College Search Tools

 

Search engines, databases, or other tools specific to the college search process

 

In addition to the sites designed to help you find schools by major, there are many many other sites which aim to provide helpful information to students and families (some with greater success than others).  See the list below, and scroll all the way down for info on overseas and grad school searches:

 

All About Uni

http://allaboutuni.com

 

Campus Compare

http://www.campuscompare.com/

"CampusCompare is a free college search engine that leverages social media to help users find their best-fit college by what matters to them. Each college’s profile page presents a multi-media view of life at that school, including video, image, RSS, student reviews and the real-time Twitter conversation. Our three web apps help students and parents plan for college: the Financial Aid Calculator, What Are My Chances?, and Compare Schools. Finally, the site has a searchable online library of over 500 articles related to college search."

 

Campus Explorer

http://www.campusexplorer.com/

"Guidance Counselors: Your students are all very different. You want the best for all of them. At the same time, there are only so many minutes in a school-day. You need one-stop shopping when it comes to college research. We'll help you search through vast quantities of information across thousands of schools. You'll be able to home in quickly on an array of options for a diverse student body and help each student complete his or her plan for the future."

 

Cappex

http://www.cappex.com

"Create a Cappex profile to find your college admissions match. Get messages about unique college opportunities. Instantly learn your chances of admission to almost any college in the country. Apply for any of our scholarships with one click. And it's all free."

 

Center for Student Opportunity

http://www.csocollegecenter.org

"An online clearinghouse of college programs and information for first-generation college, low-income, and minority students. A free and publicly accessible site, we encourage you and your students to utilize CSO College Center to research colleges and register a ConnectNow profile to send academic and extracurricular information to colleges of interest."

 

The College Board's "College Matchmaker"

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp

 

College Data (a service provided by First Financial Bank)

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/main/counselor_portal.jhtml

 

College InSight (from the Institute for College Access and Success)

http://college-insight.org/

 

College Portraits (from the Voluntary System of Accountability designed by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU))

http://www.collegeportraits.org/

 

College Results

http://collegeresults.org/default.htm

"College Results allows you to

• Examine overall graduation rates and see how those rates have changed over time
• Learn about universities' records graduating diverse groups of students
• Compare the graduation rates of similar institutions - colleges and universities that share many characteristics and serve similar student populations" 

 

CollegeStudentAthlete's searchable database of colleges/universities offering specific sports at the Division 3 (non-scholarship) level:

http://www.collegestudentathletes.com/index.cfm 

 

"CollegeView" Advanced Search (via Hobson's; basic search is also embeddable as a widget, which would be more exciting if the search itself were better)

http://www.collegeview.com/collegesearch/advSearch.jsp

 

Colleges in the USA - with dual college/ career search functionality

http://www.schoolsintheusa.com/

 

Colleges That Change Lives

http://www.ctcl.com/

 

ConnectEdu's "Connect!" (registration required)

http://www.connectedu.net/ 

 

Colleges of Distinction

http://www.collegesofdistinction.com/

 

College Toolkit's Scholarship and College Searches

"This comprehensive site allows students to find and apply for scholarships, search through a database of more than 4,000 colleges, and explore 900 careers all in one location. It is one of the most comprehensive sites for life after high school... and everything on the site is free for students to use!"

http://www.collegetoolkit.com/

 

Cool Schools (via the Sierra Club)

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200909/coolschools/allrankings.aspx

 

EduPursuit

Basic search best suited to helping plan a road trip; will display results on a map.

http://www.edupursuit.com/index.php

 

Edvisors Online Education Directory

http://www.Edvisors.com - Online Education Program

 

Egiate (GoogleEarth-based search engine)

http://www.egiate.com

 

Forbes' "roll your own" search (somewhat clunky, and with a limited list of schools, but still...):

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/05/best-colleges-ranking-screener-opinions-colleges-09-tool.html

 

How To Get In - College Admission and Search

http://www.HowToGetIn.com

 

Mother Jones' mini college guide:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/mojo-mini-college-guide

 

MyFit

http://myfit.com/

"MyFit is a Facebook Application and website for students and families to get evidence-based answers to their questions about fitting in, acceptance, and whether or not they are suited for a given college. The American college admission process is inefficient: both colleges as well as students suffer from a dramatic lack of information. Colleges attempt to gap this with massive prospecting budgets; the students stress out and often end up making suboptimal decisions. MyFit is a Facebook Application and a website for students and families to enter their personal backgrounds and access our comprehensive research and sophisticated forecasting engine, the QMS, share their experience with friends, and connect with a community of applications going through the same process."

(Read a NYT article about MyFit here.... it's pretty much vapor ware at the moment, but might be interesting once it's built out.)

 

MyUSearch

http://www.myusearch.com/Public/Home/index.cfm

 

Peterson's "College Search"

http://petersons.com/ugchannel/code/searches/srchCrit1.asp

 

Princeton Review's "Counselor-o-Matic"

http://princetonreview.com/college/research/advsearch/match.asp

 

SparkNotes' College Search

http://college.sparknotes.com/search/

 

StuVu - Student Views of College Life

http://stuvu.com/

 

What Will They Learn?

http://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/

That is the question the American Council of Trustees and Alumni asks on this website. They do so by exploring the state of general education, those courses designed to give college students a firm grounding in the areas of knowledge they will use for a lifetime. Specifically, they evaluate whether major colleges and universities require seven key subjects: English composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and science.

 

Wintergreen Orchard House's "Careers and Colleges" (registration required)

http://www.careersandcolleges.com

 

U-CAN (University and College Accountability Network, developed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, or NAICU)

http://www.ucan-network.org

 

Unigo - Find, Explore, and Review America's Colleges

http://www.unigo.com

 

USA University Guide

http://usauniversityguide.org/contents/UniversitySearch.aspx

 

USA Today's Best Value colleges:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/best-value-colleges.htm

 

USNews & World Report

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college

Lists of schools according to USNews' rankings or other pre-defined criteria

 

Washington Monthly's rankings:

Liberal Arts Colleges: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/liberal_arts_rank.php

National Universities: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/national_university_rank.php

 

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Specialty Searches

 

AACSB-accredited Business Schools:

http://bestbizschools.com/

 

Guide to Online Schools

http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/

Student-generated reviews of online educational opportunities

 

Honors Colleges:

http://www.nchchonors.org/memberinstitution.shtml

 

Photography schools:

http://www.photography-colleges.org/an-education-in-photography-education/

 

Colleges that are the best "neighbors" in their communities:

http://www.wsc.ma.edu/Announcements/Top_25_Saviors.html

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Overseas Options

 

The International Association of Universities website has a listing of many of the recognized schools in each country: http://www.unesco.org/iau/onlinedatabases/list.html

 

Eurydice is the information network on European education: http://www.eurydice.org/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/Overview/OverviewByCountry

 

NAFSA: Association of International Educators lists a variety of (paid and free) resources on a country-by-country basis:

http://www.nafsa.org/knowledge_community_network.sec/recruitment_admissions/admissions_and_credential/document_library_14/credential_evaluation/researching_internationalization

 

Braintrack, while a good starting place, may list schools that are not accredited in their home countries.   http://www.braintrack.com/

 

Association of Colleges and Universities of Canada

http://www.aucc.ca/

 

Maclean's Annual Searchable Database of Canadian Institutions

http://tools.macleans.ca/ranking2008/selectindicators.aspx

 

Guide to Post-Secondary Options in Ontario, Canada

http://www.electronicinfo.ca/en/index.php?j=1

 

Directory of International Colleges and Universities:

http://directory.edvisors.com/International/index.html

 

 

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Graduate Schools

 

Graduate Center School Search

http://www.graduatecenter.com/schools/

 

http://gradschools.com

 

http://www.gradview.com

 

http://www.howtogetin.com/college-search/

 

http://www.petersons.com

 

http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/advsearch/match.asp