@fiftyfifty1 is very kind, but I am just a random person who likes researching, and don’t have some of the very specific knowledgeable expertise that some others (like @aquapt) have about an array of particular programs at schools.
I will note part of my researching techniques, though, which might help in the development of a better college search tool.
I usually start with College Navigator (linked by @ucbalumnus in post 3). That can help in finding schools by: size, major, location, admissions rate, etc.
One of the time-consuming parts of looking in College Navigator at the majors is looking to see the number of students in a major, because this can denote relative strength in a department (either by percentage or number of students) as well as whether there would be sufficient coursework in the major (or whether there are so few students in the major that the major could be at risk of being eliminated or having slim offerings). This is one of the ways that some of the under-the-radar schools I mention pop up in my suggestions.
As probably an even better indicator of the strength of the department is looking at the institutions that produce students who go on to earn doctorates (Baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients). If a student is producing a fair percentage of students who earn doctorates, then the strength of the department is probably adequate or good (or better). This is another way of finding “hidden gems.”
So I’d love a tool that would cross-reference the availability of the major along with aspects to take a guess at the strength of the major (described above).
If this could then be combined with percentage of students in Greek life (Greek Life Participation on College Campuses), as well a tool looking at class sizes (for instance, if a person is okay with whatever percentage of classes of more than 50, or 10%, or 2%, or 0%, etc). If the tool could at least provide the percentages on class sizes for informational purposes, that’d be great, but being able to narrow down the number of options by classes under 20 (or 30, etc) or over 50 would be fabulous. (For partial inspiration: Class Size and Student-to-Faculty-Ratio – College Transitions, but more robust for the utopian search tool.)
The accreditation sites are very important as well, especially for engineering, architecture, etc. Having a way to select an engineering major and then also select ABET-accredited for that major would be super. (Perhaps listing ABET-accredited Chemical Engineering as a choice vs. Chemical Engineering, the latter of which would pull anything in IPEDS as offering the major, or NAAB-accredited architecture, etc.)
Added to that would be great to have a function that would indicate whether a school offers merit aid or not, and pulling from the data what percentage of students receive merit aid and the average amount of merit aid received (similar to this Merit Aid by Institution – College Transitions). Combining all of this into a potentially average post-merit aid calculator would be awesome. For instance, a person would enter their budget (say, $45k). If a school’s merit aid tables or average merit aid would get the price down to the budget, then the school would pop up. Alternatively, if there was a thing about what a school’s maximum merit aid possible is, so that students could know whether a school could ever meet budget based purely on merit aid.
Also, there would be a caveat or special language about how at most colleges, the listed fees are sticker prices, and that students/families should run NPCs and that for non-elite schools, that even non-exemplary students can receive merit aid. That way, it can help break down part of the asymmetrical imbalance of information between families and colleges.