Start your college search with Google

Last year, as part of our initiative to connect people to economic opportunity, we introduced job search on Google, which has grown to help tens of millions of job seekers across 12 countries find the right job opportunities that match their unique needs.

But the path to success often begins much earlier than a job search. For many, selecting the right college is an early and important step in preparing for the future. The process to find the right school for you, however, can be confusing. Information is scattered across the internet, and it’s not always clear what factors to consider and which pieces of information will be most useful for your decision. In fact, 63 percent of recently-enrolled and prospective students say they have often felt lost when researching college or financial aid options.

That’s why we’re bringing a new feature to Search to help you navigate the college search process. Now when you search for a 4-year U.S. college like UCLA or Spelman College, information about admissions, cost, student life and more will surface directly in Search, making it easier to explore educational options and find a college that meets your needs.  

To show a more complete picture of college cost for parents and students, Search will give you easy access to information about the average cost after student aid is applied, including breakdowns by household income. You can also dig into data around graduation rates as well as typical annual income 10 years after enrollment, designed to help you better understand the potential outcomes of attending that school.

We’ve also included easy ways to explore undergraduate enrollment rates, stats about the student body, notable alumni, and similar colleges to provide a more comprehensive view of the schools you’re considering or may want to look into in the future.

This new experience uses public information from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a comprehensive data set available for 4-year colleges. We also worked with education researchers and nonprofit organizations, high school counselors, and admissions professionals to build an experience to meet your college search needs, and we will continue to focus on how we can better improve access to information about educational opportunities.

We’re starting to roll out this new experience today on mobile with some features on desktop as well—try it out today to start your search for the right college.