Ideas for Creating a Broader College List (Part II): 10 Sources of Inspiration
This is Part II of a series of posts to help you broaden your search for colleges and universities. Here’s a link to Part I.
The aim? Inspiration for creating your college list - meaning the set of colleges that best meet what you are looking for.
There are approximately 2,400 mainly four-year degree granting colleges and universities in the United States, but most college lists I see contain some mix of the usual “top 50” schools (as ranked by someone other than the student) and then whatever state flagship or closest public school is to the student's home just to close things with a “safe” option. This post gives you ways to discover more colleges and universities.
Ideas for Creating a Broader College List: 10 Sources of Inspiration
I’d like to provide suggestions on how to discover more colleges. Think of this as ways to increase the chances that you’ll identify colleges that could be a great fit for you.
Here are 10 sources of inspiration:
Fiske Guide Indices
Colleges That Change Lives
K&W Guide To Colleges
College Navigator’s 'More Search' Options
Google ‘Colleges in [Your State]’
BigJ Educational Consulting Financial Aid Lists
College Results - Graduation Rates
College Scorecard
National Merit Scholarship List of Colleges Attended
Colleges With Undergraduate Honours Education Programs
1. Fiske Guide Indices
Edward Fiske was the former education editor of the New York Times and his book, Fiske Guide to Colleges, is a curated list of approximately 350 colleges and universities. Think of it as an encyclopedia of critical information on these schools. A challenge, though, is that like an encyclopedia, it isn’t the sort of book that you just pick up and read cover-to-cover - it’s more like a reference you consult when you know what you’re looking for and want to learn more.
An often overlooked element of the book that I’d like to point out is the indices in the first few pages (these come even before the introduction page). They serve as a way to subdivide and navigate the 350 schools by location, price, and average student debt upon graduation. This gives you a starting point in your college list building.
Another source of inspiration is the lists for colleges with strengths in each of nine preprofessional major tracts: architecture, art/design, business, communications/journalism, engineering, film/television, dance, drama, and music. These lists cut across public and private, difficult vs more likely admissions, etc…
2. Colleges That Change Lives
Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives highlights 40 under-the-radar liberal arts institutions across the USA that place a strong emphasis on undergraduate education and significantly influence students’ paths, fostering the growth of intellectuals, leaders, and ethical individuals. A highly recommended read.
You can get the list of schools and learn much more about each online at https://ctcl.org/.
3. K&W Guide To Colleges
The K&W Guide to Colleges resource contains a list of colleges and universities that provide strong support for students with learning disabilities. This is important because approximately 20% of undergraduate students report having a disability.
4. College Navigator’s 'More Search' Options
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has developed the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) that gathers data from all main sources of postsecondary education in the United States and makes it publicly available. This is how we can know how many students are enrolled at a particular college and those college's overall acceptance rates, for example.
You can search this information through their College Navigator website. The magic is in the ‘More Search Options’ filters, which give you more control over dimensions such as acceptance difficulty and size.
5. Google ‘Colleges in [Your State]’
Yes, everyone uses Google to search for colleges. But, did you know that there’s a hidden feature when you use the exact term ‘Colleges in [Your State]’, e.g. ‘Colleges in Washington’ or ‘Colleges in California’?
This takes you to a results page with a specialised college view. Click ‘more filters’ and then you arrive at a customised search panel with loads of information on each college pulled largely from (trusted) government data sources which let you understand everything from admission rates to most popular majors to graduation outcomes. Use the filters at the top of the page to narrow down the list based on your criteria.
6. Big J Educational Consulting Financial Aid Lists
College can be expensive - this resource helps you find colleges that can make it less so.
Big J Educational Consulting, two long-time and expert college admissions counselors, have compiled an easy to navigate list of 100s of colleges and universities and how much need-based aid and merit aid they offer. If you’re looking for which colleges are most generous with discounting the cost of attendance (aka, the sticker price of college), then this is your go-to resource.
A bit of background… There are two forms of aid that students can receive to help cover the costs of college: 1/ need-based aid and 2/ merit aid. The former, need-based aid, is the difference between what a college costs and what you can afford (“afford”, and yes this is purposefully in quotes, is calculated by either the FAFSA or the CSS Profile - both of which use income, tax return info, and other financial data to understand your ability to pay for college). You generally want to find colleges that will completely cover the delta between cost and your ability to pay, leaving no gap. This is known as the ‘percent of need met’. That is, if there are 100 students who all require some form of need-based aid in order to attend the college, how many of those 100 students actually have their need fully met by the college? The second form of aid is merit aid, what many would call scholarships. Merit aid is awarded not based on financial need but instead based on the skills, attributes, and talents of students relative to the priorities of the school. Think: athletic scholarships, academic merit scholarships, and the like. Colleges that are generous with these forms of aid are probably good colleges to have on your list!
7. College Results - Graduation Rates
Getting into college is just the first step. What we really want is for our students to succeed at the institution they’ve chosen to attend. https://collegeresults.org/ has an interactive map of colleges + their graduation rates. Consider colleges and universities that have a high success rate - and add a few to your college list.
8. College Scorecard
Again, custom search filters are your friend. The College Scorecard website, produced and maintained by the Education Department of the federal government, allows you to search for colleges by many criteria: major, acceptance rate, graduation rate, median salary, etc… Don’t miss out on the capability to select multiple schools and compare them side-by-side.
9. National Merit Scholarship List
Spoiler alert… many, many National Merit Scholars attend colleges you’ve probably never heard of. Use this list (go to page 38) to expand your view of where high caliber academics is available.
10. Colleges With Undergraduate Honours Education Programs
Continuing the theme of colleges that offer high academic rigour… take a look at undergraduate honours programs. This can be a fantastic way to receive hands-on opportunities for learning, smaller class sizes, access to the best professors, etc… particularly at larger public universities. Most schools which offer such programs are members of this organisation - https://www.nchchonors.org/home-map-information.
Summary
So what have we learned? Ideas for Creating a Broader College List: 10 Sources of Inspiration. One of the most fantastic things about the USA’s higher education system is that there is tremendous choice and optionality. Break free from the same-old list of ranked colleges and universities from that one “news” source (you know the one), and discover other equally great institutions that could prove to be a better match for your specific needs.
