High school students and institutions are becoming increasingly reliant on Web-based applications to plan college careers, using popular websites to locate scholarships and manage academic records.

With new innovations in cell phone technology, iPhone applications are quickly becoming a feasible option for students looking to further organize their college ambitions.

Advertisements aren’t overstating the fact that if you can dream it, â??thereâ??s an app for that.â? Todayâ??s prospective college students will find apps to assist them in picking a college with an excellent program for their desired major, apps to locate the best restaurants on campus, and apps to help them plan their book budget each semester. Here, then, are the top three iPhone applications to help with college planning.

Peterson’s College Guide

This is one of the best college planning guides iTunes has to offer. Prospective students can browse colleges, based on study program and budget, using the familiar slot-style iPhone equivalent of a drop-down menu.

Once a student has found a campus that works for him, Petersonâ??s provides him with the collegeâ??s contact information for easy reference â?? including school email addresses. Users can submit their own emails to Petersonâ??s in order to receive additional college information from the company.

The economy may slowly be on the rise, but there are plenty of us who have yet to feel it, and so using this app makes plenty of sense for the student with a limited budget. Appropriately, the app is available for free download. Petersonâ??s prides itself on keeping its information current, allowing prospective students quick access to the most recent data.

Mint

Graduating high school students are about to get their first taste of the so-called real world, and although this app doesn’t directly relate to academia, it will give students an edge over their non-Mint-using peers in many ways.

Mintâ??s iPhone application allows users to keep tidy finance records, and, frankly, itâ??s never too soon to start. This app has been heralded by just about everybody, allowing its record keepers to see exactly where their dollars are being spent.

Users enter their financial information and after that Mint tracks account activity automatically. Students with college savings accounts will be able to keep a finite eye on spending habits, which will hopefully help them form good ones from the start.

Students who rely on parents to replenish their bank accounts can receive alerts that notify them to such occurrences. Mint records deposits and withdrawals so students will be able to see how much money they spend in the average semester.

Chegg

Next to tuition costs, book buying is likely the next biggest money pit students will face each semester. Because students are unlikely to want to keep every required textbook for reference after the class has ended, book rental services can save them quite a bit of money.

Cheggâ??s iPhone app conveniently allows students to either rent or purchase textbooks from their iPhoneâ??s touch screen. Some book renters report savings of up to $500 â?? an amount that can go a long way toward benefitting any studentâ??s social life.

Prospective students can browse book listings and use this app to get a leg up on what they’ll be spending on books each semester.

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Audrey Jefferson is a career counselor and guest author at Best Colleges Online, where she contributed to the guide to the Top 10 Most Affordable Online Colleges.