College Navigator Assists College Search Process

A new website from the US Department of Education was unveiled recently to help students in their college search process. The site is called “College Navigator.”  (Some know it by it’s handy acronym:  COOL, or “College Opportunities Online.”  COOL uses data collected by the US Department of Education as part of its National Center for Education Statistics.
I have used this data before, and I actually helped to compile it during my time at the University of Denver. It’s important to know that these data are compiled and reported NOT by offices of admissions, but by the offices of institutional research at colleges and universities.  These data, while still subject to tinkering by universities, are generally MUCH more reliable than any marketing propaganda generated by the marketing whizzes in the admissions offices.  While the data is good and has been accessible in the past, up until just the other day, the data sets on the government sites were beastly to manipulate.
Well, the beast has been tamed. The new site is a searchable database that allows students and counselors to select certain variables, and then the site pulls a list of colleges and universities that fit the selected criteria. Better, the site allows students to compare data side by side.
This government effort (which comes out of US Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ 2006 report on access to information and higher education assessment) goes a long way in giving consumers raw information upon which to base more informed decisions about colleges and universities. As I explored in a previous post, many college and university associations are trying to find ways to get around the deleterious effect of US News and World Report’s annual rankings. Their aim is to provide more and better information directly to students and their families. This College Navigator site may actually meet the need for more and better data, obviating the need for these private efforts.
I recommend this site wholeheartedly. It is a great place to start the college process. However, it is no substitute for expert advice. The issue is not only access to information. It is interpretation of that information in light of an individual student’s needs, interests, and aspirations. But at least College Navigator is not a site that is trying to sell books (like Peterson’s) or magazines (like US News). College Navigator is a welcome addition to the college search process.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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Dim White Kids at Nation's Elite Private Colleges

An article the day before yesterday at Boston.com provides yet another look into the college admissions process. What it reports is enough to make you completely jaded about the whole admissions game. Here’s a piece of the introduction.

Surf the websites of such institutions and you will find press releases boasting that they have increased their black and Hispanic enrollments, admitted bumper crops of National Merit scholars or became the destination of choice for hordes of high school valedictorians. Many are bragging about the large share of applicants they rejected, as a way of conveying to the world just how popular and selective they are.
What they almost never say is that many of the applicants who were rejected were far more qualified than those accepted. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it was not the black and Hispanic beneficiaries of affirmative action, but the rich white kids with cash and connections who elbowed most of the worthier applicants aside.
Researchers with access to closely guarded college admissions data have found that, on the whole, about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America’s highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions’ minimum admissions standards.

The fact is, college admissions is not–and has never really been–the merit-based system we might believe. Colleges are businesses, and they do what they need to do to make payroll and keep their doors open.
My job is to help kids and their families navigate what is not a rational process. It’s very confusing, and information is skewed in favor of the providers of educational services, not the consumers. No matter whether you’re dim or bright, black or white, kids needs more and better information. That’s what I provide.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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