Use these websites to help “shop” for your ideal college and think through your college options.
- CollegeBoard College Search is a searchable database that contains information from 3,800+ colleges and universities and is a great resource to start your college search.
- Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and support of a student-centered college search process. These 40 colleges and universities — two public and 38 private from 24 states and with enrollments ranging from 350 to 4,000 — were selected by education writer Loren Pope because they share “two essential elements: a familial sense of communal enterprise that gets students heavily involved in cooperative rather than competitive learning, and a faculty of scholars devoted to helping young people develop their powers, mentors who often become their valued friends.”
- University and College Accountability Network (UCAN) provides concise, web-based, and user-friendly information about hundreds of private colleges and universities, so you can search and compare.
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. Use this site to build an online list of schools with side-by-side comparisons.
- CollegeInSight makes data on college affordability, diversity, and student success easy to find, compare, and analyze. In addition to college-level data, it features totals and averages for states, sectors, and other groupings of colleges. College InSight is both an easy-to-use consumer resource and a sophisticated research tool designed to help shed light on important trends and issues.
- Peterson’s Planner provides useful search tools to help you find the right college or university fit and gather information about specific programs.
- What Will They Learn? is a free online resource designed to help you decide whether the colleges you’re considering prepare their graduates to succeed after graduation.
- Finding Money for College provides information and deadlines about a variety of scholarship opportunities that can help alleviate the financial burden of paying for college.
CALIFORNIA-SPECIFIC RESOURCES
- CaliforniaColleges.edu is the state’s official website that provides information about higher education in California for students, counselors, and parents. The site provides search tools for exploring colleges and careers, planning and paying for college, and navigating the college admissions process.
- ASSIST is an online student-transfer information system that shows how course credits earned at one public California college or university can be applied when transferred to another. ASSIST is the official repository of articulation for California’s public colleges and universities and provides the most accurate and up-to-date information about student transfer in California.
- WACAC College Fair is a regional college fair for high school students and their parents held at the Saint Mary’s College campus in Moraga each Spring.
