Using College Search Websites To Research Colleges

HomeApplyShould You Use CollegeResultsOnline.Com To Research CollegesThis page may contain affiliate links.Apr 5, 2018In the spirit of a new college admissions cycle and for the benefit of both rising juniors and seniors we will be publishing a series of reviews of college search websites. Some have a plethora of worthwhile information which can really help a student create a thorough list of both academically and financially appropriate schools, while other search sites are merely front-ends collection sources for capturing student information and reselling it to companies (and colleges) wanting to sell products, services, and applications to students. So follow us to know which sites are worth spending your time on and which to avoid. College Results Online    3 Steps to Show Why You Should Visit:      In the  Choose a College  box, enter a college youre interested in.      Click on the Similar Colleges tab.    Change the Grad Rate Timeframe to 4-Year and the Most Similar Colleges to Top 25. and click update Table Data.    You now have a way to learn about colleges you have never heard of before and expand your college list.      What to look for on this site: The Excel Download Option This is the only website that allows you to simply download all of the information presented into an Excel spreadsheet. This is how I started creating my  College Search Spreadsheet. By having your own spreadsheet, you can start adding other information important to your family in the college search process.    Price and Financial Aid Tab Spend some time learning the information on this tabits worth it. Make sure you pay attention to the Average Net Price After Grants column. Any school with an  average net price  over $30,000 is highly unlikely to be offering substantial merit aid. Those under $26,000 are probably  good candidates  for merit aid. Anything in between you need to look at very closely.      What I Would Change About This Website What can I say, this is my favorite college search website, the one I use to measure all others. So there is very little that I find wrong with it.   I do think its missing some very useful information in the Price and Financial Aid tab. It doesnt include the percentage of freshman receiving institutional aid. This number is another very useful indicator for targeting schools for merit or need-based aid.  I also think that the default  graduation rate  should be set to 4-year instead of 6-year. And the advanced search option combines Division 2 and Division 3 athletics which doesnt make sense since one offers  athletic scholarships  and the other doesnt. College Results Online does not include information on class rank or percentage of financial need met. However, this information is only included in the data collected through the  Common Data Set  which is proprietary information. The data in College Results is primarily from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) run by the federal government.      Michelle Kretzschmar  created the  DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet, which contains information on over 1,500 colleges that families can use to identify  Ã‚  the best schools for them. Road2College Debbie Schwartz is former financial services executive and founder of Road2College and the Paying For College 101 Facebook group. She's dedicated to providing families with trustworthy information about college admissions and paying for college. With data, tools and access to experts she's helping families become educated consumers of higher ed. View all posts CATEGORIES Apply TAGS Researching CollegesNEWER POSTAmazon Prime Day College SpecialsOLDER POST7 Lessons From This Years Admissions Cycle