For our twins I created a spreadsheet with the following info for each college:
Name, Location, Website Address, Application Deadline (Reg, EA1, EA2), # of Undergrads, Student/Faculty Ratio, Female %, Caucasian %, Fraternity %, Sorority %, Freshman Housing %, Undergrad Housing %, App Fee, Applicants, Admitted, Enrolled, Acceptance Rate, Admittance Rate, SAT Middle 50% (Math & English), Tuition & Fees, Room & Board, Books & Supplies, Estimated Personal, Transportation, Total Cost, Majors of Interest, Minors of Interest, Distance from Home, Honors Program details, Study Abroad Focus, FAFSA Recommended Deadlines, CSS Profile Details, and Merit Details.
Most of the information was easily gathered from www.collegeboard.org, from which I downloaded each school’s profile in PDF format.
We have started ours… categories are specific to DSs wants…size, location, acceptance rates, average SATs (mainly to light a fire under him), average GPA (again, fanning the flame), combined BS/MS pathways, sports offered (club), Greek presence, etc. We have also pulled from course catalogs of schools he thinks he’s interested in to compare offerings. Tuition is on there but we soon realized that it didn’t really matter-all family members would have to sell an organ to afford it…
My D20’s is quite specific to her wants/ needs. It has college name and state, tuition, r+b, total COA, how much the GI Bill contributes, if the the school participated in yellow ribbon, BAH, total cost (or profit) after aid, if there is a dance major or minor, if auditions are required for either, application and audition deadlines, and GPA/test score ranges for the middle 50%.
My D19’s listed if a school had a linguistics, Russian, or Italian major, total COA, if study abroad was funded/could use normal tuition, proximity to a major city, app deadlines, and ACT scores.