Does anybody have a good format they use for creating a spreadsheet to keep up with college selections. I have been typing everything out longhand but a chart system would be so much more effective and easier to read!
And what are the categories you consider the most important to include beyond the basic name, location, undergraduate population and tuition cost?
I had a column for gpa, sat scores, and acceptance rate. Then you could sort by those columns and get a good inkling as to what was a safety vs a match. My son had CR and math scores that were 100 points apart so he was often in the top of the pool for CR and the bottom for math. In the end it turned out acceptance rate was the most accurate predictor for him. (The only acception was one super reach school that had a 25% acceptance rate EA, and about a 10% acceptance rate for the leftovers that year. The EA rate was in line with the other schools’ regular acceptance rate). At one school (Vassar) the acceptance rate for males was a lot more than it was for females, we didn’t factor that in.
Less mathy - I had columns for %Greek, location, and size of school.
It probably depends on where you are in the process, but the spreadsheet I created included:
application deadline, financial aid application deadline, if a separate scholarship application was required, info on Degree Distribution Requirements (big variation between schools), policy on accepting AP credit, distance from nearest airport.
The three most important columns on my son’s spreadsheet are “Link to Portal,” “Portal Username,” and “Portal Password.”
Almost every college he/she applies to will give them access to their portal. Once your DC has applied to 5 or 6 or more schools, you will find that easy access to this info is invaluable.
ETA: Son’s spreadsheet is a Google Sheet which he has invited me to share with him. I’m sure I look at it and improve it much more than he does.
Perhaps net price calculator result should be a column?
acception is supposed to exception! if you were wondering…
D was undecided about major, but had some possibilities in mind. So we had a column for relevant majors and, if it pertained, how the major was divided in tracks. For example, some classics departments had separate tracks for classical language and literature and classical civilization, while others did not. Since then, D clarified her intended major, which meant some schools immediately dropped off since they didn’t have it at all.
One of my kids really cared about getting a single room as soon as possible, so dorming options and whether singles cost extra and how much more was also a column in the spreadsheet.
An extra column on my spreadsheet was attendance at major sporting events
We just started one. I included a column about criteria for full scholarship; D created one whether or not there is a chapter of our family sorority.
For some majors, whether admission to the major is more selective than the school, or if there is a secondary admission process after enrolling at the school, could be relevant factors to include.
On the cost-related items, for residential schools, cost of travel to/from the school could be relevant. For pre-meds, potential short-notice travel costs to medical school interviews can matter for senior year.
We had acceptance rate by gender.
Subject test requirement
Superscore yeah or neah
Some things not yet mentioned that were important to D and me:
% female
% international
% American black
% Americans of color
separate columns for RD and ED admit rate (very revealing–usually have to compute this yourself)
average debt of graduates
and, finally, I made up my own formula and gave each school a letter grade A to F, on Net Price. This was based off the Net Cost in College Navigator.
We also had a catchall column for notes like “housing guaranteed” “female admit rate 9 pts better”
When the search was narrowed down, each college got its own page (table format) which included things like distance/cost to nearest airport, SAT 75th percentiles, faculty-student ratio and special qualities such as particular classes offered, differential admit rates by gender, housing guaranteed 4 years, etc.
I was delighted to see this thread appear on the day I learned how to use Excel. 
Our kid had three criteria for colleges…good sciences, ability for her to play in the college orchestra as a non-music major, and pleasing climate.
We just made a list.
@twinsmama wrote
Welcome to the dark side :D.
I had deadlines on my spreadsheet, but I’ve switched over to using a weekly “college chat” document where it’s up all week on my computer, and as I think of things that need to be done/checked I add it to the list.
Then when D finishes it, we go over that list, and anything not done gets added to next week’s list. I suppose you can create this in an excel format, but I didn’t need that much specificity.
I did create a huge spreadsheet for the initial search for colleges, though.
If your school has Naviance, I would make a column for the average GPA/ACT or SAT for the kids accepted to each college from your high school. In our case, these numbers can be very different from the average numbers that the college states for their overall pool.
Our sheet has two pages. One to compare schools, one to track the app process. On the compare page are columns for EDEA/overall admit rates - admit rate based on sex - yield - percent of seats filled EDEA - 75/25 ACT numbers - courses taken by typical admits (how many years science, math, foreign Lang, etc) - type of programs in her general interest area - size of school, undergrad and grad - distance from home - distance from majority using pub transportation - EFC from the Net Price Calculator. The second page has deadlines to submit the app for EDEA or reg (both to her school and the Common App) - to request interview - to request overnight - whether supplements are required - whether a mid year rpt is required - number if reqs required - what is due to financial aid and when for EDEA and reg - anticipated decision date EDEA and reg and anticipated financial aid notification for same.
Before you create this spreadsheet…you need to define the purpose. If it is to organize for colleges to,which the student IS applying…it all look very different than if you are looking to compare data to create an application list.