Protoglobe.com

Information | College Map

College Decision Tool

I am developing a college decision tool that is based on a browseable Google map. You can enter criteria to narrow down your results, and navigate the map to find colleges across the U.S. that meet your needs. Right now you can browse based on cost, size, location, public vs. private, religious affiliation, type (4yr vs 2yr), historically black and/or tribal status.

Please note: most information used in this map provided reflects 2006 IPEDS data, and may be slightly outdated. However, it should give you a good idea about tuition, demographics, locale, type and other basic information about the school. As you become interested in schools, you will still want to visit their web sites and contact their admissions offices to learn more about them and make sure that you have the most up-to-date information.

Enter Map

Do I need an account?

There is no need to create an account or log in just to browse the map as-is. However if you'd like to keep track of your favorites and (eventually) see your friends' favorites, rate colleges on certain criteria, and see how they score among your peers, an account will be necessary in order to customize that information for you. But no, you're welcome to browse the map without a user account.

Using this application inside of Facebook? Give the favorites and checklists a try. If you can use them, then you may already be logged in under your Facebook user ID!

Click here to visit the Facebook version.

What's coming up?

• Although favorites can be added and browsed later, which is useful in itself, I'd also like to create an interactive page that shows you which schools your friends are considering (especially if you're a Facebook user and I have access to friends' user IDs).
• There is a picture manager on Protoglobe.com, and I'd like to allow users to post photos that are relevant to each location, whether they're photos of the area, the college, or just of experiences they had while attending school there.
• I'd like to allow current students and active alumni to write testimonials/critiques about their schools to inform potential applicants. However I would only want to allow this from individuals with campus email addresses (which students and most active alumni or staff would have) in order to prevent sabotage from students or even staff at competing institutions.
• Each year, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) surveys students at hundreds of 4-year institutions (almost 800 this year). Although the specific results of these surveys are confidential unless the school chooses to disclose them, NSSE is encouraging more and more schools to participate in an effort to make general benchmark scores available through USA Today. I would like to explore the possibility of a similar partnership to release information for schools who give their permission each year.
• I'm also still brainstorming how to best collect (or find) information about resources and programs ranging from the quality of cafeteria food to how involved international programs offices are in providing incoming and outgoing students with quality campus life experiences. These are aspects of their experience that may be more easily managed through user-contributed ratings and commentary, although if surveys already exist to collect that information, it might be nice to partner with them to present that information instead.
• I also need to get my hands on data about degree programs offered at each school. I believe IPEDS contains it, but the datasets are so large that the page keeps timing out before presenting me with a file to download.