<p>Does anyone know about the Counselor-O-Matic on princetonreview.com?</p>
<p>I just tried it, and after filling out the survey, it gave me lists of what schools would be reaches, safetis, and a "good matches" for me. And it gave me a percentage of how great the school fit my criteria as well.</p>
<p>I thought that it was a great tool. However, I don't know if it is reliable or valid. So if anyone has any experience with this tool (or if there is a better tool), please share.</p>
<p>it's a great starting point for a college search. it listed schools i had never heard of before, so i researched those. however, it's reach, safety, and match categories can be off. some of the reaches were clearly matches, while some of the safeties didn't seem safe to me.</p>
<p>I tried that search, and I kept getting no results. I broadened my search a lot (put doesn't matter for anything really specific like majors, activities, and location), and still got nothing. Stupid site.</p>
<p>It might work for some profiles, but not others ... like mine. It gave me "good matches" that are clearly reaches (and big reaches). I think it upplayed my ACT score (which is decent) and downplayed my GPA (which is less so). It's useful as a general and loose tool, but it's not reliable (for me, at least). I suppose it's like that compass I had when little - the arrow wavers a real lot.</p>
<p>yea thank you for ur advice cuz i really need some help with which-is-my-safety-if-i-even-have-one and which-are-really-reaches-because-right-now-college-confidential-is-making-me-feel-like-everything-is-a-reach. </p>
<p>We used it for S and found it very helpful. Yes, some of the safety, match, reach categories might be a little off, but it gave us a good list of schools to consider. At least it was a starting point based on his stats and interests.</p>
<p>I wouldn't rely on it at all, other than for discovering schools you may not have considered. It's known to say HYPSM is a 'match' for certain stats, when clearly one needs more than a great GPA and SAT scores to get into Harvard, let alone it is not a match for anyone. </p>
<p>The mechanism is completely computerized and I don't think it can accurately predict what colleges will be 'a good fit' for you at all.</p>
<p>We had concerns about its reliability when we used it for my S who is majoring in engineering and our local state univ with a good national engineering reputation did not show up even as a safety! No matter how we did the searches it never showed up as a match for his major; (apparently the Univ of Minn-Twin Cities does not offer any degrees in engineering). Ironically, and unbeknownst to us at the time, the school he ended up choosing on his own, was one of his his best fits according to counselor-o-matic</p>
<p>Well, I think the idea of the search would be to find out which colleges to actually visit. Unless you are recommending, jimbob, that people should go out and visit every college in the world, instead of first searching for some that would suit them and then visiting.</p>
<p>well what i'm saying is, don't use the princetonreview site as your initial listing of colleges. it will cut out colleges that could be perfect fits for you, because it's a computer. instead, sit down with a book like the fiske guide to colleges or browse collegeboard.com. THEN make your visits. i'm not saying you should make uneducated visits. i'm saying the princeton review thing doesn't show you the important stuff.</p>