My D20 has 4-5 schools that she really likes, but has a hard time articulating what about them puts them at the top of the list. What good sources have you all found to Netflixify the listmaking process? As in, “If you liked The Breakfast Club, you’ll love St. Elmo’s Fire!.” Existing resources I know about, but aren’t perfect:
In Naviance, we can see the pairwise overlap in applications from kid's high school over past 5 years. (As in, of the 132 students who applied College A, 118 also applied to College B, 62 applied to College C, and 41 applied to College D.)
Niche shows "Colleges like [this one]" near the bottom of the profile -- not sure how good the algorithm is.
Here at CC! Y'all are great at responding to threads about "fill out my list" or "schools like X but less selective."
I really like the site College Raptor for a quick look at schools. I find it easy to use and quick information. On the first tab “overview” if you scroll to the bottom it does give comparable schools and nearby schools that are similar (if you are looking for a geographic region). JMHO
Naviance was helpful but it really depends on how broadly other kids at your school search. If people generally stay close to home, Naviance is unlikely to suggest that you consider Bard, Vassar, and Oberlin when you look at Reed, but a PNW kid who likes Reed and is willing to cross the country could find those to be great options.
@gardenstategal Totally agree re: naviance. And we’ve got a small school and a local Ivy that >30% kids apply to, so that’s almost always the most common overlap for any given schools
Here is an interesting link to an article from a few years ago. It shows which colleges consider each other peers. You can’t view it on a phone, though.
Let me second your last bullet point and the other comments. This site is – by far – the most valuable for the type of information you seek. Plus, you can ask directed questions regarding the responses.
(…and also see all the posters that disagree! lol…)