Best way to gather information

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, I am trying to help someone researching colleges. I got a long list of questions that I need to fill for 40 colleges. What would be the best way to do it, other than go to each college site? Is there, perhaps, some ready spreadsheet with itemized comparison? I am sure people have done it before me. Here is the long list:</p>

<p>General
Name:
Location:
Setting:
Distance from Home:
Private/Public:
Physical Area:
Rank: </p>

<p>Size
Number of Undergrads:
Number of Graduate Students:
Number of Undergrads admitted per year:
Student-Faculty Ratio:
Typical Class Size:
Distribution by race:
Distribution by sex: </p>

<p>APs
Do they accept AP classes as credit:
How many:
How many credits per AP class:
Will they accept 3s:</p>

<p>Admittance
Percent admitted in last three years:
Percent admitted in last three years early decision:
Percent admitted from WHHS:</p>

<p>Majors
Offer Psychology Major:
Offer pre-med:
Medical Program:
Can you design your own:
Can you take double or triple majors:
Most popular majors:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars
Popular extracurricular activities:
Athletics:
- Offer skiing:
Greek Life (Sororities): </p>

<p>Do they offer:
Honors Program:
Independent Study:
Internships:
Cooperative Education:
Study Abroad: </p>

<p>Housing/Life
Type of Housing Available:
Can you bring a car?
Food Plan:</p>

<p>Application
Deadline:
Tests Required (SAT, ACT, PSAT):
Number of Required SAT Subject Tests:
Recommendations:
Average SAT scores:
Average ACT scores:
Average GPA:
Average rank:
Other: </p>

<p>Expenses
Tuition:
Room and Board:
Application fee:
Deposit:
Overall Cost: </p>

<p>Financial Aid
Required Forms:
Percent of Students receiving financial aid:
Scholarships:
FAFSA/Stafford: </p>

<p>Visits
Campus Tour Days:
Open House Days:
Interviews: </p>

<p>Colleges I need to research:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
UPenn
Columbia
Cornell
Brown
Dartmouth
Duke
Washington University
University of Chicago
Northwestern
Tufts
Brandeis
Emory
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
Carnegie Mellon
NYU
Tulane
Berkley
Stanford
Rutgers
UCLA
Rice University
Vanderbilt
Boston College
Boston University
University of Miami
Syracuse
College of William and Mary
Notre Dame
Fordham
Drexel
UMass (Amherst)
TCNJ
Villanova
Wheaton</p>

2

<p>For almost all of these schools, you can download a “Common Data Set” file that contains much (not all) of the above information. Just Google for “Common Data Set” plus the school name.</p>

<p>Other information is available on various sections of the school web sites.</p>

3

<p>Almost all regionally accredited four year schools offer pre-med courses.</p>

<p>For APs, put “AP credit” in the school’s web site search box.</p>

<p>For cost, put “net price calculator” in the school’s web site search box to get an estimate of net cost after financial aid (need some basic information about income and assets). “Cost of attendance” can be used to get list price before financial aid.</p>

4

<p>A lot of this information is available at [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics) If you run a search for a particular major, you can download the results as an excel spreadsheet and most of the items you are looking for will be on it. Then you can add in more lines/columns as needed to fill in the rest of the data. That is what I did when looking for colleges for Happykid.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>You can download most of the data from IPEDS which is the basis of College Navigator. I have an example of how to do it at [A</a> Simple Example of Creating a College Search List](<a href=“http://diycollegerankings.com/a-simple-example-of-creating-a-college-search-list/]A”>Example of How to Create a College Search List).</p>