Colleges: An overview of the College features

Under the Colleges tab, you'll find a wide range of features to keep you and your students organized.

The College Bucket

CollegePlannerPro uses College Navigator data to provide profiles for thousands of colleges and universities throughout the US. We have a few thousand of the two- and four-year institutions' profile information loaded in our system. This can be a lot to sift through, and we understand that many of these schools are ones you will not often recommend to your students. So, to weed out the schools that aren't used frequently, and, to group together the colleges and universities you do use regularly, we've designed the College Bucket. Think of it as a container that holds all of the schools you've bookmarked, making them easier to refer to when you need them. By filling your Bucket with colleges and universities you accomplish two goals: (1) you remove the schools you're not interested in, and (2) you make it easier to filter through a smaller list to add schools to your Student's "Suggested College Lists." It's very easy to add and remove schools from your College Bucket at any time. Check out the article What is the 'College Bucket? to begin adding schools to your College Bucket.

"Suggested College Lists" and "Custom College Lists"

In addition to the bucket, you can create specific college lists for you and your students. "Suggested college lists" are lists that you create for your students. As the name implies, these are colleges that you are suggesting on an individual student basis. The student can then elect to take colleges from your Suggested Colleges list and move them to their own "My List". Check out How do I create a Suggested College list for a student?

“Custom College Lists” are lists you can create for your own reference. They allow you to create your own lists of colleges and universities based on the groupings you decide. For example, you can build a list of schools based on a particular degree offering, a campus setting, location, etc. Learn how to make a custom list: How do I create a custom college list for my own reference?

Please note that there are also some "Preloaded Lists" available for import (located in the toolbar of the Colleges Main tab). These lists can easily be imported and edited to meet your needs. CollegePlannerPro continually updates the Preloaded lists as new information becomes available.

College Profiles

There are a few thousand college and university profiles available within CollegePlannerPro. The data within the profiles are sourced from College Navigator (U.S. Department of Education) and the deadlines are sourced from Peterson's. The focus of college profiles in CollegePlannerPro is more to provide a framework in which you can build up profiles that are helpful for you and your students and less on being a research tool. To learn more about college profiles with CollegePlannerPro, check out the article College Profiles.

College Tags

You can create personalized College Tags within CollegePlannerPro. College Tags are keywords or terms you assign to a college or university. You are able to customize your college search based on your experience and knowledge; they are like bookmarks. By assigning College Tags to schools, you are able to filter through the lists of colleges. To learn more about College Tags and how to create them check out the article, How To Add A College Tag. 

College Deadlines and Requirements

As your Students prepare their materials for the various college applications, tasks within their college profile provide a checklist of sorts to guide them through the process and help keep them on track. The deadlines for applications are super important dates your Students need to be aware of. The CollegePlannerPro college profiles hold both tasks and deadlines. These can be customized and shared with your students to provide them with the application tasks they need to complete and the dates by which they need to complete them. To learn more about deadlines and tasks, check out How do I add Application Deadlines from College Profiles? and How do I add Application Requirements from College Profiles?

Student's: "My List of Colleges"

Each of your students, through their CustomCollegePlan account, can create their own list of colleges and universities based on your suggestions and any other schools they would like to add to the list. You can view the lists Students create by viewing their profiles within CollegePlannerPro. To learn more about Student's "My List of Colleges" check out the article What is the Student 'My List of Colleges'?

Manage Research Links

The Research Launch Pad is available on each college profile within CollegePlannerPro and CustomCollegePlan. These are additional resources that are available for you and your students to use. By clicking on one of the Research Links, a window will open with information related to that College. For example, if you are on the profile for Duke University and under the "Research Launch Pad", you click on "Cappex", a new window will open with the information about Duke University from Cappex. You can then click back out and return to the College Profile of either CollegePlannerPro or CustomCollegePlan. To customize these links, see How do I customize the Research Launch Pad in College Profiles?