The U.S. Government is looking to help students figure out which college to go to with the launch of a new Web site Tuesday.
Collegenavigator.ed.gov, run by the National Center for Education Statistics, provides information for nearly 7,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. The site displays categories such as the number of applicants admitted, estimated student expenses, graduation rates and campus safety.
Schools listed participate in the Federal Student Aid Program, including two- and four-year public and private institutions.
"It's an enormous set of institutions," said Tom Weko, senior research scientist postsecondary education with NCES.
Other college information sites tend to have 1,000 or 1,500 institutions, but Weko said CNES is more comprehensive.
"There's a lot out there, so that makes it a really good starting point," Weko said.
College Navigator also gives the options of the level of awards including associate and bachelor degrees.
"The site is primarily aimed at people who aren't yet at school and are trying to make choices about what they want to do next year or the year after, but there are a lot of people who stop out of school and go back," Weko said. "There's a lot of changing going on. All of those different populations will be the ones using it."
The site is easy to use and provides an efficient way to search for colleges and universities based on location, institution types, tuition and fees, SAT and ACT test scores, and other search options, Weko added.
"The goal is to give people an ability to search, compare and become informed so that they can make choices that fit their need and aspirations," he said.
One feature of College Navigator is to compare up to four institutions side-by-side in a window displaying details about each.
"I wish I knew about Web sites like that before I transferred here," first-year architecture transfer student Ryan Wozniak said. "I would have liked to know all of my choices. I came across this one and I am very happy with it, but maybe if I had a resource like that I would have been able to do more comparing."
The side-by-side comparisons make it easy to distinguish the differences among the colleges or universities, Weko said.
"It is important to be able to compare the institutions, because they need to find the place that works for them," he said. "This gives you capacity to see what's out there that fits your requirements and a lot of success in college life has to do with finding colleges that work for you, and this offers people a way of doing it."
The site also provides links to each institution's Web sites providing more detailed information for each college or university, Weko said.
"We can't tell people everything they need to know, but if you want to know details about the institution itself there's a link to their Web site," he said.
Weko said the process is on-going and the Web site will continually be updating to improve its capabilities.
"We'll keep working at it, were committed to making improvements," Weko said.
Journalism freshman Lauryn Oertle said she wishes she had a more user-friendly Web site when she was searching for colleges.
"It would have been easier to find the perfect college if I had this Web site as a senior in high school," Oertle said.
Reach the reporter at: heather.m.turner@asu.edu.
