<p>Well if you haven't the Princeton Review website we have come to know is new and improved. One of the changes I've noticed is with their tool Counselor-O-Matic. The responses seem to be more realistic than before where anyone could have gotten Brown as a match school. Has anyone noticed this as well? Is it good to use as research to create a match-safety-reach school list? I want fellow CCer's to check it out and respond.</p>
<p>It’s always been an extremely useful site to me, and seems to still be that way.</p>
<p>According to the new one, my 35 ACT and valedictorian status makes me a reach for the University of Nebraska.</p>
<p>I dislike the new Counselor-O-Matic. </p>
<p>I thought many of the former questions were very helpful and relevant in my college search, such as the question about whether or not I wanted service academies or performing arts colleges, or the one about the size of the campus (which gave more choices for sizes- less than 2000, less than 5000, etc). While the new search has good questions, I wish they had retained some of the old ones. </p>
<p>Also, I felt that the old results were more suited than the new ones. For instance, in the previous search, while there were some oddities as you mentioned (I also had Brown as a match ; ) ), overall the results fit me pretty well. I had smaller colleges as better fits than state universities, and liberal arts colleges as better fits than technical institutes. Now, I keep getting huge schools and tech schools as my best fits, which doesn’t go with my answers at all. Schools that previously were the best fits (with the highest percentage) now don’t even appear on the list, and my answers haven’t changed. And suddenly, USC is a safety?! Since when is USC anything but a high match or reach for anyone?</p>
<p>Finally, I don’t know if anyone else is having the following problem: even though I keep checking the “Remember me on this computer” box, it still logs me out every couple of pages, and then I have to keep typing in an email address and password. It doesn’t save college names in the search engine anymore, and if you accidentally mistype, it won’t give you a “Did you mean this?” sort of thing.</p>
<p>I dunno. I really like the new look of the site, but I wish it still had some of the old features.</p>
<p>Yea, WhiteWhind91 I see where you’re coming from. Also, many people have had the same problem including me. I’m a rising senior and I have to make a final list of choices to apply to based on safeties,matches, and reaches. I was thinking this could help me out. I want to know if others take this tool as legit when making final decisions as to applying to different places?</p>
<p>Hmm, I think it’s still a little glitchy.</p>
<p>Apparently NYU and UMich are safeties for me. Yeah, right.</p>
<p>And all my matches are LAC’s because there’s no way for me to tell the program that I’m not particularly interested in liberal arts schools.</p>
<p>For me, the answers are somewhat absurd (even though they’ve always been pretty nonsensical on this website). UVA is a match, and Bard is a reach… what on earth?</p>
<p>I miss the old!</p>
<p>Sorry, i think it’s really silly. It doesn’t even have SAT II’s, and when i simply adjusted my employment status from babysitting to work during summer, stanford suddenly became a “good match.”</p>
<p>I think the old results would have been more reliable to use as a tool for judging safety, match, and reach schools for your list. Regardless, you’d have to take either results list with a grain of salt; ultimately, you know your abilities best, and most certainly better than any search engine online that was made for the masses. You know if you can get into one school easily or have to shine to get into another. If your borderline safety/match or match/reach, put it in the higher category just because admissions cycles are getting tougher each year, and all data will be based on last year’s info.</p>
<p>Please don’t limit yourself to schools that are suggested by PR. Although it is a helpful tool that can guide you to your preferences, there are many colleges that you might find that may not have come up on the search. Play around with the searches on both College Board and PR, and maybe pick up a Fiske Guide or College ******* book. I prefer Fiske to the latter (CP seems more childish to me, but Fiske is a little too optimistic). It may seem like a lot of money to put down on a college guide, but I think it’s well worth the cost, and you could always split it with other college-bound friends. Or you could just sit in the bookstore for hours and read it, that works as well. 
Just make sure you buy something before you leave so the staff won’t glare at you!</p>
<p>I liked the old one a lot better. I think, overall, it was easier to navigate and find what you’re looking for. On this one you have to click on links to get submenus and it’s just a whole lot more work.
Also, I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but no matter what link I click I can’t get Academics or You & Your Family to check off, which means I can’t get my results and find colleges.
Anyone having the same problem or know how to fix it?</p>