{ I N D EPEN D EN T S C H OO L G U I D E }
5. Niche : www.niche.com
EXTRA SITES. For data seeking techies, College Navigator www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator, run by the National Council of Education Statistics, and College Insight www.college-insight.org, provide entertaining reading. And many will enjoy Parchment www.parchment.com, where not only can you search out colleges right for you, but you can use their user-submitted results to gauge your chances of getting in to the college of your choice (of course, there are no guarantees…). Good tools are also available at College Reality Check www.collegerealitycheck.com, an informative and “newsy” site run by the Chronicle of Higher Education . 10. College Results Online: www.collegeresults.org An incredibly useful site, College Results Online gathers data from a wide variety of sources (including Federal, State and private databases) and enables you to find relevant and informed alternatives to the college you might have your eye on. 11. Common Data Set: To find, search “Common Data Set” plus the name of the individual college you’re looking at (not available for all colleges). An intriguing and unbelievably revealing source of information, in which the colleges themselves give their own data on a multitude of issues, including what factors they consider in admissions, the number of students admitted in each “band” of SAT and ACT scores (700-800, 600-699, etc.), the percentage of admits in each tier of class rank (top 10%, top 25%, etc.), what types of financial aid are offered and what the average award is, and much, much more. Also includes information about instructional programs, class sizes, and general student life. EXTRA POINTER. Be sure to focus on Section C: that’s where the most useful information about how they actually pick is contained. If you haven’t already heard of this site in your college search, you will. Most noteworthy here is the “web’s busiest discussion community” (if they do say so themselves). Some of the threads here are unpleasantly angst-filled and some have misinformation and rumor, but others have answers from people who’ve either “been there, done that” or who are particularly knowledgeable about the topic you’re interested in. Just stay away from this site around college notification days (both early- and regular decision). You won’t welcome the very stressful, minute-by-minute posts of where people got in, where they got deferred, or where they got axed. College fairs are the ‘speed dating’ of admissions: you meet a lot of potential partners, have a few minutes to size up the chemistry, then make some snap judgments (many of which need further investigation). So what’s the point of a college fair, then? Admissions WESTONMAGAZINEGROUP.COM 179 12. College Confidential: www.collegeconfidential.com DO’S AND DON’TS FOR ATTENDING COLLEGE FAIRS
This unusual site (formerly College Prowler) ranks colleges in 30- plus categories, including “Best Social Scene,” “Campus Strictness,” and “If I could do it all over again.” A very useful complement to Unigo and College Click TV, it includes thousands of student reviews, organized by categories. Check out special features such as “Frequently Compared” (similar schools, each with their own rankings), “Students Often Come From” (high schools from which many students come), and “Campus Tour” (informative videos, though be careful, the schools often have a big share in the content presentations). 6. The University of Illinois’s College and University Rankings: www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gives an informative overview of various ranking services, including a master list of over 20 different rating services (complete with URLs). These range from well-known favorites such as US News and World Report , Forbes , Kiplingers , and Princeton Review , to lesser-known sites such as Parchment, Students Review, College Factual, Asian Nation’s Best Colleges for Asian Americans, and Black Enterprise’s Top Colleges for African Americans. An excellent and useful meta- site on college rankings thanks to the nice folks at U of I. 7. Fair Test: www.fairtest.org Bombed the ACT or SAT? Or think that standardized testing doesn’t really measure anything important? Then you’ll like Fair Test, the site of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. Their mission is to try to end the misuse or overuse of standardized testing, and so, its website includes a list of over 800 colleges and universities that have flexible, or optional, standardized testing requirements. Fun to look at even if you have awesome test scores. This new entry in the college admission arena ranks colleges from the other end: it focuses on how well students do after they graduate, rather than on how accomplished they are coming in. The rankings here are based on factors such as intellectual, social, and spiritual development, as well as, most important, career success. You can actually customize the ranking formula (which is applied to 227 schools) by adjusting the weighting to reflect how important (or not) each of the rating factors is for you. 9. College Data: www.collegedata.com This beast of a site provides a wealth of information about admission, money matters (including tuition, profile of financial aid recipients, and financial aid programs), academics (including majors, gen ed requirements, faculty, and AP policies), and campus life (including weather, housing, security, sports and student activities). Also available is a College Admissions tracker—see how you compare to real students who got in, and calculate your chances of following in their footsteps—and a Net Price Calculator—get a rough idea of how much each of these colleges is going to cost you. 8. The Alumni Factor: www.alumnifactor.com
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