How Good Is The College Board Search Tool To Research Colleges

HomeApplyPlanShould You Use The College Board Search Tool To Research Colleges?This page may contain affiliate links.Apr 5, 2018 In the spirit of a new college admissions cycle and for the benefit of both rising juniors and seniors this is the third 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-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.    3 Steps to Show You Why You Should Visit:    Enter a college in the  Find College field at the bottom left-hand corner of the home page.   Click on the  Applying option on the left-hand menu. Scroll down until you see the tab options. Select the  AP  tab.    You now see how much credit your  AP  scores might actually be worth. BigFuture is operated by the College Board, the company that makes and administers the test. This makes it your best option, beside the school itself, for information on AP or CLEP credit. Remember, just because a school offers credit doesnt mean it will count towards degree requirements.      What to look for on this site: Study Options Services Tab This is under the  Majors Learning Environment. These options should give you an idea of the variation of potential offerings at even small colleges. Cooperative Education programs are an excellent way to get experience and starting earning money. Cross-Registration with other institutions increases the number of classes available.   And  Off-Campus Study Options  allows students to network in places like New York or Washington for a semester.    Activities Tab This tab is under the  Campus Life Option. Without doing an exact study, Ive found Big Futures profiles to have the most comprehensive listing of campus activities. If available, youll see a link to the student newspaper which can be a wealth of information on current campus issues. The tab also lists the percentage of students joining fraternities and sororities.      What I Would Change About This Website Big Futures college comparison feature is pretty much useless. It only allows for three colleges. The  Cost Aid  section is just a listing of the sticker price for tuition and fees and room and board-no financial aid data at all.   It does list the acceptance rates and test scores which is something. However, given the actual amount of space the comparison takes up on the screen, it really offers very little value.    The Financial Aid by the Numbers tab under the Paying option has some nice graphics but the data is confusing. The bar graphs are referring to All Undergraduates but the Average Financial Aid Package listed at the top is for just 1st year students which you dont know if is supposed to be different from the percentage of freshman with need who received financial need. If you want a straight forward comparison of the available numbers, use  COLLEGEdatas Money Matters tab instead.    Usual Complaints about this website With the review of Big Future, I get to talk about my third problem with college search websites, the use of sliders to indicate the importance of a selection. (The other two are limitations on search options and the inability to download data which I discussed in the COLLEGEdata review.) For example, under  Paying  you can set the filter for colleges that meet 60% of average need and then set the slider for  Don’t Care,  Want, and  Must Have.  Ã‚      At the very top of the College Search page, Big Future lists the number of results. I have tried all sorts of combinations and cant really figure out how the  Want  option affects the results differently from  Dont Care.  Or actually, let me rephrase that, I havent used it enough to find a situation where I would include  Want instead of  Must Have  as part of my search.   I think the concept is valuable. Theyre trying to give the user the option to say when having to choose between say location or size, which is more important? It just doesnt seem to be working very well in application. Check out our reviews of other college search websites: Should You Use CollegeData.com? Should You Use The College Board Search Tool To Research Colleges? Michelle Kretzschmar  created the  DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet, which contains information on over 1,500 colleges that families can use to identify 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 ApplyCollege SearchLearnPlan TAGS college searchNEWER POSTScholarships with August and September DeadlinesOLDER POSTReview of College Search Websites: Should You Use Collegedata.com?