Build Your College List

Students sort through 4,000 options using quick category decisions.  Usually: size, location, major & academic fit, likely cost. 

Resources for this stage:

Xello (accessible via students' MyElmbrook/Clever login)

BigFuture - College Board's college search tool

CollegeVine - requires an account, and does encourage you to purchase services. Consider what information you want to share, but it does have good resources.

College Transitions' College Investigator - does not require an account and uses a more independently procured data set ("dataverse") for college results information. Also encourages purchase of services but is less pushy.

Consider leveraging Google Gemini to explore. Be savvy about what information about yourself that you include when you create your prompt, and remember that Gemini protects you more than other AI since you are an Elmbrook student. This article from Forbes gives some ideas for prompts and uses.

Students work through 10-12 options they seriously consider, trying to visualize life at each one. College comparison tools, notebooks, spreadsheets, and conversations are all helpful.

College Navigator - includes side-by-side comparison tool, option to export to a spreadsheet, and other filters.

Dept. of Education's Cost Evaluator - College Affordability and Transparency Center includes scorecards, a net price calculator, and other tools to determine potential costs.

DoE's College Scorecard - another resource for side-by-side comparison.

Virtual College Tours - if you can't make it to campus, check out this site or the college's website for a view on the campus.

College Transitions: Dataverse - lists of data that could help with finer evaluation points such as best programs for a major, admission statistics, retention rates, Greek life, and more.

More Resources - even more resources that break down specific topics (including special education learning needs, first-generation applicants, and more important dentity components). 

Students once again use very objective criteria, but this criteria is unique to them. At this stage, students should be researching on the individual colleges' websites. Families will individually decide how many total colleges to apply to. Here is CollegeVine's take:

"So, you are applying to 8-12 schools, but not every school is created equally. In order to have a balanced list that gives you the best chances of being accepted, you need to have a mix of safeties, targets, and reaches on your list.

Safeties are schools where you have a 70% chance of admission or higher, normally because your academics surpass the 75th percentile of accepted students. We recommend aiming for 2-4 safeties.

Targets are schools where your personal chances of acceptance range from 15% to 70%, and your profile typically falls into the middle 50%. You should have at least 4 targets.

Reaches are the most selective colleges where your chances of acceptance are less than 15%. It’s important to note that any school with a general acceptance rate below 10% should be considered a reach, regardless of if your academics fall into the middle 50% or exceed it. You should aim for at least 2 reaches."