The Guided Search tool, which can be accessed through the main navigation bar under Colleges in the main menu, allows you to do the following:
- Search for schools to find good matches for your students based on criteria such as college style, tagged lists, and school size.
- Add schools to your college lists
- Compare selected criteria
- Search using customized MyMatch criteria
- Export a search to an excel spreadsheet (and print from within the spreadsheet)
- Save a search to reuse
In the guided search page, you will notice on the left hand side, categories. The different criteria available are separated into five categories; General information, Academic,Athletics, Majors, Financial Aid, Social Experience, and Results.
1. When doing a search, you will first select the information that will appear on your results by selecting the boxes next to the desired criteria. Imagine these as the columns when comparing multiple schools. You will also determine how you want to filter your results. Imagine this as a way of determining which schools will appear in the rows of your results.
2. Most fields open into drop down lists. Click on the field to see the criteria included in each category. Checking the boxes of this criteria, will include schools that fit that criteria in your results. The more options you have, the larger your results, the less, the smaller your results. For example, if your student/s wanted to only go to a college in California or Colorado, check the boxes for each state in the drop down bar for states, and the only colleges that will appear in your search will be from either California or Colorado.
3. Notice you also have three other buttons at the top of each field when you are looking at the drop down list. The first one, depicted by the checkmark and the word 'All', is for selecting all criteria in the list. The second, depicted by an x and the word 'Clear', is for deselecting all criteria in the list. And the third, depicted by an x surrounded by a circle, is for exiting the drop down list.
4. Each of the sections include a Tagged List field. Tagged Lists allow you to look for schools on additional criteria. Click here for more information about Tagged Lists.
5. In order to see your results, click on the search button. Results appear in the Results tab. The total number of schools in your search results will appear in parenthesis.
6. If more information about a college is needed, each college name is hyper-linked to a page with information on that school. You will have access to data provided by the Fiske Guide, Wintergreen Orchard House, and the MyCCA research team.
7. You can drag columns into any order you choose to easily compare relevant criteria.
8. To reset a search, a CLEAR button is provided for ease of resetting criteria. You will find this button next to Search in the bottom left hand corner of the page.
9. To save a search, use the SAVE CURRENT SEARCH button. A pop-up will appear allowing you to save the name and description of your search. Click here more details on Saved Search
10. Selecting MyMatch above the general search categories gives you the option to search on your specific ACT, SAT, GPA, Find My Spark College Style, Field of Study, and Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Click here for details.
Did you know?
A student's My Colleges and Interested Colleges are automatically created as tagged lists! Select the "General" section on the Guided Search page. Select "My Colleges" or "Interested Colleges" (or both) to the right of the College Lists label.
Check off different "compare" checkboxes in each of the other sections to easily see the differences in each of the student's colleges. Export your results to a spreadsheet and share it with your students and families.
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