School Search Tools: “Similar Schools”

There IS something to use US-News for (besides kindling)-  the “Similar Schools” tool. (Regular readers of CollegeApp Chick just fell out of their chairs) As you can probably tell, I strongly dislike rankings for schools, as I think ranks are really a terrible tool for selection.
BUT: US News is not completely without value. While I think you should ignore the numerical rankings, they do have one really awesome school search tool.

“Similar Schools”

“Similar Schools” are a goldmine of branching out. They’re my absolute favorite thing for looking for schools. They’ll help you find more things to add to your list, and usually outside of your area.

They’re schools with similar geography, personality, academics, rigor, or prestige to the one you are looking at.
Most college guides also have tools like this, but the US News one is online so we’ll use that for today.

So lets start with a student profile:

Boy. 4.0 weighted average with mostly AP and honors classes. Extensive leadership in orchestra and captain of a sports team. 2100/31 ACT. Works at a summer camp over their summers.

And he is very interested in going to an artsy, urban school.

So his ideal school is NYU, and he can’t really think of anywhere else he’d like to go.

So he goes look at US News NYU page, and this little box catches his eye

He doesn’t have the package for Columbia or Cornell, but he gives BU a nice little click. BU ends up being a nice fit, so it goes on the list.
Then he looks at the “Similar Schools” box from BU and sees these options, and decides Northeastern seems like a cool place to look.

He had never considered Boston schools before, but both of these schools fit his qualifications nicely.
Lets say he also likes Bard College (also in NY). A look at that tool shows him two new hipster-intellectual zones to check out. While he’s not too fond of the west coast, he’s happy to take a little look at Oberlin, even though it’s overly rural. He finds on his visit that he actually really likes rural schools.


While looking at Ohio schools, he takes a sneak peek at Kenyon college, and decides that’s the place for him.
From a big city school to a small liberal arts, he’s found an unexpected match.
All thanks to 6 degrees of separation and using the “Similar Schools” tool.

These chains are really fun to go through, and can really help you find things you like but may not have looked at before.
Make sure to look very closely at the stats for the new schools, because although students may have a lot of overlap you might be reaching a bit high.

Also, for you college enthusiasts, there’s a fun game called “Find Harvard” where you start with any random school and try to get linked back to Harvard (your best bet is to try to get geographically closer to Boston, or if you’re on the west coast or deep south, Stanford, those will get you a few clicks away).