Federal web sites help students choose a college, calculate financial aid
College Navigator, the U.S. Department of Education’s web site for information for students and families about colleges, has been named by Money magazine as “the best first screen” for researching colleges.
In addition, Money points out that the Navigator, unlike many other college search tools, is not tied to a marketing department seeking students’ personal information. The magazine also credits the site for being “one of the simplest to use,” for having “a good comparison tool,” and for providing “a full set of the latest data on expenses, aid, enrollment, admission and graduation rates, majors, along with a Google map pinpointing location.”
College Navigator allows users to modify and fine-tune criteria without starting over, to build a list of favorites, and to search by such specifics as distance from home, intercollegiate athletic programs and size of school, to name a few.
For adult learners, it finds programs that offer extended learning opportunities such as weekend or evening courses, distance learning and credit for life experiences.
Launched last September, College Navigator is one of several resources the department has developed to provide information about federal financial aid and the college selection process.
Earlier this year the department unveiled another tool, the FAFSA4caster, which instantly calculates the federal financial aid that a student is likely to receive–Eric Fry, Alaska Dept. of Education 12/28/07
Start navigating: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ and http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov.
