasses a myriad of topics, facilitating easy access to authoritative information and fostering advancements in healthcare and life sciences.

99. EconBiz

EconBiz stands as a crucial resource for economists and social scientists, offering access to economic literature, research, and information. It aggregates a diverse range of publications, including articles, working papers, and research papers, facilitating comprehensive research in economics and related disciplines. EconBiz empowers users with efficient search functionalities, access to full-text documents, and information on events and job opportunities, fostering a vibrant academic community in the field of economics.

100. RefSeek – Academic Search Engine

RefSeek is a powerful academic search engine that scours the internet for scholarly resources. It indexes millions of documents, including articles, books, encyclopedias, and journals, ensuring a wide breadth of sources for researchers. With its user-friendly interface and advanced search capabilities, RefSeek streamlines the process of locating credible and authoritative information across various disciplines. It prioritizes academic content, making it an indispensable tool for students, scholars, and educators in their quest for reliable and relevant research materials.

101. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

BASE functions as a robust academic search engine, scouring the web for scholarly resources, including journals, articles, and books. It indexes content from various repositories, providing a user-friendly interface for researchers worldwide. With a focus on open access materials, BASE enhances accessibility to academic literature, supporting scholarly investigations across multiple disciplines.

102. JournalSeek

JournalSeek operates as a comprehensive database for academic journals, offering easy access to scholarly publications. It catalogs journals from diverse disciplines, allowing users to discover relevant articles and research papers. Researchers benefit from a user-friendly interface, streamlined search capabilities, and detailed journal information, facilitating efficient academic exploration and literature reviews.

Click here for more academic databases and search engines .

Remember, while these platforms offer valuable resources, access to some content may require institutional subscriptions or payment. Additionally, it’s essential to verify the credibility and peer-reviewed status of the sources before citing them in academic work.

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Articles & Advice > College Admission > Articles

Top 8 College Search Resources Students Need to Know About

These websites are great resources for students during the college search (when you're done browsing CollegeXpress, of course!)

by Shivani Ekkanath CollegeXpress Student Writer

Last Updated: Apr 3, 2023

Originally Posted: Aug 10, 2017

The last year of high school is often one of apprehension, stress, and even consternation. Seniors need every trick in the book to help them get through this trying time. After writing for CollegeXpress for the past several months, I have come to realize that online search tools and articles, features, and blog posts centered around the college experience can be a great helping hand for prospective college students. Reading about study tips, preparing résumés, and conducting comprehensive college research has really helped me form a much clearer and more concrete plan.

Online resources like college-related blogs can go a long way in helping high school students plan, organize, and prioritize their work. It really helps you have a more optimistic outlook toward the whole journey, as it can do wonders in dispelling tension and unease by keeping you informed and helping you make the best decisions. The first step to beginning your college search is to have the best resources possible with the most reliable and updated information.

Sometimes listening to stories carried down by word of mouth or your peers can divert you away from your path, as it may not always be the most reliable source of information. The following are a few online college websites and blogs are quite interesting and can be excellent resources for college-bound students. We all love CollegeXpress, of course, but here are a few resources that you may not be too familiar with as of yet.

College Navigator

After consulting the QS World University Rankings for your chosen subject of interest, these are some of the perfect websites to peruse, especially if you want to learn more about your options and choices for college courses. College Navigator contains a very vast database of many universities offering reputed courses in different fields of study. All you have to do is look up the relevant institutions that fit your chosen course, and begin having your pick of the best!

The College Solution

Run by recognized college expert and educator Lynn O’ Shaughnessy, this highly informative blog is structurally divided into six components: admissions, academics, college life, colleges, money, and research. I found The College Solution is one of the most popular blogs out there for college-bound students. It particularly covers aspects regarding financial aid, loans, and budgets, offering a lot of advice that could help you choose the college that is most suited to your financial resources.

YouTube channels

We all love YouTube , and most of us can spend hours watching videos. Granted these aren’t exactly college blogs, but there are many YouTubers and vloggers out there who make really great content about university life, studying abroad, college extracurricular activities, handling stress, and picking the right school . For instance, I learned about the Pomodoro Effect for time management and productivity through a YouTube channel called Med School Insiders.

Even though many videos are aimed at students who are already at university in specific fields of study, high school students can also find ones to preview university life, learn study tips, and more. A few good YouTube channels I recommend are Thomas Frank, Med School Insiders, Scarlett Turner, Katherout, and Katherine Berry.

Related: Check out our YouTube channel

Even though this is not strictly a resource dedicated to college, Forbes covers a variety of feature articles that explore the college search and application process. Forbes is a highly reputed magazine and is considered to be one of the best out there. I have been recommended many Forbes articles in the past that showcase expectations from colleges and college rankings, as well as advice from professionals regarding interviews, entrance exams, and student life. Forbes also sheds light on the changing spectrum and progression of undergraduate education and how students can prepare for what is to come. It is really easy to subscribe to Forbes or read their articles online.

The Washington Post

Like Forbes , even though The Washington Post is not specifically dedicated to college, it offers a lot of insight into college education in the US, including many articles about the college enrollment and admission process, plus a lot of content coverage and statistics about major universities. Some of the articles are very interesting and offer a different perspective into undergraduate education all over the world. Even though you may need a subscription, I feel that it’s totally worth it!

Money is often one of the biggest aspects of our ultimate university decisions. NerdWallet is probably one of the most ideal resources out there for those who are concerned about money and your college budget (who isn’t?!). There is a particularly good focus on student loans on this website. NerdWallet specifically gives prospective students a lot of information regarding the financial aspects of a college education and the best decisions to make accordingly.

The College Board

The College Board is a great online resource, as it gives students ample amounts of information regarding the SAT, ACT , and AP exams. They give you a lot of information about the scores required for specific courses as well and offer students valuable feedback and progress reports after they attempt practice tests. There are also excellent resources here for students who want to pursue competitive courses after graduating from high school.

The Princeton Review

This is probably the easiest way to get all of the information and answers to your burning queries in one place. Even though The Princeton Review has absolutely no connection with Princeton University , it has a comprehensive log of relevant articles that can help with college research Like the College Board, The Princeton Review also heavily focuses on preparation for standardized tests, like the SAT, SAT Subjects Tests, GED, PSAT, TOEFL, and ACT, plus other aspects of college readiness.

Related: Your Simple Guide to Junior and Senior Year Admission Planning

You should always remember that preparing and finally going to college is one of the most essential journeys you will ever take, so it’s important to have all the information you need to get the entire picture. College search resources like these can help you stay in control of your own research. So let’s make use of all the resources we have at our disposal to make informed and smart decisions about our futures!

Get started on your college research with t he College Search tool right here on CX!

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I used CollegeXpress to search for colleges. It helped me narrow down the schools on the West Coast and which schools had Construction Engineering programs. I made my decision to go to OSU and I am so excited about it.

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CollegeXpress helped me a lot. I am a Tanzania boy who finished my high school studies in Tanzania. I never knew I could get an opportunity to get a scholarship to study abroad. I am happy that now I know how to find the school to study abroad through CollegeXpress.

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CollegeXpress helped me find Allegheny College with the super-user-friendly search tool for both schools and scholarships. Using CollegeXpress, I was able to search for programs I was interested in studying and find colleges that offered those programs. Also, once you search for the college, CollegeXpress can get you connected!

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Awesome Articles for Students: Websites and Other Resources

All of these sites are free.

In today’s digital world, we seem to be surrounded by news. Clickbait, anyone? Yet the pervasive and often intrusive nature of internet news articles belies the fact that many of these sites are behind a paywall, biased, or feature low-quality reporting.

Still, online articles are a great starting point for all kinds of learning assignments across the curriculum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best free article websites for students. Many of these sites offer not only high-quality topical articles on every subject, but also ideas for lessons, such as questions, quizzes, and discussion prompts.

Student Article Websites

                  Get the latest edtech news delivered to your inbox here:

CommonLit With thousands of high-quality, Common Core-aligned reading passages for grades 3-12, this easy-to-use literacy site is a rich source of English and Spanish texts and lessons. Search by theme, grade, Lexile score, genre, and even literary devices such as alliteration or foreshadowing. Texts are accompanied by teacher guides, paired texts activities, and assessments. Teachers can share lessons and track student progress with a free account. 

DOGOnews News articles featuring current events, science, social studies, world events, civics, environment, sports, weird/fun news, and more. Free access to all articles. Premium accounts offer extras such as simplified and audio versions, quizzes, and critical thinking challenges. 

CNN10 Replacing the popular CNN Student News, CNN 10 provides 10-minute video news stories on current events of international importance, explaining how the event fits into the broader news narrative. 

KiwiKids News Created by a New Zealand primary school educator, Kiwi Kids News features free articles about health, science, politics (including U.S. political topics), animals, and the Olympics. Kids will love the “Odd Stuff” articles, which focus on unusual news, from the world’s biggest potato to centenarian athletes. 

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PBS NewsHour Daily News Lessons Daily articles covering current events in video format. Each lesson includes a full transcript, fact list, summary, and focus questions. 

NYT Daily Lessons/Article of the Day The New York Times Daily Lessons builds a classroom lesson around a new article each day, offering thoughtful questions for writing and discussion, as well as related ideas for further study. Perfect for practicing critical thinking and literacy skills for middle and high school students, it’s a part of the larger NYT Learning Network , which provides an abundance of activities for students and resources for teachers.

The Learning Network Current event articles, student opinion essays, movie reviews, students review contests, and more. The educator resource section offers top-notch teaching and professional development resources. 

News For Kids With the motto “Real News, Told Simply,” News for Kids strives to present the latest topics in U.S. and world news, science, sports, and the arts in a way that’s accessible to most readers. Features a coronavirus update page .

ReadWorks A fully free research-based platform, Readworks provides thousands of nonfiction and fiction passages searchable by topic, activity type, grade, and Lexile level. Educator guides cover differentiation, hybrid and remote learning, and free professional development. Great resource for teachers.

Science News for Students Winner of multiple awards for journalism, Science News for Students publishes original science, technology, and health features for readers ages 9-14. Stories are accompanied by citations, recommended readings, glossaries, readability scores, and classroom extras. Be sure to check out Top 10 tips to stay safe during an epidemic . 

Teaching Kids News A terrific site that publishes readable and teachable articles on news, art, science, politics, and more for students grades 2-8. Bonus: The Fake News resource section links to online games about fake news and images. A must for any digital citizen.

Smithsonian Tween Tribune An excellent resource for articles on a wide range of topics, including animals, national/world news, sports, science, and much more. Searchable by topic, grade, and Lexile reading score. Lesson plans offer great ideas for the classroom and simple, usable frameworks for implementing these in any grade. 

Wonderopolis Have you ever wondered if llamas really spit or if animals like art? Every day, the award-winning Wonderopolis posts a new standard-based article exploring intriguing questions such as these. Students may submit their own questions and vote for their favorites. Be sure to check out “Wonders with Charlie,” featuring acclaimed writer, producer, and director Charlie Engelman.

Youngzine A unique news site for young people that focuses on climate science, solutions, and policies to address the myriad effects of global warming. Kids have an opportunity to express their views and literary creativity by submitting poetry or essays. 

Scholastic Kids Press A multinational group of young journalists ages 10-14 report the latest news and fascinating stories about the natural world. Features sections dedicated to coronavirus and civics.

National Geographic Kids A fine library of articles about animals, history, science, space, and—of course—geography. Students will enjoy the “Weird But True” short videos, featuring fun animations about oddball topics.  

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The MLA Handbook highlights principles over prescriptive practices. Essentially, a writer will need to take note of primary elements in every source, such as author, title, etc. and then assort them in a general format. Thus, by using this methodology, a writer will be able to cite any source regardless of whether it’s included in this list.

However, this guide will highlight a few concerns when citing digital sources in MLA style.

Best Practices for Managing Online Sources

Because online information can change or disappear, it is always a good idea to keep personal copies of important electronic information whenever possible. Downloading or even printing key documents ensures you have a stable backup. You can also use the Bookmark function in your web browser in order to build an easy-to-access reference for all of your project's sources (though this will not help you if the information is changed or deleted).

It is also wise to keep a record of when you first consult with each online source. MLA uses the phrase, “Accessed” to denote which date you accessed the web page when available or necessary. It is not required to do so, but it is encouraged (especially when there is no copyright date listed on a website).

Important Note on the Use of URLs in MLA

Include a URL or web address to help readers locate your sources. Because web addresses are not static (i.e., they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the web (e.g., on multiple databases), MLA encourages the use of citing containers such as Youtube, JSTOR, Spotify, or Netflix in order to easily access and verify sources. However, MLA only requires the www. address, so eliminate all https:// when citing URLs.

Many scholarly journal articles found in databases include a DOI (digital object identifier). If a DOI is available, cite the DOI number instead of the URL.

Online newspapers and magazines sometimes include a “permalink,” which is a shortened, stable version of a URL. Look for a “share” or “cite this” button to see if a source includes a permalink. If you can find a permalink, use that instead of a URL.

Abbreviations Commonly Used with Electronic Sources

If page numbers are not available, use par. or pars. to denote paragraph numbers. Use these in place of the p. or pp. abbreviation. Par. would be used for a single paragraph, while pars. would be used for a span of two or more paragraphs.

Basic Style for Citations of Electronic Sources (Including Online Databases)

Here are some common features you should try to find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not every web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as much of the following information as possible:

• Author and/or editor names (if available); last names first.
• "Article name in quotation marks."
• Title of the website, project, or book in italics.
• Any version numbers available, including editions (ed.), revisions, posting dates, volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
• Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
• Take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.).
• DOI (if available, precede it with "https://doi.org/"), otherwise a URL (without the https://) or permalink.
• Date you accessed the material (Date Accessed). While not required, saving this information it is highly recommended, especially when dealing with pages that change frequently or do not have a visible copyright date.

Use the following format:

Author. "Title." Title of container (self contained if book) , Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2 nd container’s title , Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

Citing an Entire Web Site

When citing an entire website, follow the same format as listed above, but include a compiler name if no single author is available.

Author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number (if available), Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), DOI (preferred), otherwise include a URL or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site . Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl. Accessed 23 Apr. 2008.

Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory . Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/. Accessed 10 May 2006.

Course or Department Websites

Give the instructor name. Then list the title of the course (or the school catalog designation for the course) in italics. Give appropriate department and school names as well, following the course title.

Felluga, Dino. Survey of the Literature of England . Purdue U, Aug. 2006, web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/241/241/Home.html. Accessed 31 May 2007.

English Department . Purdue U, 20 Apr. 2009, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/. Accessed 31 May 2015.

A Page on a Web Site

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author or alias if known, followed by an indication of the specific page or article being referenced. Usually, the title of the page or article appears in a header at the top of the page. Follow this with the information covered above for entire Web sites. If the publisher is the same as the website name, only list it once.

Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.”  eHow , www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.

“ Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview. ”   WebMD , 25 Sept. 2014, www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-topic-overview.

Citations for e-books closely resemble those for physical books. Simply indicate that the book in question is an e-book by putting the term "e-book" in the "version" slot of the MLA template (i.e., after the author, the title of the source, the title of the container, and the names of any other contributors).

Silva, Paul J.  How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. E-book, American Psychological Association, 2007.

If the e-book is formatted for a specific reader device or service, you can indicate this by treating this information the same way you would treat a physical book's edition number. Often, this will mean replacing "e-book" with "[App/Service] ed."

Machiavelli, Niccolo.  The Prince , translated by W. K. Marriott, Kindle ed., Library of Alexandria, 2018.

Note:  The MLA considers the term "e-book" to refer to publications formatted specifically for reading with an e-book reader device (e.g., a Kindle) or a corresponding web application. These e-books will not have URLs or DOIs. If you are citing book content from an ordinary webpage with a URL, use the "A Page on a Web Site" format above.

An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)

Provide the artist's name, the work of art italicized, the date of creation, the institution and city where the work is housed. Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics, and the date of access.

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV . 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado , www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74. Accessed 22 May 2006.

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine . 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive , www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

If the work cited is available on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author.

Adams, Clifton R. “People Relax Beside a Swimming Pool at a Country Estate Near Phoenix, Arizona, 1928.” Found, National Geographic Creative, 2 June 2016, natgeofound.tumblr.com/.

An Article in a Web Magazine

Provide the author name, article name in quotation marks, title of the web magazine in italics, publisher name, publication date, URL, and the date of access.

Bernstein, Mark. “ 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web. ”   A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites , 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

For all online scholarly journals, provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of publication. Include a DOI if available, otherwise provide a URL or permalink to help readers locate the source.

Article in an Online-only Scholarly Journal

MLA requires a page range for articles that appear in Scholarly Journals. If the journal you are citing appears exclusively in an online format (i.e. there is no corresponding print publication) that does not make use of page numbers, indicate the URL or other location information.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Article in an Online Scholarly Journal That Also Appears in Print

Cite articles in online scholarly journals that also appear in print as you would a scholarly journal in print, including the page range of the article . Provide the URL and the date of access.

Wheelis, Mark. “ Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. ”   Emerging Infectious Diseases , vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

An Article from an Online Database (or Other Electronic Subscription Service)

Cite online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other subscription services as containers. Thus, provide the title of the database italicized before the DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. “ Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates. ”   Environmental Toxicology, vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library , https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.20155. Accessed 26 May 2009.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal, vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest , https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

E-mail (including E-mail Interviews)

Give the author of the message, followed by the subject line in quotation marks. State to whom the message was sent with the phrase, “Received by” and the recipient’s name. Include the date the message was sent. Use standard capitalization.

Kunka, Andrew. “ Re: Modernist Literature. ”  Received by John Watts, 15 Nov. 2000.

Neyhart, David. “ Re: Online Tutoring. ” Received by Joe Barbato, 1 Dec. 2016.

A Listserv, Discussion Group, or Blog Posting

Cite web postings as you would a standard web entry. Provide the author of the work, the title of the posting in quotation marks, the web site name in italics, the publisher, and the posting date. Follow with the date of access. Include screen names as author names when author name is not known. If both names are known, place the author’s name in brackets.

Author or compiler name (if available). “Posting Title.” Name of Site , Version number (if available), Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), URL. Date of access.

Salmar1515 [Sal Hernandez]. “Re: Best Strategy: Fenced Pastures vs. Max Number of Rooms?” BoardGameGeek , 29 Sept. 2008, boardgamegeek.com/thread/343929/best-strategy-fenced-pastures-vs-max-number-rooms. Accessed 5 Apr. 2009.

Begin with the user's Twitter handle in place of the author’s name. Next, place the tweet in its entirety in quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations. Include the date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date and time with a comma and end with a period. Include the date accessed if you deem necessary.

@tombrokaw. “ SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign. ”   Twitter, 22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m., twitter.com/tombrokaw/status/160996868971704320.

@PurdueWLab. “ Spring break is around the corner, and all our locations will be open next week. ”   Twitter , 5 Mar. 2012, 12:58 p.m., twitter.com/PurdueWLab/status/176728308736737282.

A YouTube Video

Video and audio sources need to be documented using the same basic guidelines for citing print sources in MLA style. Include as much descriptive information as necessary to help readers understand the type and nature of the source you are citing. If the author’s name is the same as the uploader, only cite the author once. If the author is different from the uploader, cite the author’s name before the title.

McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube , uploaded by Big Think, 3 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.

“8 Hot Dog Gadgets put to the Test.” YouTube, uploaded by Crazy Russian Hacker, 6 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBlpjSEtELs.

A Comment on a Website or Article

List the username as the author. Use the phrase, Comment on, before the title. Use quotation marks around the article title. Name the publisher, date, time (listed on near the comment), and the URL.

Not Omniscient Enough. Comment on “ Flight Attendant Tells Passenger to ‘Shut Up’ After Argument Over Pasta. ”  ABC News, 9 Jun 2016, 4:00 p.m., abcnews.go.com/US/flight-attendant-tells-passenger-shut-argument-pasta/story?id=39704050.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the best college search websites, reviewed (top 10).

College Admissions

Not sure where to begin your college research? There are tons of online resources to help students match up with the right schools. In this article, I'll outline ten of the best sites to conduct your college search and then explain how to get started researching colleges  using three of the best sites. Within each section, the sites are ordered from the absolute best to those that are still good but not #1.

Starting Out: The Best Data-Driven Sites to Begin Your College Search

If you've just begun researching colleges and need some help finding schools you might be interested in, check out these sites to help get you started.

College Board’s Big Future

This is a good place to find out about colleges if you’re just starting out in your search. It caters to students who might not know where to begin and guides you through the research process. There's a guide called  "College Search Step-by-Step" for students who are unsure of how to go about the search process.  It will ask specific questions about what you are looking for in a school and give you a "snapshot" of your preferences to help you decide where to apply.

On the main college search page,  you can find college matches based on different criteria that you’re interested in, or you can search for schools directly.  You can also compare schools, but the amount of data is less staggering than some other sites, so it may be easier to digest.

College InSight

If you’re a more scientifically minded person, this site will probably appeal to you. You have the option to start your search with  a specific college, a topic that interests you, or with building your own table of different variables   to compare schools  across any metric you choose. 

This site has a huge amount of data for each school that includes variables such as economic and racial diversity of the student body and extensive statistics on debt and financial aid.  This is a helpful resource for comparing colleges side by side based on hard data.  You can choose a “focus” school and a “comparison” school, and the site will list the data for each school in table format. It's a good way to get an objective viewpoint on what each school is like.

If you’re not as interested in looking at a bunch of data you may find this site to be overwhelming, but if you’re trying to find  an easy way to compare school stats without having to create a profile  this is the place to go.

This is just a screenshot of the top of the comparison charts - there are many more statistics that show up below this.

College Navigator

This site (put out by the National Center for Educational Statistics) doesn’t have the prettiest interface, but it’s useful for finding reliable data about any college in the country.  If you already know what school you want, you can search for it directly. You can also search by state or even area code. There are filters for degree level and type of college as well, so you can search for just public or private colleges or just 4-year colleges. 

Each college has a page that lists relevant data including information about cost and financial aid, admissions, programs offered, graduation rates, athletics, and other general statistics. 

The downside of this site is that the information can be overwhelming and difficult to digest because there is so much data. If you prefer something less dry and scientific you might want to look elsewhere, but if you’re just looking for the facts with no frills this is a good resource.

The Inside Scoop: Sites With the Best Student Feedback and College Matchmaking

This next section highlights sites that are best for when you already have an idea of which schools you're thinking about and are interested in comparing them and learning more about whether they're really a good fit.

This is a great site for comparing schools, calculating admissions chances, calculating financial aid, and just figuring out if a school is a good match for you in general.  You will be asked to create a profile, which then allows the site to figure out which schools might work best based on what matters most to you. There are also student reviews, so in addition to comparing hard data you will also be able to compare how people feel about the school. There’s even a feature that helps you plan campus visits!

This site has one of the best balances between comprehensive data and a user-friendly experience that tells you what you really want to know about colleges. It will even take you as far as your application! Each school that you put on your list of favorites has a link that takes you directly to the school's website where you can begin the application process.

On Chegg's college matchmaking site, you can create a profile and see which schools might be right for you. This site can be very helpful in your college search because it lets you keep a running list of schools that you’re interested in once you create a profile. 

Design-wise, it’s nice to look at, and  the statistics are presented in a very user-friendly, simple way that’s easy to understand.  You’ll also find grades based on student reviews for everything from campus dining to academics to the party scene, so you can get an inside look at what people really think about the school.

Based on these grades, the site has lists of schools that have the “best quality of life”, “best merit aid”, and many other categories that may help you narrow down your search.  There’s also a tool on each college page for you to enter your GPA and SAT/ACT scores and see your chances of admission.  One issue with student ratings is that they are very subjective and may not always reflect the truth about the school. Before you take these as fact, make sure you also check out the school’s main website and see what they have to say about themselves.

This site contains less hard data, but is relatively easy to use and makes the college search a little more fun (they even give grades for the attractiveness of the student body...very important in choosing your dream school).

This site gives you access to  tons of statistics as well as student reviews and letter grades for different aspects of student life  (this is actually where the college grades on Chegg, a site I recommend later, come from). You’ll also see lists of the best schools in different categories based on reviews.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of what’s offered by colleges, this is a great resource. There are a lot of statistics to wade through, but you can also create a free profile and get matched up with colleges. This site is nice because  it can get really technical and specific,  but it also gives you the tools to search for schools without feeling too overwhelmed. You can keep a running list of schools that you’re interested in, and the site will help you notify representatives for these schools of your interest if you think any of them are especially good matches.

One aspect of Niche that I'm not so crazy about is the amount of  distracting promotions and ads for other related sites  that are involved. It makes things a bit more cluttered and confusing to navigate and kind of turned me off from using this site despite the fact that it presents a lot of great information. 

College Confidential

You might be familiar with College Confidential for its (sometimes less than trustworthy) discussion forums, but it also has a great college search feature.  You can fill out your preferences in over 20 different categories including location, majors, Greek life, party scene, and special services. Based on your answers and how important these factors are to you, you’ll get matched with schools that fit you best (out of a database of over 4,500 schools that includes schools outside of the US). 

You can also create a list of schools that you like by “pinning” your favorites.  To narrow down your search even further, you can compare your top choices in different areas to see how they measure up against each other. You can save and share your lists if you want as well!

I’d recommend this as a starting point if you're not sure which schools you’re interested in - it will help you figure out what’s most important to you and give you some initial ideas. It's super easy to pin and compare schools, although the information pages are a little confusing and not as nice to look at as the school matching interface. If you click on a school, you are linked out to another site called "College View" for the statistics, which makes things a bit harder to navigate compared to other sites where all information is internal.

Get it? Go to Uni? It sounds like the Brits are responsible for this one, which made me suspicious, but this site is pretty cool. It has a modern design and includes tons of reviews in written and video format from students at the colleges. Based on student feedback, schools are rated on a scale of 1-10 for a bunch of different factors including campus safety, political activity, arts culture, Greek life, intellectual life, and more. 

Each college page has financial aid and admissions statistics, a built in map of the surrounding area, and statistics on student life such as the number of campus organizations and Greek houses. You can also make a list of schools and compare them across different metrics like tuition and selectivity.  

It does seem like they’re still working on adding more statistics about academics, so this site is a bit light on data in some areas.  Still, it’s fun to use and will give you a different perspective than other sites with its multimedia format; there are lots of pictures of schools from students in addition to the video reviews. 

Taking Action: The Best Sites to Learn About Paying for and Applying to College

Once you have a pretty solid list of which colleges you want to apply to, you can use these sites to help you navigate college applications and paying for school.

This site is oriented towards helping students search for scholarships , but it will also help you find colleges that may interest you. You can set up an account for free that will allow you to locate colleges and scholarships that fit your specific needs. There are helpful blog articles on the site as well that have advice on scholarships and colleges.

You can also search for student loans on Fastweb - you just have to answer a few questions and you’ll get a list of all your loan choices.  This site is a nice user-friendly means of finding scholarships and loans that will help you to avoid getting too overwhelmed with your options. 

It’s also a good site to keep in mind going forward, since it has resources for career planning and finding internship opportunities as well. If you're practically-minded and are serious about finding scholarships, you should definitely try this site out. You may want to use another platform for the college search process because Fastweb doesn't have as much information or tools for finding colleges as it does for finding scholarships and loans. 

This site is good for learning about application timelines and getting yourself organized for college as well as searching for schools that meet your criteria. There are articles with helpful tips about choosing colleges, applying to college, and getting financial aid and scholarships. You'll get fast stats about colleges and suggestions about other schools that you may like based on your searches.

This isn’t my favorite site in terms of its presentation of college statistics.  However, it does provide advice in other areas that is more specific than other sites and may help answer questions you have about the application process and how to actually follow through on your college decision.

How to Start Your College Search

Your mind is probably reeling from all of these options, so to make it easier, below is how we recommend you get started. The three sites described in this section are the best ones for beginning your college search, and I'll explain exactly how to use them.

Step 1: Develop a Preliminarly List of Schools With Cappex

As we mentioned above, Cappex is an excellent site for helping you figure out which types of schools you're interested in and which fit you well. Below are the steps to get the most out of Cappex.

1. Create a profile - you'll answer a lot of questions about your college preferences including location, size, selectivity, and religious affiliation as well as questions about your GPA and scores. This gives the site an idea of what colleges may fit with your needs. You also have the opportunity to enter in schools that interest you if you already have options in mind. 

2. Play around with your Dashboard: this is where you'll see all the colleges that might fit your preferences. You'll be asked to select a region and a major so that the results are more tailored to you (don't worry - you can choose undecided if you aren't sure what you want to major in yet). You'll see a slider of different schools that looks like this:

If you hover over any of the schools, you'll get an at-a-glance stats panel that shows you whether the school is public or private, its tuition rates, and the number of students. The first row of schools is for colleges that you may be interested in, and the second row is for colleges that are interested in you based on your level of high school achievement. 

3. Click on the link inside the stats panel for any school that catches your interest. Once you get to the next page, you'll have a ton of information at your fingertips. One helpful feature that you probably want to check first is "Your Fit", which is the fourth button down on the left side panel. This gives you an easy way to tell if the college matches up well with the preferences you indicated in your profile.

4. Explore the college a little more. Think about other things that are important to you and whether they fit well with what the college offers. You'll notice that in each college profile you can comb through a huge database of information by clicking on the options on the left. Categories include everything from campus life to student reviews to application deadlines. Before you get too confused from all the information, try making a list of what you think will make you happy at college and target your browsing to the areas that matter most to you. 

5. If you're feeling really good about a school, you can add it to the running list of colleges that is a part of your Cappex profile. Just click the "yes" button at the top of the screen where it asks if you're interested in the school. This will also notify the school that you are interested. If you fill out your profile completely, Cappex will also give you your chances of admission to a college if you click on "yes & calculate my chances". Here's what your college list will look like:

Notice that you can rank colleges by how much you like them, and if you update your profile you'll see your chances of admission as well. The list also makes it easy to compare colleges. If you click on the "compare" tab you can compare colleges side by side in admissions, tuition, diversity, and campus life (this could be a good way to give your parents the hard facts about why you prefer one school over another that they think is better). 

6. After you're satisfied with your list, you can apply to schools by clicking on the "apply to college" link beneath every list entry. This will send you directly to the admissions site for the school and make it easy for you to get your application started. 

Step 2: Refine Your College List Using Chegg

Once you've made a preliminary list of colleges with Cappex, we recommend next using Chegg to refine your list and see if there are any schools you missed. Below are the steps for getting the most out of Chegg.

1. Login through Facebook or sign up manually for a profile. Make sure you fill out as much information as you can in your profile so that your college matches will be as accurate as possible. 

2. Click on the "Colleges" tab at the top of the screen, and you'll get to a page where you can search for schools by name or sort schools by your preferences. You can also look at lists of schools that are provided for you on the site based on student ratings for different things like "best food" or "most beautiful campus".

You should also look at your "Matches", which are colleges selected for you based on the preferences you indicated in your profile. Just switch to the matches tab by clicking on it at the top of the screen:

3. Once you see a college that looks promising, go to the page for the school and start exploring the statistics and ratings. You can even look at your chances of admission based on your GPA and scores. Again, I would recommend writing down some factors that are important to you for a college before you dive into the stats so that you have a more focused approach. I think a good thing about this site is that it doesn't go too heavy on the nitty gritty statistics. It boils it down to the basic things you probably want to know and also gives you perspective from real students. 

4. Add any college you think sounds good to your list of schools. Once you add a college to your list, you will have the option to fill out information that will allow colleges you are interested in to contact you.

You can then compare up to five schools side by side based on scores, admission requirements, tuition, and other basic facts. This should help you narrow your search down significantly. 

5. Take a look at other features of the site - you can also use Chegg to find scholarships and internships! 

Step 3: Search for Scholarships Using Fastweb

Fastweb is  the best way to find scholarships, which is a super important part of the college application process. You can also find colleges on Fastweb, but it's not as streamlined as the other options. We recommend using Fastweb after you've used Cappex and Chegg to get a list of colleges you're interested in applying to.

1. Fill out a free profile, providing as many details as possible about your interests and strengths as possible. This will help you get matched to scholarships that are appropriate for your specific talents. 

2. Click on "see my matches" in your profile to take a look at all the scholarships that are available to you:

You can sort scholarships by deadline, amount, and provider. This is an awesome resource - instead of traversing the internet, you can see all of your potential scholarships right here. 

3. If you click on the link for a scholarship and think you're interested, you can use the dropdown menu on the right to mark it as one that you "might apply" or "will apply" to;  this will add it to your list under one of those tabs. This will make it easy for you to keep track of which scholarships interest you and which ones you promised yourself you would apply for (because we all know how easy it is to say you're going to apply and how hard it is to actually follow through). 

4. You can also use this site to search for colleges (switch to the "colleges" tab at the top of the screen) and create a list of schools you're interested in. The list will look similar to the scholarship matches page:

As I mentioned, the college search features on this site aren't quite as comprehensive as the others because there's no way to compare schools and there aren't as many student reviews or user-friendly statistics. You CAN use it to make a list, but I'd say Fastweb is mostly for scholarships. 

5. If you want, start looking into your student loan options! This is a really daunting process that is made easier by the Student Lending Center feature under the Student Loans section of Fastweb.

You can also get help with navigating the financial aid process under the Financial Aid tab and finding internships under the Career Planning tab. Basically, for anything involving the practical concerns associated with college, Fastweb is the best place to go.  

The college search is a challenging, sometimes confusing process, especially when you're not sure where to start. I've given you the top ten sites I would recommend for finding colleges that fit your needs and a more detailed guide to the three sites that I think will be the most useful. Here are my overall rankings for the best sites to use in your college search:

1. Cappex 2. Chegg 3. Fastweb 4. Niche 5. College Confidential 6. Peterson's  7. College Board's Big Future 8. College InSight 9. Unigo 10. College Navigator

All of these sites will help you out in one way or another to narrow down your search, but I believe the top three have the best combination of user friendly format, solid information, and fun interactive features that are also very helpful to students. Remember to focus solely on what is most important to you in your search. You may have never heard of a school, but that doesn't mean it won't be a perfect fit. Be honest with yourself and you'll end up making a great choice!

What's Next?

Aiming high in your college search? Read this article on how to get into the top schools in the nation.  

If you're worried about your chances of getting into college period, check out this list of the easiest schools to get into.

Building a killer college application is hard work. Find out the how to create a versatile application and what not to do in your college essay.

The Common Application makes it easy to apply to a bunch of different schools but only fill out one application! Find out which schools accept the Common App.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?  We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Samantha is a blog content writer for PrepScholar. Her goal is to help students adopt a less stressful view of standardized testing and other academic challenges through her articles. Samantha is also passionate about art and graduated with honors from Dartmouth College as a Studio Art major in 2014. In high school, she earned a 2400 on the SAT, 5's on all seven of her AP tests, and was named a National Merit Scholar.

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The Women's Movement by Joan Didion

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10 Sites to Kick Off Your Scholarship Search

These websites offer free databases to help students apply for thousands of available scholarships.

10 Sites to find Scholarships

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You don't need to be at the top of your class or a star athlete to win scholarships.

Scholarships can be a good way to ease the financial burden of college or fund your education entirely. Many scholarships are merit-based , meaning they're awarded because of a student's academic, athletic, artistic or leadership abilities.

But you don't need to be at the top of your class or a star athlete to win scholarships. Many are awarded based on a student's financial need, and you may even be able to find some related to your hobbies .

Often, some of the best scholarship sources "are in your backyard ," says Angela Warfield, principal consultant and founder of college admissions consulting firm Compass Academics. School counselors as well as local cultural affinity groups, churches, clubs, community foundations and athletic organizations often award scholarships. Targeting these first is a good way to stack scholarship money, experts say.

But you should expand your search wider, and there are plenty of free websites and apps that can help. Here are 10 websites experts suggest using to start your scholarship search.

Going Merry

A popular site recommended by independent college admissions counselors is Going Merry , which aims to simplify scholarship applications for students. Signing up is free, but students can also check to see how much they're eligible for in scholarships without signing up. According to the website, students have won upward of $40,000.

"I recommend this for students due to its user-friendly platform, which simplifies the scholarship application process and aggregates numerous scholarship opportunities in one place," Denard Jones, lead college counselor at college admissions consulting company Empowerly, wrote in an email. "It offers a time-efficient approach, allowing students to focus more on their studies and extracurricular activities while pursuing valuable merit aid opportunities."

Scholarships.com

This website helps students discover scholarships they qualify for, organize their matches and apply for those scholarships. The recently redesigned website has helped streamline the process even more, says Kevin Ladd, chief operating officer and co-creator of Scholarships.com and a former U.S. News contributor.

Ladd says the platform prioritizes legitimacy, accuracy and ease of function for users.

"If you found it on Scholarships.com, it is safe to apply for it," Ladd wrote in an email. "We thoroughly vet each one, ensuring it’s legit and there are no fees associated with applying. Daily, we are looking at these and checking them against the URL associated with them, looking at the deadline and dollar amount, filtering, etc. and emailing or calling the provider if necessary to ensure timeliness and accuracy."

You may have heard about the Scholly app through the television show "Shark Tank," where founder Christopher Gray shared how he earned $1.3 million in scholarships thanks partly to applying to virtually every scholarship he qualified for. He found that for many of the scholarships he won, he was one of a few applicants or the only applicant.

Financial management company SoFi estimates $100 million in scholarship money goes unclaimed each year, and Gray says he created Scholly to help students find that money. Now owned by educational lender Sallie Mae, the app is free and helps students identify scholarships based on their academic profile and demographics.

“A lot of students are taking on way more debt than they have to,” Gray says. “That’s mainly because they don’t know these scholarships exist."

Fastweb is another free scholarship search provider that claims to have a database of 1.5 million college scholarships worth over $3.4 billion. Owned by Monster.com, Fastweb also offers college planning resources and financial aid information.

"I like it because it’s got such a huge database," says Monica Matthews, author of "How to Win College Scholarships: Guides for Parents and Students in 10 Easy Steps." Matthews helped her three sons win tens of thousands of dollars in college scholarships through websites like Fastweb.

Fastweb is "the most comprehensive website for students to find scholarships," says Christopher Rim, founder and CEO of admissions consulting firm Command Education. Like many scholarship websites, Fastweb may send a lot of emails after you sign up, so Matthews recommends creating an email address specifically for scholarship searches so that your primary email inbox doesn't get flooded.

A platform created by the College Board, BigFuture allows students to search for scholarships and get help paying for college. The website claims to have a database of more than 24,000 scholarships that award more than $1.5 billion annually. The website allows students to create a profile and get matched with scholarships they qualify for.

"I recommend it to high schools because it offers a reliable tool for accessing essential information on both self-help and gift aid search processes," Jones says.

The majority of scholarships are awarded to high school seniors, but RaiseMe advertises scholarships available to students as early as their freshman year. The website matches students with micro-scholarships, which RaiseMe defines as "a small grant that you can earn during high school or community college and put towards tuition at a four-year college or university."

Students must create a profile on the website and enter their grades, hobbies, honors, awards, community service and other achievements. From there, they can potentially earn money from one of the 300 colleges that RaiseMe partners with.

On average, students who use RaiseMe and meet standard eligibility requirements for a college earn $25,000 in micro-scholarships over four years of high school, according to the website.

Previously known as Cappex, Appily is another free resource that allows students to search both schools and scholarships that they qualify for based on their personal profile and demographics. You can search for scholarships based on your year in school, and after you complete a short questionnaire, the site filters schools and scholarships that may be applicable.

"This platform provides a comprehensive scholarship database, aiding students in identifying financial aid opportunities to support their search for affordability in a personalized way by matching opportunities with student preferences," Jones says. "It also features college reviews from actual students, offering valuable insights into campus life, academics and extracurriculars."

Along with searching for scholarships, Niche.com allows students to gain a sense of a school's "personality" by reading student reviews, Hartley says. Similar to other websites, Niche matches students with scholarships that match their qualifications and provides essay-free scholarships, which some students may prefer.

Unigo is another website that pairs students with scholarships that fit their profile. The website has more than 3.6 million athletic, merit-based and company-sponsored scholarships and grants in its database, as well as 650,000 college reviews, statistics and other data points to use when vetting schools.

Users can check each month to find new scholarships that fit their profile, with some applications taking just a few minutes to complete.

Scholarships360

After struggling to find scholarships on their own, brothers Will and Brian Geiger launched Scholarships360 in 2010 to help students find money for college. Since then, the website has offered a free database of thousands of scholarships that can be filtered by grade and demographic, plus scholarships that are easy to apply for and don't require an essay.

A new site feature is that all scholarships "are now 'ungated' so that students don't need to sign up," company CEO Will Geiger wrote in an email. "We think that this makes Scholarships360 particularly student-centric as students can go directly to the scholarship website. They can also use our app to check their eligibility and get matches."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News  Paying for College  center.

12 Ways to Win a Scholarship

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College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right

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Interrogations of university leaders spearheaded by conservative congressional representatives. Calls from right-wing senators for troops to intervene in campus demonstrations. Hundreds of student and faculty arrests , with nonviolent dissenters thrown to the ground, tear-gassed and tased .

We’ve been here before. In my book “ Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America ,” I detail how, throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, conservative activists led a counterattack against campus antiwar and civil rights demonstrators by demanding action from college presidents and police.

They made a number of familiar claims about student protesters: They were at once coddled elitists, out-of-state agitators and violent communists who sowed discord to destroy America. Conservatives claimed that the protests interfered with the course of university activities and that administrators had a duty to guarantee daily operations paid for by tuition.

Back then, college presidents routinely caved to the demands of conservative legislators, angry taxpayers and other wellsprings of anticommunist outrage against students striking for peace and civil rights.

Today, university leaders are twisting themselves in knots to appease angry donors and legislators. But when Columbia University President Minouche Shafik called in the NYPD to quell protests, she was met with a firm rebuke from the American Association of University Professors .

If the past is any indication, the road ahead won’t be any easier for college presidents like Shafik.

Lawfare from the right

Throughout the 1960s, students organized a host of anti-war and civil rights protests, and many conservatives characterized the demonstrators as communist sympathizers.

Students spoke out against American involvement in the Vietnam War, the draft and compulsory ROTC participation. They demanded civil rights protections and racially representative curricula. The intervention of police and the National Guard often escalated what were peaceful protests into violent riots and total campus shutdowns.

From 1968 into the 1970s, conservative lawyers coordinated a national campaign to sue “ indecisive and gutless ” college presidents and trustees whose approach to campus demonstrations was, in conservatives’ estimation, too lenient.

The right-wing organization Young Americans for Freedom hit 32 colleges with lawsuits, including private Ivy League schools like Columbia, Harvard and Princeton, as well as public land-grant universities like Michigan State and the University of Wisconsin.

The legal claim was for breach of contract: that presidents were failing to follow through on their end of the tuition agreement by not keeping campuses open and breaking up the protests. Young Americans for Freedom sought to set legal precedent for students, parents and broadly defined “taxpayers” to be able to compel private and public institutions to remain open.

Conservative students further demanded that their supposedly communist peers be expelled indefinitely, arrested for trespassing and prosecuted.

Expulsions, of course, carried implications for the draft during these years. A running joke among right-wing activists and politicians was that protesters should be given a “ McNamara Scholarship ” to Hanoi, referencing Robert McNamara, the U.S. secretary of defense and an architect of the Vietnam War.

Meanwhile, right-wing activists hounded college leaders with public pressure campaigns by collecting signatures from students and alumni that called on them to put an end to campus demonstrations. Conservatives also urged donors to withhold financial support until administrators subdued protesting students.

Cops on campus

Following the massacre at Kent State in 1970 , when the National Guard fired at students, killing four and wounding nine, nearly half of all colleges shut down temporarily amid a wave of nationwide youth outrage. With only a week or two left of the semester, many colleges canceled remaining classes and even some commencement ceremonies .

In response, conservatives launched a new wave of post-Kent State injunctions against those universities to force them back open.

With protests ongoing – and continued calls from the right to crack down on them – many university administrators resorted to calling on the police and the National Guard, working with them to remove student protesters from campus.

In fact, this very moment brought about the birth of the modern campus police force .

Administrators and lawmakers, afraid that local police could not handle the sheer number of student demonstrators, arranged to deputize campus police – who had historically been parking guards and residence hall curfew enforcers – with the authority to make arrests and carry firearms.

State and federal lawmakers attempted to further stifle student dissent with reams of legislation. In 1969, legislators in seven states passed laws to punish student activists who had been arrested during protests through the revocation of financial aid, expulsion and jail sentences.

President Richard Nixon, who had excoriated campus disruptions during his successful White House run in 1968, encouraged college presidents to heed the laws and applauded them for following through with expulsions .

Is ‘antisemitism’ the new ‘communism’?

As the U.S. presidential election approaches, I’ll be watching to see how the Trump and Biden campaigns respond to ongoing student protests.

For now, Trump has called the recent protests “antisemitic” and “ far worse ” than the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Biden has similarly condemned “the antisemitic protests” and “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

Both are repeating the false framework laid out by GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik and Virginia Foxx, a trap that university administrators have fallen into during House inquiries since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

There indeed have been antisemitic incidents associated with pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses.

But in these hearings, Stefanik and Foxx have baited four women presidents into affirming the right’s politicized framing of the protests as rife with antisemitism , leading the public to believe that isolated incidents are instead representative and rampant.

Like their association of civil rights and peace demonstrators with communism throughout the Cold War, politicians on both sides of the aisle are now broadly hurling claims of antisemitism against anyone protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, many of whom are Jewish .

The purpose then, as it is now, is to intimidate administrators into a false political choice: Will they protect students’ right to demonstrate or be seen as acquiescent to antisemitism?

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BC's Messina College partners with Liberty Mutual Insurance

Messina College

Messina College, Boston College’s new associate’s degree program which will welcome 100 first-generation students to campus this summer, has partnered with Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance to provide internships as part of the new residential college’s approach to career readiness.

The Liberty Mutual partnership will provide Messina students with the opportunity to work 10-12 hours a week gaining skills that relate to their majors of Applied Data Science, Applied Psychology & Human Development, General Business, and Health Sciences, said Messina College Dean Erick Berrelleza, S.J.

Erick Berrelleza, S.J.

“Internships will help our students discern where they can make their impact in the world and what their vocation might be in the broadest sense of the word,” said Fr. Berrelleza. “Liberty Mutual is a leading Boston-based company and we are very excited that they will be providing these experiences to our talented students who are overwhelmingly from Massachusetts. We are equally excited that our students will bring their diverse experiences to Liberty Mutual.”

Internships, or clinical rotations for students studying Health Sciences, will take place during the fall semester of students’ second year. Students will simultaneously take a 3-credit seminar course to help them connect their internship experience to their academic and professional goals and reflect on and articulate the professional skills they are gaining.

Berrelleza said some of the company internships will focus on business analytics – for applied data science students – while others could be in other functional areas of the company.

A presence in Boston since its founding in 1912, Liberty Mutual’s internship program provides students the opportunity to learn from accomplished business leaders, gain real-world, professional experience and work on business-critical assignments. Through comprehensive benefits, continuous learning opportunities, competitive compensation, and a supportive workplace culture, interns join a company where people from all backgrounds can build long and meaningful careers. With nearly every class, Liberty Mutual offers full-time roles to 90 percent of undergrad students and for those in two-year degree programs looking to continue their education, the company offers additional internships and tuition reimbursement opportunities.

Maura Quinn

“As a Boston-based organization, we are lucky to have some of the strongest educational institutions like Boston College in our backyard,” said Liberty Mutual’s VP of Early Career, DEI & Talent Acquisition Programs, Maura Quinn. “Through this program, we gain access to incredible talent and in return, we’re able to offer students on-the-job experiences to begin building long and meaningful careers.”

Career discernment and preparation are built into the Messina curriculum, Fr. Berrelleza said. In addition to the accompanying course, students will work closely with a Boston College Career Center coach throughout the internship process, including preparing them for the internship experience, navigating any challenges, and serving as a resource for on-site internship supervisors.

Messina College is part of Boston College’s $100 million Pine Manor Institute for Student Success initiative to enhance educational opportunity for underrepresented, first-generation students, and marks the first time BC will offer an associate’s degree.

In today’s economy, Fr. Berrelleza said work experience is crucial.

“In some of our fields of study, internships are the ways that many students secure their first jobs,” said Fr. Berrelleza. “We want to prepare Messina students for the next step in their lives and while our focus is on higher education, we want to ensure every student has that experience with employers and workforce readiness that their peers will have coming out of traditional four-year degree programs.”

“ Internships will help our students discern where they can make their impact in the world and what their vocation might be in the broadest sense of the word. ”

The residential college will welcome students this July, ultimately enrolling 200 students at its campus located on the former Pine Manor College, now known as the Brookline Campus of Boston College.

The Pine Manor Institute for Student Success was established in 2020 when Boston College and Pine Manor College signed an integration agreement that included a $50 million commitment from Boston College that has grown to $100 million through investment returns and an anonymous pledge of $25 million.

To learn more, visit the Messina College website .

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What Just Happened at Columbia University

Inside the student protests that led to more than 100 arrests..

In a matter of days, Columbia University’s campus has become a flashpoint for the country’s political unrest—the site of impassioned youth protests over Israel’s war in Gaza and U.S. support for it, which has in turn fueled vociferous backlash, a flurry of national media attention, and more than 100 arrests. And since it all began, with a handful of student protesters pitching tents on the lawn at 4 a.m. Wednesday, university radio station WKCR has kept its coverage of the situation going all day and night.

“We’ve been covering in shifts,” Ted Schmiedeler, an undergraduate member of the station’s executive board, told me Saturday morning as we toured the small studio at Broadway and West 114 th Street. It was a rare quiet moment during a week of nonstop action; out front, a dozen NYPD officers were setting up new metal barricades in anticipation of a surge of demonstrators.

In the studio, one student journalist was playing a field recording from that morning. Two others monitored the broadcast. Nearby, a folding table was strewn with snacks, and a futon and couch were piled high with pillows and blankets. “I just got done with a 3 a.m.–10 a.m. shift reporting from the lawn,” said Georgia Dillane, another undergraduate member of the station’s executive board. She pointed toward the couch. “And that was where I napped.”

Normally, WKCR is a pretty heavy on music programming—jazz is one of the station’s calling cards—but since Wednesday, just 19 student volunteers, field reporters, and studio producers have been racing around to broadcast 24/7 coverage of the demonstrations, mass arrests, crackdowns from the president’s office, and divisions heightening between professors, students, and other faculty over the students’ rights to protest and the chaos that has unfolded. Oh, and the mayor of New York and the White House weighing in.

The tents that popped up on the east lawn on Wednesday were timed to coincide with university President Nemat Shafik’s appearance before Congress last week; the students’ stated demands were that the university divest from its financial holdings in firms that profit from Israel’s war and occupation in Palestine.

But really, the anger on campus had been building for months. Just days after the deadly Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, dozens of students at Columbia were doxxed after they signed an open letter that stated that the “weight of responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments.” In November, the university, facing sustained pressure from right-wing donor groups and conservative politicians, suspended the charters of student groups Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine after they held unsanctioned demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have been on the rise at colleges across the country. Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia, banned doorway decorations to keep political speech out of the dorms; both schools have tried to restrict protest to designated areas on campus.

There was probably no scenario in which Shafik’s appearance before Congress wouldn’t have blown up. Congressional hearings on the issue of antisemitism on campus have been led by Republicans eager to see leaders of so-called liberal bastions embarrassed and fired, no matter how far under the bus those college presidents been willing to throw their student activists (see: Harvard , the University of Pennsylvania , MIT ).

Still, Shafik seemed eager to avoid the fate of university presidents before her, and “ focused her message on fighting antisemitism rather than protecting free speech,” as the Associated Press put it.

One day later, with Columbia protests and the congressional hearing in the news, Shafik did exactly that, turning the protest into a true national news story by bringing in the NYPD to sweep the encampment and arrest more than 100 of her own students, deeming the tent city a “clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University.” That call seemed questionable even to the NYPD: As the Columbia Daily Spectator reported, police Chief John Chell noted that he had not come to the same conclusion. “The students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” Chell said.

On Friday afternoon, when I first arrived at Columbia, the legal consequences of those actions were known, but the disciplinary actions were still trickling in. Some Barnard students had been suspended; the Columbia students were awaiting a similar fate. Those suspended face losing access to campus housing, health care, student dining facilities, and more, along with the inability to finish out the semester, all without so much as a hearing.

But the student protesters were undeterred; many were out of central booking and right back to protesting, and other newcomers joined their ranks. Gone from the east lawn, the demonstration had popped right back up on the adjoining west lawn, where there were hundreds of students less than 24 hours after the sweep, this time without tents. The university had attempted to lock down the campus to outsiders, requiring students to swipe in with active IDs. Columbia’s journalism school undercut that effort slightly, tweeting that any member of the credentialed press needed only to reach out to it to gain access to campus . The result was a handful of credentialed press, a battery of student journalists, and even more student protesters gathered, sitting on blankets, making signs, and typing on laptops.

The tentless encampment was largely calm, punctuated by occasional chants and speeches. There was a surprising bounty of snack foods, and various microcelebrities came through and made remarks, including Chris Smalls, of the Amazon Labor Union, and left-wing commentator Norman Finkelstein.

I ducked into an “onboarding” training in the northeast corner of the lawn, where a group of students was being briefed by organizers about the possibility of another wave of arrests, warning those students about the risks of participating in what was being called a “red role.” Only those students prepared to face the consequences should take part, the organizers warned: Legally, it would likely be a citation, “like a parking ticket.” But the discipline from Columbia could be more severe.

A drone hummed overhead; a helicopter circled. Everyone was instructed to download Signal and join various group chats. Markers were passed around, and the phone number for legal aid was blotted onto forearms. “I’m assuming at least as many people are willing to get arrested as yesterday,” one of the organizers marveled. “There are so many new people here.”

A perimeter was formed by students who held up blankets to shield the organizers and the volunteers from view, not unlike something you’d see on an NFL sideline when a player gets emergency medical treatment. Everyone was encouraged to wear a mask, not just to prevent disease transmission but also to help ensure personal safety. It isn’t uncommon for counterprotesters to come and chant, and film or photograph students. (There was guidance on that too: Don’t engage the counterprotesters.)

Blankets were also used to shield praying students from onlookers after a business school professor, Shai Davidai, who has been referring to the protests as “terrorism,” took a video of Muslim students praying , with the caption: “This is Columbia University right now. Please share to let the world know.” Based on the time stamp of his post, Davidai appeared to be on campus at the same time as me, and he came and left without any noticeable confrontation. Two days later, he would request an NYPD escort to walk around campus.

After the onboarding was complete, word began to circulate that no arrests would be made that day so long as there were no tents on the lawn. The organizers seemed inclined to observe this prohibition.

The mood was tense, and there was no small amount of paranoia. The sheer volume of press coverage of the event has compounded the stress and anger of student protesters on all sides. Some of those who were arrested saw their photos, their personal information, and details about their families written up in the New York Post . President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Eric Adams both issued statements condemning antisemitism on Columbia’s campus, in lockstep with a number of right-wing politicians, but made no move to condemn the arrests. Rep. Elise Stefanik, surely delighted that yet another university president had stridden into her trap, started calling for Shafik to resign. And throughout the weekend, clusters of tents began popping up at additional universities, as other college students followed Columbia’s lead.

I searched for a student organizer with “media training” who might talk with me on the record about the protests, and I kept getting handed off to different people. I eventually spoke with a student organizer named Sarah, who had been arrested the day before, and whose name I can say with almost total confidence was not actually Sarah. She emphasized that the encampment had expanded its early demands, not just for divestment and financial transparency but also for total amnesty for the students who had been suspended or otherwise punished for their role in organizing the protests.

I had a similar experience with a cadre of sympathetic professors who were part of the Barnard and Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, one of whom agreed to be interviewed after checking my driver’s license against my byline, only to back out moments later. The group later produced this statement : “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Administration’s suspension of students engaged in peaceful protest and their arrest by the New York City police department. … We demand that all Barnard College and Columbia University suspensions and charges be dismissed immediately and expunged from the students’ records.”

The WKCR reporters were having fewer problems getting interviews, bedecked in legitimate press credentials, embedded in their community, and able to swipe in and out of campus at their own discretion. The crowd continued to grow throughout Friday evening.

On Saturday, when I returned, it was increasingly difficult for outsiders to get in. I ran into an old friend and J-school affiliate who helped spirit me into the campus, where the protest looked similar to the day before. Many of the students were drying out after having spent a rainy night on the lawn—the no-tents provision had been abided by—and the blankets were drying out in the sun.

The numbers grew throughout the afternoon. That night, there was a screening of Newsreel 14, Columbia Revolt , a 1968 documentary about the anti-war Columbia student strike that had occurred in the same place decades earlier. Comparisons to that year were being dropped quite a bit, from both protesters and reporters alike. The WKCR students were quick to mention their awareness of the history; the radio station then, too, had been a 24-hour fixture and an authority on the student demonstrations.

By Sunday, the environment was even more locked down. All faculty were required to get a public-safety escort to enter their own office buildings. Columbia announced that it would be doubling security personnel on campus, further restricting access to campus, and stepping up ID checks.

Even the student reporters were starting to feel the squeeze. Late Saturday night, the school’s safety guards entered the studio and directed all the student journalists to immediately vacate the building, thus busting up the 24-hour broadcast streak. It was announced live on the air. After some heated back-and-forth and the intervention of a faculty adviser, the campus police relented. The kids were allowed to keep broadcasting.

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Class of 2024 reflects on college years marked by COVID-19, protests and life’s lost milestones

A recent graduate wears a garment with their graduation year on the University of Southern California campus Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday. College officials across the U.S. are worried the ongoing Israel-Hamas war protests could disrupt plans for commencement ceremonies next month. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Pro-Israeli demonstrators gather near a Pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A display shows commencement-related information on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The university canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens more college students were arrested at other campuses nationwide as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Graduating seniors take photos around the Tommy Trojan statue on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The university canceled its main graduation ceremony Thursday and dozens more college students were arrested at other campuses nationwide as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A graduating senior takes photos under the University of Southern California mascot on campus, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. The school has canceled its main graduation ceremony as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to intensify. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Grant Oh zigzagged across the University of Southern California campus as if he was conquering an obstacle course, coming up against police blockade after police blockade on his way to his apartment while officers arrested demonstrators protesting the Israel-Hamas war.

In many ways, the chaotic moment was the culmination of a college life that started amid the coronavirus pandemic and has been marked by continual upheaval in what has become a constant battle for normalcy. Oh already missed his prom and his high school graduation as COVID-19 surged in 2020. He started college with online classes. Now the 20-year-old will add another missed milestone to his life: USC has canceled its main commencement ceremony that was expected to be attended by 65,000 people.

His only graduation ceremony was in middle school and there were no caps and gowns.

“It’s crazy because I remember starting freshman year with the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which came after senior year of high school when the Black Lives Matter protests were happening and COVID, and xenophobia,” he said “It feels definitely surreal. It still shocks me that we live in a world that is so fired up and so willing to tear itself apart.”

Oh, who is getting a degree in health promotion and disease prevention, added that his loss of a memorable moment pales in comparison to what is happening: “At the end of the day, people are dying.”

College campuses have always been a hotbed for protests from the civil rights era to the Vietnam war to demonstrations over apartheid in South Africa. But students today also carry additional stresses from having lived through the isolation and fear from the pandemic, and the daily influence of social media that amplifies the world’s wrongs like never before, experts say.

It’s not just about missed milestones. Study after study shows Generation Z suffers from much higher rates of anxiety and depression than Millennials, said Jean Twenge, a psychologist and professor at San Diego State University, who wrote a book called “Generations.” She attributes much of that to the fact that negativity spreads faster and wider on social media than positive posts.

“Gen Z, they tend to be much more pessimistic than Millennials,” she said. “The question going forward is do they take this pessimism and turn it into concrete action and change, or do they turn it into annihilation and chaos?”

Protesters have pitched tents on campuses from Harvard and MIT to Stanford and the University of Texas, Austin, raising tensions as many schools prepare for spring commencements. Hundreds of students have been arrested across the country. Inspired by demonstrations at Columbia University , students at more than a dozen U.S. colleges have formed pro-Palestinian encampments and pledged to stay put until their demands are met.

The campus will be closed for the semester at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, which has been negotiating with students who have been barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, rebuffing an attempt by the police to clear them out.

USC announced Thursday that it would be calling off its main graduation ceremony after protests erupted over not only the Israel-Hamas war but the school’s decision earlier this month to call off the commencement speech by its valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who expressed support for Palestinians. Officials cited security concerns.

“By trying to silence Asna, it made everything way worse,” Oh said, adding that he hopes there will be no violence on graduation day May 10 when smaller ceremonies will be held by different departments.

Maurielle McGarvey graduated from high school in 2019 so was able to have a ceremony but then she took a gap year when many universities held classes only online. McGarvey, who is getting a degree in screenwriting with a minor in gender and social justice studies at USC, called the cancellations “heartbreaking,” and said the situation has been grossly mishandled by the university. She said police with batons came at her yelling as she held a banner while she and fellow demonstrators said a Jewish prayer.

“It’s definitely been like an overall diminished experience and to take away like the last sort of like typical thing that this class was allowed after having so many weird restrictions, so many customs and traditions changed,” she said. “It’s such a bummer.”

She said the email by the university announcing the cancellation particularly stung with its link to photos of past graduates in gowns tossing up their caps and cheering. “That’s just insult to injury,” she said.

Students at other universities were equally glum.

“Our grade is cursed,” said Abbie Barkan of Atlanta, 21, who is graduating from the University of Texas in two weeks with a journalism degree and who was among a group of Jewish students waving flags and chanting at a counter-protest Thursday near a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus.

University of Minnesota senior Sarah Dawley, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, is grateful graduation plans have not changed at her school. But she said the past weeks have left her with a mix of emotions. She’s been dismayed to watch colleges call in police.

But she said she also feels hope after having gone through the pandemic and become part of a community that stands up for what they believe in.

“I think a lot of people are going to go on to do cool things because after all this, we care a lot,” she said.

Watson reported from San Diego. AP journalists Stefanie Dazio and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles, Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis, Jim Vertuno and Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.

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Here’s Where Pro-Palestinian Protests Have Embroiled U.S. Campuses

A crackdown on demonstrators at Columbia University in New York spawned a wave of activism at universities across the country, with more than 500 arrests.

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By Anna Betts

• April 26, 2024

Police officers and university administrators have clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on a growing number of college campuses across the country in recent days, arresting students, removing encampments and threatening academic consequences.

The fresh wave of student activism against the war in Gaza was sparked by the arrest of at least 108 protesters at Columbia University on April 18, after administrators appeared before Congress and promised a crackdown. Since then, police interventions on several campuses, including in some of America’s largest cities, have led to more than 500 arrests.

Campus Protests Since Wednesday, April 17

Protests where arrests have taken place

Other protests

Note: Data as of 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on April 26

By Bora Erden, Lazaro Gamio, Helmuth Rosales, Julie Walton Shaver and Anjali Singhvi

Here is where arrests have been reported as the authorities attempt to break up protests or encampments:

Columbia University : The New York City Police Department arrested 108 demonstrators while clearing an encampment at the Manhattan campus on April 18.

Yale University in New Haven, Conn.: The police arrested 48 people on Monday, including 44 Yale students, after they refused to leave an encampment on campus.

New York University in Manhattan: Officers made dozens of arrests late Monday after students occupied a plaza on campus.

University of Minnesota in Minneapolis: Nine people were taken into custody after they erected an encampment on Tuesday. All of those affiliated with the university were allowed back on campus and civil trespass warnings were “set aside.”

University of South Carolina in Columbia: Two students were arrested after a protest on Tuesday, according to a police report.

University of Southern California in Los Angeles: The police arrested 93 people at a demonstration on Wednesday afternoon.

University of Texas at Austin : The police arrested 57 protesters on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the county attorney’s office said charges against many had been dropped after the office found legal “deficiencies” in their arrests.

Emerson College in Boston: The police arrested 118 people as an encampment was cleared on Wednesday night, the authorities said.

Ohio State University in Columbus: A university official said that 36 people, including 16 students, were arrested on Thursday. Earlier in the week, two students were arrested during an on-campus demonstration, university officials said.

Emory University in Atlanta: At least 28 people were arrested on Thursday morning, an Emory official said; 20 had ties to the school.

Indiana University in Bloomington: The university police department said 33 people were removed from an encampment on Thursday and taken to jail.

Princeton University in New Jersey: Two graduate students were arrested after pitching tents on Thursday.

University of Connecticut in Storrs: Campus police officers removed at least one tent from a rally on Thursday and took at least one person into custody, a university official said.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt : Protesters have occupied two buildings on the campus in Arcata, Calif., university officials said. Three people were arrested there this week.

Auraria Campus in Denver: About 40 people were arrested on Friday at a campus that houses facilities for the University of Colorado Denver, the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver, the campus police said.

Arizona State University in Tempe: A university official said three people were arrested on Friday after protesters set up an encampment.

University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign : Social media posts on Friday showed police officers detaining at least one person and taking down an encampment.

Halina Bennet, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs , Robert Chiarito , Jill Cowan , Matthew Eadie , Colbi Edmonds , Jacey Fortin , J. David Goodman , Johnna Margalotti, Erin Nolan , Jenna Russell , Edgar Sandoval and Jonathan Wolfe contributed reporting.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated when students at Princeton started to pitch tents. They erected tents on Thursday, not Wednesday.

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Anna Betts reports on national events, including politics, education, and natural or man-made disasters, among other things. More about Anna Betts