Last week I mentioned three MilSpouse-run Facebook sites offering forums for advice and interesting reading. The point of noting these MilVillages (as I like to call them) was they address two common areas of conversation and questions among MilSpouses (career and personal finance), and they offer expertise and help from people familiar with the impact of a military life on these areas (fellow MilSpouses).

However, there is a third area I forgot to include: the college search and admission process. And, just like with careers and personal finance, a military life presents unique circumstances that can affect college admission, so it’s good to have help from others in the same boat.

While the college search is different for different kids (based on their higher education desires), the process for most still is a riddle wrapped in a mystery (to paraphrase Winston Churchill). And the riddle is even more difficult for kids looking at selective schools, military academies, ROTC applications, or scholarships, because planning starts (or should) freshman year in high school with grades, extracurriculars, rigorous class loads, etcetera.

My wife and I became familiar with the process through my oldest son’s college search (he’s now a freshman at Boston University and in Air Force ROTC). He wanted to look at selective schools and really wanted to go out of state. My wife and I knew this would require scholarship dollars, and hard work on his part — and he understood this. In the course of his college admission process, I learned a lot from my own research and from picking people’s brains who had already been through the college search.

One of the best resources I found though was a Facebook page run by Kerri Beckert called Anchor Collegiate: Navigating the College Admissions Process. What makes the site relevant to MilFams is Kerri is a 27-year Army spouse who has successfully navigated two daughters through 18 PCSes and 16 schools and into college — so she understands how a MilKid’s life can impact his or her college search. Plus, she also has a certificate in college counseling from UCLA and runs a successful college admissions consulting firm.

While Kerri can’t change your kids’ GPA to a 4.0 or magically add lacking extracurriculars, her Facebook site offers relevant and enormously helpful advice and information on college admission (based on my personal experience) such as, updates on Free Application for Federal Student Aid (more commonly known as FAFSA); tips on how have successful spring break college visits (bring a resume and wear clean, comfortable, and boring clothing); how applications are evaluated; how to narrow down your MilKid’s school list; and a whole lot more. Go to the site, “like” it, “share” it with others, grab a cup of coffee, and start perusing.

(Personally, I liked this article Kerri posted: Advice College Admissions Officers Give Their Own Kids. It’s interesting reading what these people tell their own high school kids about applying to college.)

There you have it — great sites from MilSpouses offering excellent information on topics relevant to MilSpouses. If you have sites you tend to go to for info, please share them by posting below.