How accurate is CC's search function

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Any BTDT parents have advice on how accurate this website's college search function ends up being? In other words, when I input my child's scores and GPA it gives me a list of likely options. If I specify some of the colleges that D's guidance counselor suggested in our 1st meeting I come up with 33% for most of them and 100% for a couple that the counselor said would be a reach. Our small private school has a good track-record for a mixed group of students--a mix of brainiacs and run-of the mill kids. That being said, my D is a special case--recently diagnosed with ADHD and LD, which explains her lousy GPA (which is improving), test scores show potential (mid 600's) few EC's. I left the counseling session feeling hopeful with a list of schools that I'd actually heard of. When I input them here, it says "forget about it". </p>

<p>Looking back on it now, do you feel this website steered you in the right direction or is it off base?</p>

2

<p>The best college-matcher for a special case kid from a small private school is usually the guidance counselor at that school. He/she knows which institutions have admitted which students from the school over the past years, and can look at your kid in that context.</p>

3

<p>I just played around with it. </p>

<h1>1 Vanderbilt <— Like</h1>

<h1>2 Duke <— Attended</h1>

<h1>3 Swarthmore <— Really like</h1>

<h1>4 Penn <— Really like</h1>

<h1>5 Cornell <— Really like</h1>

<h1>6 Haverford <— Really like</h1>

<h1>7 Bowdoin <— Really like</h1>

<h1>8 Vassar <— Meh</h1>

<h1>9 WUStL <— Really like</h1>

<h1>10 Pomona <— Meh</h1>

<h1>11 Brown <— Liked on paper, hated in person</h1>

<h1>12 Yale <— Like</h1>

<h1>13 Bryn Mawr <— N/A (specified co-ed!)</h1>

<h1>14 Emory <— Meh</h1>

<h1>15 Tufts <— Like</h1>

<h1>16 Stanford <— Meh</h1>

<h1>17 Georgetown <— Meh</h1>

<h1>18 Dartmouth <— Meh</h1>

<h1>19 Miami <— Like</h1>

<h1>20 Tulane <— Like</h1>

<p>The top 10 seems pretty solid. #11-20 seems to be hit or miss. Overall, surprisingly accurate.</p>

4

<p>Heh, I didn’t even know that CC had this. I just played around with it too, and if this were available when I was applying, it would have steered me right pretty well. Only one of the “100%” schools is one I wouldn’t have and shouldn’t have applied to (WUStL), one of the 100% schools is one I wouldn’t have but probably should have (Tufts), and among the 99% schools, there are only a few I didn’t consider (SUNY-Stony Brook, U Pacific, U Georgia, U Albany).</p>

<p>The search option should allow you to specific not just “public or private,” but also in-state vs. out-of-state public. Most of the matches I wouldn’t have considered are out-of-state publics. But the in-state publics were spot-on. If this were an option, I think the results would’ve been even more accurate for me. </p>

<p>I’ll add that I know how to use these tools, i.e. I don’t necessarily name every criteria that I might like because it isn’t important enough. Checking the graduation rate one completely messed up the results. That also happened with the “liberal-leaning” - it threw out Stanford (my alma mater), which makes no sense at all (it’s extremely liberal, being in the Bay Area and all). When I clicked “great college towns,” Yale was the top result, which also makes no sense to me.</p>

<p>On the whole, pretty accurate, but don’t specify criteria that are of minimal importance to you.</p>