<p>Does anyone have a spreadsheet that they use to track the the colleges they are considering, the various deadlines, visits, rankings, awards, etc? </p>
<p>I have the individual cover sheets from Cappex that we are using for each college but it would be much more convenient to see everything one place. </p>
<p>Has someone already developed something like this?</p>
<p>I’m basically using an Excel spreadsheet with heading such as this: College Website Location Tuition #Undergrads Acceptance rate Retention 6 yr grad rate Middle 50 SAT SAT RM (75th %) ACT middle 50 HOUSING (on campus freshman/on campus general) Women/Men USNews Ranking MERIT (potential) APPLYING (requirements) COA FAFSA date APP Due date APP COST Submitted date</p>
<p>Most of the information I collected from the collegeboard site along with a few others. I add new columns as needed, for example once results start coming back.</p>
<p>Should there be a column for estimated net cost based on the school’s net price calculator (or guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships)?</p>
<p>I have a similar excel sheet as above but I include EFC based on net pricing calculator, 4 year graduation rate and overall admit rate.</p>
<p>My spreadsheet actually has several tabs (evolved over 2 kids). I am not at that computer right now, but spend so much time in it that I can tell you a lot of what is in it…</p>
<ul>
<li>The first tab is test scores. It includes a plan for what dates the tests are offered, which tests D plans to take on which dates, and backup plans for retakes. Complex for her due to some ECs that she hates to miss on Saturdays. Her testing is all done; all she had left this fall was one subject test retake, which is done. I am glad we laid out this plan early Junior year.</li>
<li>The next tab is all the colleges she was interested in to start with. But at this point it is split… I have copied the info for ones she is NOT applying to down to the bottom of the tab (not deleted in case she changes her mind) so we can just look at the ones at the top that she is applying to. Columns include: school name & location, 50% SAT & ACT ranges (colored by where her scores fit into those ranges), some cost columns (tuition, fees, room & board) for the last two years (so we can see how much it went up when projecting 4 year cost), columns for specific ECs and subject areas D is interested in, columns for ranking info (US News & Forbes), a column to track visit status/planned visit date, whether they are need blind, and a general comments column. I am sure there are a few more, just don’t remember them now.</li>
<li>Then we have a tab for tracking actual applications. It includes school, due date for whatever round she means to apply to, essay question information (prompts and lengths), fee for application, whether she will be applying for fin aid, any Fin Aid form requirements, status of the application, and a space for the link to the application status that the schools send once they receive the app. Also a column for the password (although we are trying to set all of them the same for ease of checking).</li>
<li>A financial tab with four year projected cost without any aid, any guaranteed merit money, a guess at possible other merit money or need based aid, and travel expenses. This tab also has a section for each school (at the bottom) where I put the results of running the financial calculator for each school.</li>
<li>A scholarship tab. Lists each scholarship identified with target dates, requirements, amount, and when they notify. Lines are shaded with colors based on the likelihood of her getting it (so she focuses on the most likely ones).<br></li>
<li>We are a little overboard… so there is also a separate spreadsheet that we used to score her top 18 schools (literally a scoring model) to pare her list down to 10 schools. She was free to NOT use the model results (although she set the categories and weights herself), but she ended up sticking to them pretty closely.</li>
<li>Finally, I built a task list tab for pretty much all of senior year (include stuff like yearbook deadlines, senior service project paperwork deadlines, recommendation request deadlines, FA form deadlines for each school, etc. It currently has about 250 tasks on it! I just add new stuff in every time something is identified, and mark 'em as In Process or Done as she completes things. This way I can give her a heads up every week (“you have a form due to the college counseling office on Tuesday, and that scholarship essay is due on Friday”). I am a project manager, so this just seemed completely logical to me. It has really helped, I think. D is only mildly stressed at this point, vs some of her friends who are REALLY stressed over the process.</li>
</ul>
<p>I believe my spreadsheets are a little bare-bones compared to some others. School name, location, size, cost, SAT info (one web site used to do % > 600 on the CR and M sections–I liked that much more than the 25th-75th percentile figures–was sad to see they changed their web site this year and no longer report it), % living on campus, % graduating in four years, plus some “Top 20” info from PR.</p>
<p>My first tab is “all possible”–in fact, back with my first kid I started the spreadsheet just to keep all of the demographic-type info for every single school that came on anyone’s radar so I didn’t have to keep looking up the same stuff. This can grow to 40-50 schools. Sometimes another sheet is Visits–just to help organize them geographically and such. Then a tab for <em>my</em> suggestions re: schools to actually apply to, and another sheet with schools the kiddo is more interested in. Final tab is “Applications sent”–at this point I add common app or not and application deadline. Then the fun part–when I get to go to the rows and add smiley (or frowny) faces and color them red or green as decisions come in. At that point I insert columns for aid and net cost.</p>
<p>Everybody has their own style/complexity/info they want in their spreadsheets. My best advice is to start simple–you can always add info as you want.</p>
<p>If one has identified a small number of schools, entering data manually is feasible. If one is using the spreadsheet to identify candidate schools, it would be nice to have data for hundreds of schools, which can then be filtered. Is such a data set available?</p>
<p>Beliavsky–if you are trying to filter for a large number of schools it may be worthwhile to sign up at the Collegeboards site or Cappex. They have search engines and you can save schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>We used a spreadsheet to track admissions information once they narrowed down their choices. We had:</p>
<p>-school name
-application deadlines
-merit scholarship deadlines
-common app
-decision type (rolling, EA, etc.)
-overall costs
-automatic merit aid
-other possible merit aid
-Net cost (set that up to automatically calculate from the other fields).
-app fees
-supplements
-LOR’s needed
-add’l info of note
-NPC results</p>
<p>I didn’t use any statistical data for test scores, etc. because we had already chosen schools that met those for us.</p>
<p>A lot of data is readily available at the Dept of Ed College Navigator search engine. You can download your search results as an excel spreadsheet.</p>
<p>My DD started at community college, so het spreadsheet included information about acceptance of her AA as full or partial gen eds, estimated time to completion of BA, and existence of specific advanced coursework for her major. The financial columns had one that showed the difference between the COA at the cheapest in-state option, and the other institutions. That helped us keep our thoughts straight when looking at more glamorous options.</p>
<p>In addition to the above, I’ve included admissions office contact info as well as a direct link to each school’s website. Just makes life easier!</p>
<p>Also: interviews - required, recommended, or not needed?</p>
<p>I keep separate spreadsheets for visits (including admissions office schedules, actual visit dates, etc.) & interviews (who, when, where, & contact info).</p>
<p>There’s an entirely different spreadsheet for essays, listing the supplemental essay topics for each school, as well as how many are needed (eg., two of the four topics). Essays the kid has selected or is required to do are highlighted, and completed essays are shaded in dark grey. Because essays can be “multi-purposed,” writing one essay can result in several boxes getting shaded over, which makes the entire task a bit less daunting.</p>
<p>Anyone feel like sharing their sheet? It will be quite a few revs before I get to where you guys are with yours.</p>
<p>Looking to bump an old thread. </p>
<p>Is anyone will to share their spreadsheet?</p>
<p>please use old threads for information purposes only. closing thread</p>