Research Your Colleges

In the previous video, you added school criteria you care about, included ways to measure those criteria, and organized your spreadsheet columns from most to least important.

You also chose three colleges to compare.

In this video, you'll use Google Search to research your chosen colleges according to the criteria you selected.

Then, you'll record your Search results in your spreadsheet.

Because you put your most important school criteria in the first column, this will keep you focused on what matters most to you.

When you finish, you'll immediately see how your colleges compare between criteria such as location and available majors.

To begin, go to "google.com," and type the full name of the first college from your list in the bar.

This helps ensure you find the correct school.

Scroll through your search results to make sure you're selecting the correct college.

Look closely; some schools have multiple campuses with the same name.

Next, copy the website address.

Then, go back to your spreadsheet, and highlight the name of your first college.

Add a hyperlink to the college's name.

A hyperlink is specially formatted text that allows you to visit a website by clicking on text in your spreadsheet.

Next, search for information to fill out the criteria for each college.

You can find many answers on a college's website.

For example, if you entered location, go to the college's website and look for an address.

This might appear on the bottom of the homepage or in a Contact or About section.

If you can't find the location on the school website, do another Google Search for what's the address of the school's name.

Once you find specific information for the criteria for a school, enter it into your spreadsheet.

Keep your spreadsheet entries consistent.

If you record a city and state for one school, do the same for the rest.

This affects your ability to filter data in the future, which makes comparing schools even easier.

Available majors and degree types may be listed together on a college's website.

Look for sections such as "Degree Programs" or "Courses," then enter the information you find under the appropriate header in your spreadsheet.

You may consider what a campus looks like to be important, too.

The school website may include pictures.

Or, use Google to search for images using the full name of the college and its city and state.

Click an image to see its source.

This will tell you where it came from so you can check that the image is credible and actually a picture of the school.

Then, go back into your spreadsheet and enter your rating below the appropriate header.

Another criteria might be how far the school is from your home.

You may be able to stay at home instead of on campus if it's close enough, which saves you money.

You can measure something like this in travel time.

Open a new tab, and go to "google.com." Next, open Google Maps.

Enter your home address as your starting point, and the college address as your destination.

Then, record the travel time in your spreadsheet.

Use similar searches to fill in the remaining criteria in your spreadsheet.

Once you complete one college, repeat these steps for your other schools.

Now, it's your turn: do a Google search for your college, add a hyperlink to its website in your spreadsheet, search and enter information about the college in your spreadsheet, and repeat these steps for all the colleges you've listed in your sheet.