Testing online school selection tools

One of the critical moments in any student’s life is choosing their school. What will they do? Be? What future will they have? As Rutgers Prep college selection counselor Shelley Krause (@butwait on twitter) said "students are forced to project themselves into an unknown future." So how do they choose? Through our research it is becoming clear that parents are not great resources because they aren't equipped, high school counselors are taxed and students themselves have very little perspective on life. So we looked online to see what tools might exist to help students choose their next step.

The team visited and tested several websites that claimed to help with school selection to better understand what prospective students experience when they conduct research on higher education. We reviewed top ranked websites and found most of them offered limited information about a limited number of universities. Not only were the sites hard to use, they require visitors to enter detailed personal information before providing any results which is a huge barrier to use.

The sites presented themselves as providing comprehensive information but it became clear that most were likely promoting schools that sponsored the site rather than being a real resource to the students and aiding them with the best information. The information provided also focuses almost solely on hard data relating to cost rather than providing any softer or qualitative data about the campus experience.  It is clear than many of these sites, whether of good intention or not, make it very difficult to extract relevant information and compare results which actually makes it harder for students to choose properly. It is clear that students are lacking dynamic resources that provide a clear picture about the universities and programs of interest.

There was one bright spot. A website called Campus Explorer which provides transparent information that is easy to use and access. Campus Explorer sources the information it provides from the government, schools, and students making it easy for users to find what is most valuable and relevant. Campus Explorer provides transparent information abut over 6000 schools in the US. Schools can be searched by type, location or major. Search results can be easily narrowed down by applying various filters. The service offers advice and tips from current and former students and enables to compare price tags, calculate chances of admission, review schools and track applications. It is also a portal for counselors and admission officers. It enables them to give an in-depth view on their schools.

While Campus Explorer is starting to do a good job filling this information and comparison gap for selection more needs to be done. The financial impacts of decisions related to the selection of an education are huge and it should be an imperative for stakeholders in the education system to help students make the right choices. Any takers?