1998 graduation may seem far off for some, but for high school seniors planning on college, it is coming very fast and now is the time to make final preparations. Additionally, college-bound juniors need to be starting their higher education search now if they haven't already.

For the first stop, check the College Board Online. No one knows the college-bound tests better than the College Board since they are the creators and administrators of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Prelimiary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and others.

If you need to take the SAT for the first time or are trying to improve your score, visit the College Board Online Store. Here you can order videos, books and practice exams including "10 Real SATs" which has past exams (including one from May 1997) for you to practice on.

Want to find the perfect college? The College Search section of the College Board Online lets you quickly pull up information on a particular college or university by typing in the school name or by searching specific criteria.

Search by geographic location, population of town, college enrollment size, types of sports played, financial aid availability and, of course, major. No matter which way you search, you are given a list of schools that match your criteria.

With the rising cost of education, you may need additional financial aid. Thousands of grants, loans and scholarships go unawarded each year because qualified applicants never applied.

From the College Board Online, you can search for scholarships online using the Scholarship Search. Select from categories as diverse as minority background, fields of study, disabilities, students and parents place of employment, careers or organizational membership. A little time searching and filling out applications could easily lead to hundred or thousands of dollars in awards.

As an alternative site, fastWEB touts a database of 275,000 scholarships and claims to be "the largest [scholarship] search." According to the site, "Once you've set up your fastWEB mailbox, check here for...hot new awards and updates on current scholarships."

When you find an award you are interested in, apply for it. On certain awards, you can follow a link to apply online for the scholarship using preformatted information. If the award for which you are eligible does not have the application online you can still print out the included preformatted letter and mail it in. Either way, you can't get much easier than printing and mailing for money.

For ranking of colleges around the nation, the source to check is U.S. News College and Careers Center. The modified excerpt from the 1998 U.S. News and World Report annual survey and rankings is greatly enhanced. This multi-award-winning site has tips and articles for the college student and parents that should not be missed.

Another site that always seems to get better each year is CollegeEdge. CollegeEdge has expanded to include more information and specialty areas like MBA.CollegeEdge for those interested business schools.

Finally, one of the best overall resources for links to anything related to education is Yahoo!'s section on Higher Education.

Whether you are ready to apply today for college or still a year or two off, it is never to early or late to start reviewing the information from these online resources.