Use A College Search Tool
Online search engines are powerful tools that can help zero in on schools that may be an excellent match for you. We encourage you to try several of them because they might turn up different results. They can be used to add to a list that you have already started or even to build one from scratch.
BigFuture- TheBigFuture website at can help you identify colleges using criteria that are important to you, like size, location, majors, sports, activities, average net price, and the academic record of a recent incoming class. Career planning tools on the website describe a large number of college majors as well as the careers for which these majors are good preparation. Projections about job prospects for each career are also provided. The site’s search engine helps you identify colleges offering a particular major.
SuperMatch-SuperMatch is available free to anyone at SuperMatch uses the same approach as BigFuture, so your list will consist of schools that both match your criteria perfectly as well as those that match them only to some extent. You are unlikely to get the same results with the two search engines, but that’s a good thing. You will likely be able to expand your list by using more than one.
College Navigator- The U.S. Department of Education has a search tool, College Navigator, which serves a similar function as the BigFuture search feature. You can find it at College Navigator isn’t as colorful as BigFuture or SuperMatch, and it doesn’t let you indicate the importance of different criteria, but it has an extensive list of majors to choose from and lets you specify the SAT or ACT ranges that you would like to include in your search results. The College navigator site also contains links to the online Occupational Outlook Handbook that lets you explore job prospects in different occupations, as well as a link that will take you immediately to the net price calculator at any college.
Niche- Niche (colleges.niche.com/) formerly known as College Prowler, is an online and in-print guidebook that uses student comments to grade campuses (A-B-C-D) on their academics, athletics, campus housing, diversity, social life, local atmosphere, and other areas. In addition to student-authored summaries for each topic, the site includes comments from individual students, by topic, who have chosen to post their perspectives for everyone to see.3.
College Websites- College websites are perhaps the single most valuable source of information about a college. Clicking on “admissions” or “prospective students” from a college home page will lead you to much useful information. You’ll usually find recent campus news and sports results, statistics about the most recent freshman class, a description of the entrance requirements, and the academic programs and majors available. Links to academic departments give you detailed information about faculty and their specializations, as well as a list of courses offered.