I used it mostly for organizing the application list, but it’s easy enough to make a copy of a the application sheet and then eliminate rows and/or create new categories for the colleges you are applying to.
For me the great advantage of using a spreadsheet is the ability to sort the data by whatever columns you want. For example if you decide that you’d prefer a college with a low Greek presence and a rural location you can sort so those colleges appear at the top of your list. Or if you are trying to get a sense of what are the safest colleges you can sort by the numbers. I think homerdog’s suggestion of using your high school’s Naviance data (if available) is a great idea.
@MotherOfDragons , It was a revelation. I predate Excel and never had cause to learn it, although I have occasionally made elaborate spreadsheet-like tables in Word, because it was all I knew. I seriously think that if I had known 40 years ago what a spreadsheet actually was and how to use it, my career and life path would have been very different.
So many great suggestions! Right now we are putting together a list of possible schools for S18 so we have chosen the main things that are important to my son, and important to me and my husband:
Location by state
EA and RD stats
of undergrad
Tution
Majors of interest
Land and/or Sea Grant school
Football team and/or basketball team
Golf course on campus or nearby
Water for fishing nearby (ocean or lakes)
Hillel and/or approx # of Jewish undergrads
Lots of outdoor opportunities
To be honest, I had never heard of Naviance until reading about in on CC. It is nothing that his school has mentioned to us.
Another good hint was the distance from campus to airport. It has been really helpful to see the things that others put on their spreadsheets.
Right now there are about 16 contenders on the list and we need to pair it down.
“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.”
+1
We have a separate shared Google doc that has all the online credentials (which proliferate like crazy) in one place. SAT, ACT, Common App, Naviance, plus an admissions portal for each school applied to.
Also put the kid’s email credentials on there too. Since the schools will communicate about status and missing items through the kid’s email account. So much easier to check that myself than bugging the kid to check it for me and report back.
Policies and percentages of need based and merit aide. I didn’t figure out that I could Google “Common Data Set XXX University” until kid #2. Big difference between schools! Rule of thumb…top tier schools give minimal to no merit. SEcond tier and climbing…often significant aid for the same kid.