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Best US College search engines – A beginner’s guide
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October 14, 2008
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This particular blog article is being written for those International students who are just starting to find more information on how to study their higher education in USA. But even students from USA should also find the contents informative.
Prior to this post, an introduction to US educational system was being written for International students as a primer and you can find it here: Prelude to an US Education for International students.
The emphasis of this post is on finding the right best US college for you instead of finding the best US college – difference is simple: what may be ranked as best by a couple of organizations ranking US college/universities (most noticeable of them being the usnews.com), may not be the right choice for you: you may not meet the college admission requirements of those best institute or may be you would not be able to find the money to study in them!
Why you should pay proper importance to choosing your best US college/ Universities?
Because of two factors:
1.0 For knowing the college admission requirements:
The institutes which you would choose would themselves determine which entrance test (called standardization test in US education parlance) you would need to take (SAT OR ACT? GRE? GMAT? TOEFL?) or whether you would need to take any standardization test at all! Yes, the individual colleges themselves determine which standardization test they accept. Some institutes on the other hand do not emphasize on you taking any test at all and your SAT/ACT/GRE/GMAT/TOEFL scores are optional – your admissions would be determined on the basis of your past academic performance.
2.0 For knowing the education cost:
Choosing the best US college/universities is also very important on monetary counts – the cost of education for each US college/universities differs. While for some cost of education is high, scholarships/financial aid available is also very good and hence there is less financial burden on you. In some other institutes, cost of education is low, but there are less scholarships/financial aid available – so naturally there would be more financial burden!
Therefore, choosing your best US college/universities is very important and those decisions may define your entire life. You should plan for the colleges at least a year ahead. Also spend sufficient time (may be minimum a week/fortnight) to prepare a list of your target college. Narrow down your list of colleges to within 10 – why? Because once you have chosen these as your target colleges, you would need to apply them individually – and each college application costs you money - averaging 30 to 50 USD. So imagine spending more than 300 USD on college application alone!
Even before you start searching colleges, perform a check on yourself:
1.0 If the college admission requirements asks for standardization test, how would you (or you have already) perform in those tests?
You can use the free Peterson’s SAT test, styled in the actual SAT test pattern (complete with a timer) to find where you stand today. There are 171 questions (including 1 essay question) to be answered in 200 minutes. Time per question is given alongside in the adjacent chart along with number of question per section. With practice, may be you would be able to improve another 50-100 score.. To use the Peterson’s SAT test, a free registration is required. After that you can attempt the test any day within 90 days of registration. Similar to above practice SAT test, Peterson’s also offers other prep tests like ACT, TOEFL, GRE etc.
2.0 Find what is your financial limit:
US college studies costs you money - study cost involved is very approximate say 28,000 USD (costs without aid vary from 50,000 USD for George Univ. to a 11, 000 USD for Appalachian State University for in-state North Carolina State student).
How much can your parent support? Say you do not get any scholarships and neither you get opportunity to work as a student employee in-campus or outside, how would you find the required fund? If Bank loan is taken, what are the repayment conditions?
Although you can fine tune your actual financial needs after you shortlist the 5-10 target colleges, nevertheless, it is a good idea to have it in mind at the start.
Than, how to start the search for your best US college/universities?
Finding the best US College is always so easy – almost all the information you need is available on the net. The problem is there are too many college search engine websites giving the info. Therefore I have narrowed down my choice of college search engine websites to only the few I think is most informative and hence useful.
Which college search engine to use for finding the colleges?
Following three college search engines is recommended for this purpose:
i) “College MatchMaker” college search engine tool from collegeboard.com
 This is a very comprehensive tool giving you the option of choosing by categories such as “Type of School, Location, Majors, Cost & Financial Aid, Admissions, Sports & Activities, Housing & Programs” etc. It is the best ever college search engine I came across.
ii) educationusa.state.gov-Petersons search engine:
 Another excellent college search engine tool, providing as much extensive search as College MatchMaker college search engine tool. You can find the colleges by above search conditions as well as search colleges by your major by entering the same as keyword(s).
iii) usnews college search engine:
  This is a very good college search engine tool, may be even better than “College MatchMaker” college search engine tool from collegeboard.com, as it gives you college ranking also apart from other details. You can search for the colleges by name as well as by selecting it from categories or regions.
However, it has a major drawback that you can not search the colleges by majors. You have to find the colleges and than find what major it offers. To find more data (like admission requirements/Financial aids) you have to buy the premium edition for 15USD, which I find is justified, compared to the amount of benefit it may bring to you.
All of above college search engines gives you the two most important data: the college admission requirements (i.e. SAT/ACT, TOEFL/IELTS etc.) as well as what is the study cost. They also say you what is the college application acceptance rate: how many applications out of total were accepted for admission, from which you can also have a fair idea on how much in demand these colleges are.
“Best Value” colleges:
There is another alternative (a shortcut) to finding your best college: in terms of “Best Value” colleges. The term “Best Value” says what it stands for: Getting the “Best Value” for your money and effort.
Following two websites brings to you a set of “Best Value” colleges depending on certain methodologies (usnews college search engine also gives you “Best Value” colleges). But however, they do not show you what are the majors offered by these “Best Value” colleges. What you can do is find the college from these two sites and than find the majors offered by using any of “College MatchMaker” college search engine or "educationusa.state.gov-Petersons" college search engine.
 kiplinger.com brings to you a very useful report on 100 best value Public college in the US and 50 best value Private colleges.
 So with above five college search engine tools/websites, I am sure you would be able to make your target list of 5-10 colleges.
Check for Accreditation of these colleges:
After you short listed those colleges, please check whether they have accreditations from following two websites:
U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
Accreditation is important for following reasons:
i) You would not be able to get financial aid (scholarships or loan) for unaccredited colleges.
ii) Employers may not recognize/accept the qualification you obtain from unaccredited colleges.
I hope above beginners guide on US College search engines would help you in your search for your best colleges. Best wishes for your studies and visit this blog again as I am going to post more materials on US college admissions including educational aids as well as target those standardization tests: SAT/ACT/GRE/GMAT/TOEFL!Labels: study in USA |
posted by
Prasanta Bora on
October 14, 2008
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