Credit Check Report

I paid a medical bill really late about a year ago that I originally was not going to pay but my parents convinced me otherwise. Also I got suspended from college for the semester about a year ago as well and after I got most of my money back (it was only a few weeks into the semester) and moved back home, about a few months later I got a letter in the mail saying that I owed them $300 for terminating my on-campus housing agreement early. I simply ignored the letter and got another one a little while later and then a few months after that, I got a letter from some debt collection agency in North Carolina. I still haven’t paid it and it’s been almost a year, the letter from the collection agency was back in like July of last year and I haven’t heard from either them or the school since. Will this affect my credit record? How do I check my report to see if anybody has any claims against me? Also how can I find out who all has viewed my report?
One last thing, I heard that by even viewing your credit record your score goes down, can anybody elaborate on this?