When you're starting to build your college application list, using college comparison tools to narrow down your options is essential.
Should you attend an in-state or out-of-state school?
Does the school you’ve wanted to go to since elementary school have the program you’d like to study?
Do they have a graduate school you’d like to attend?
Can you afford it? Are there scholarships? Will your SAT or ACT scores get you into the school of your choice?
If you’re applying to college, then chances are you’re thinking about all these questions.
Enter college comparison sites. Which ones give you the answers you’re looking for in a straightforward manner?
In this post, we’ll cover the best tools to compare colleges as of this writing. All of the tools on this list will help you research your options for two-year and four-year colleges as well as graduate and professional schools.
Plus, make sure you check out our massive guide on How To Pay For College >>
CollegeSimply
CollegeSimply allows you to enter your GPA, SAT, and ACT scores and based on those they give you recommendations on schools you can get into when you apply.
They also categorize schools by state, application deadlines, the most selective, and the least selective so you can make choices that suit you.
College Scorecard
College Scorecard is a website run by the United States Department of Education. They have a very simple interface that allows you to enter your zip code or the state you want to attend school in.
After that, you can enter your desired major and use a sliding scale to select a tuition range. Once you put in these parameters, the scorecard will give you results of the schools you should apply to, including how much you can expect to make with the type of degree you put in.
One of the big features with College Scorecard is the "low earning degree" warning. This can potentially help you avoid poor choices.
BigFuture by the College Board
The College Board has long been the go-to resource for college information and comparison.
They now have a tool called BigFuture which allows you to compare colleges, investigate how much you’ll need to pay for a college degree, find the best school for what you want to major in, get predictions on what you can make with your major, as well as learn how to get financial aid and scholarships for school.
By far, it’s one of the most comprehensive college comparison tools on this list.
To use BigFuture, you will have to create a free account on the College Board website.
College Navigator
College Navigator is a college research tool by the National Center for Education Statistics.
It’s a simple tool that allows you to research schools by state, whether it is two-year or four-year, public or private. Based on what you put in, you get a list of results that can craft your decision.
This one feels a little outdated compared to The College Scorecard, but it's still a good tool.
Niche
Niche’s college rankings gives you rankings based on the state, major, and campus life. And so, if you want to attend a college based on the party life or Greek culture, you can find that on Niche.
And get this: the rankings that have to do with campus life are given by students attending the school. So if you wanted to gain insight from real students like you, this would be the tool to use in your research.
Niche can give you information on the best community colleges to attend as well.
College Confidential
Apart from using this tool to compare colleges, College Confidential has student forums and student ratings of schools.
If you wanted to chat with people at specific schools, you can join the forums on College Confidential and find out all you need to know.
Unigo
Unigo is another college comparison tool that follows the suit of many of the tools already on this list.
A unique feature of Unigo, however, is that they have 14 scholarships you can apply for directly on their website. You can win up to $10,000 in scholarship money for school.
That alone makes it worth it to check out.
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is well known for helping millions of students study for standardized tests of all sorts.
It also has a powerful college comparison and research tool to help you find the school that suits your needs. They have a search engine, ratings and rankings of different schools, and they even have a lot of resources for college admissions prep.
Considering they are one of the largest and most well-known college entrance exam prep company, it makes sense they can help you compare colleges as well.
U.S. News College Compass
College Compass is a tool by the popular rankings website, U.S. News & World Report. You will have to create an account to use College Compass.
Once you do, you will be able to filter through over 1,900 institutions based on your test scores, clubs and organizations, college size, and much more.
And all this comes from U.S. News, which is one of the original college ranking organizations.
College Decider
College Decider is an AI-powered college search and application platform that combines matching, essay writing, and deadline tracking in one tool. Students enter their GPA, SAT/ACT scores, intended major, and preferences to get personalized reach, target, and safety school recommendations from a database of over 500 colleges.
The platform also includes a side-by-side comparison tool covering 30+ data points (tuition, acceptance rates, student-to-faculty ratio, graduation rates, and more), an AI essay assistant that generates drafts based on each school's real supplemental prompts, and an application planner with deadline reminders.
The basic version is free, with a premium tier starting at $9/month that unlocks unlimited essay drafts and additional features.
Did you find this post helpful? Are you using any of these tools in your research right now? Let us know in the comments below.
Editor: Colin Graves
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.