If you have ever taken a look at my explanation of 50-50 college, you know that they’re not actually 50-50. They’re really 49-49 with the second 49 depending on the type of school. Nonetheless, I justify calling it a 50-50 list and I’ve never had anyone complain.
Long time readers of this blog will know that on Thursdays I generally provide variations of the 50-50 list based on other readily available data. Readers have found some lists more interesting than others. The top ten visited 50-50 custom college lists for last year are as follows:
- Average Endowment per Student
- A+ Schools for B Students
- 29 Private Colleges to Target for Financial Aid Opportunities
- Colleges with Most Generous Financial Aid
- 3-2 Engineering Programs
- 41 Best Financial Bets for Public Universities
- 46 Public Colleges for Merit Aid
- Schools in the US News College Rankings Top 100
- Public Universities and Out-of-State Tuition
- Colleges with Lowest Average Net Price for Students with Low Family Income–and which to avoid
Seven of the topics are what I consider “money” topics including three of the top four. The fact the US News College Rankings Top 100 came in the top ten just goes to show no matter how much we try to ignore popularity contests and celebrity rankings, we just can’t help ourselves, myself included. The A+ Schools list makes sense but I’m just confounded by the Engineering list coming in fifth.
If you look at the lists people spent the most time on in the last year, you’ll some differences in the subjects.
- Colleges With the Most Visual and Performing Arts Majors
- Colleges with Highest Percentage of Students with Disabilities
- Top Research Universities and Colleges Ranked by Research Expenditures
- Colleges with the Most Engineering Graduates
- Colleges with the Most Science Majors
- Colleges with Decreases in Average Net Price
- Colleges with the Highest Graduation Rates
- Colleges with the Most Business Majors
- NCAA D1 Colleges
- Colleges in Big Cities
I think people spent more time on these lists because they were interested in specific colleges and were searching the list.
The point is that all of these custom college lists are limited by my preferences for 50-50 schools. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would have preferred the lists without one or both of the 50 restrictions. Or maybe they would have preferred to use one of the other 250 plus variables for comparing schools.
Well you can and I even show you how to download the data to do it yourself here. Or you can buy a spreadsheet with all of the data already entered for you so that all you have to do is start searching to create a custom college list that meets your needs. Why am I charging you for something that I show you how to do for free? Because I know it will take you more than an hour to download and format all the data I include in the College Search spreadsheet. Check out a sample of the spreadsheet here or download a copy here.