Should You Use Collegedata.com To Search For Colleges

HomeApplyPlanReview of College Search Websites: Should You Use Collegedata.com?This page may contain affiliate links.Jan 29, 2019In the spirit of a new college admissions cycle and for the benefit of both rising juniors and seniors this is the second review  in our 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-end collection sources for capturing student information and reselling it to companies (and colleges) wanting to market products, services, and applications to students. So follow us to know which sites are worth spending your time on and which to avoid. COLLEGEdata.com    3 Steps to Show You Why You Should Visit:    Select  College Match Search  from the College 411 Tab Menu.    Scroll to the  Financial Friendliness  Section. Under  Merit Aid, check  Include Only Students Without Financial Need. Select 30% or higher    Scroll down and click  Find   You now have a list of colleges where 30% or more of students without need receive merit aid.      What to Look For On Collegedata.com Colleges Found Table (The Search Results)    Besides College Results Online, COLLEGEdata is the only other website that lists significant information in a table for comparison purposes. The table lists the Percentage of Need Met and the Percentage of Freshman Receiving Merit Aid. It also includes the four-year  graduation rate.      Money Matters Option     The dropdown arrow by each college name will take you to the specific college profile. Start with the Money Matters option. What you want to pay attention to is the  Profile of Financial Aid  option. Spend some time getting to know the different numbers listed, especially the  Average Percentage of Need Met  and the  Percentage of students with no Financial Need Receiving Merit-Based Gift Aid. Be sure to compare the stats for the Freshman with those for All Undergraduates for possible signs of  gapping.      What I Would Change or Add To Collegedata.com Get rid of the  Entrance Difficulty  categories and just split it into class rank, test scores, and acceptance rates. The categories may be a useful way of classifying the school, it just makes it more difficult for students to figure out how they would fit in with their stats.   Display the  % of Students with No Need Receiving Merit-Based Gift Aid  and the average amount in the preliminary Search Results table. This would allow users to easily compare colleges. Of course, that may be the point. Despite this limitation, the table itself is a tremendous tool compared to what is available at most other College Search Websites.    Usual Complaints You cant download the data for multiple colleges at once. This is understandable since these websites make their money by keeping users sticking around to see the advertisements that pay the bills. But its still frustrating.    Allow users to enter their own numbers for search requirements instead of forcing them to use categories. Would it really undermine their ad revenue if students entered their own ranges for student size or minimum graduation rates?    Check out our reviews of other college search sites: Should You Use  The College Board Search Tool To Research Colleges? Using College Search Websites To Search Online: College Results Online