Free Tools to Make College Planning Easier
Free tools that walk with you from picking schools to packing the car. Use them in any order. No login, no credit card, no catch. Not sure where to start? Browse answers to common college parent questions.
Find the Schools Where Your Student Will Thrive
A free assessment that matches your student’s interests, strengths, and grades, plus your family’s real budget, to the schools where they are most likely to get in, graduate, and launch well. Every result comes with a personalized fit score and honest admission odds.
- Balanced top-8 list with admission odds, from Safety to Reach
- Real cost after financial aid for your income level, not sticker price
- Optional strengths exercises point to matching careers and majors
- Graduation, retention, and earnings-by-major data for every match
Free, no account needed. 10 to 15 minutes.
See the Real Cost Gap Before You Commit
Compare up to 6 schools side by side. We pull real tuition and cost data, then show exactly how much funding you still need to cover, and what that gap looks like as a loan payment.
- Real cost data from the College Scorecard API
- Funding gap as the hero number, not buried in a table
- Loan payment estimates (federal and Parent PLUS rates)
- Print-ready comparison report for family discussions
Free, no account needed. Compare up to 6 schools.
One email a week, for parents doing this right now
The deadlines, checklists, and conversation scripts that actually matter at each stage of the year. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Looking for the free toolkits? They are on our resources page, no email required.
Understand the Student Aid Index Before You Apply
The Student Aid Index determines how much federal aid your family qualifies for. Our SAI estimator is temporarily unavailable while we validate its calculations. Learn how the SAI works and where to find official FAFSA information.
- Plain-language explanation of how the SAI is built
- Sourced to the official 2026-27 federal guide
- FAFSA deadlines with links to studentaid.gov
- Estimator temporarily unavailable
Free, no account needed. Estimator temporarily unavailable.
A Packing List Built for Their Exact School
Select your student’s school and get a personalized checklist with the real banned-items list, dorm-type filtering, move-in day parking notes, and a school-specific timeline.
- 100+ schools with real banned-items lists
- Filters by dorm type, climate, and gender
- Check-off progress saved in your browser
- Move-in day guide with parking and elevator notes
Free, no account needed. Works on phone or desktop.
Compare Graduation Rates Across 268 Schools
See four-year and six-year graduation rates and first-year retention for 268 colleges in one place, each measured against the national average. Sort, search, and find the schools where students actually finish on time.
- All 268 school guides in one sortable table
- Four-year, six-year, and retention side by side
- Every rate shown against the national average
- Search for any school in a tap
Free, no account needed. Data from College Scorecard.
Verified Off-Campus Housing, Not Scraped Listings
Every price, floor plan, and fact in the directory is checked by hand against the property before it goes live, not pulled from an ad feed. Verified listings near CU Boulder, Colorado State, and the University of Tennessee, with more schools on the way.
- Human-verified pricing, updated on a real schedule
- Floor plans and amenities checked against the property
- Clearly labeled resident feedback, never presented as fact
- Verified listings near CU Boulder, Colorado State, and the University of Tennessee
Free, no account needed. More schools on the way.
Not sure where to start? If you are still building a list, begin with the College Match Tool. If you have a list and need to talk money, read our Student Aid Index guide and then run the College Cost Calculator. Already committed and shopping for the dorm? Jump to the Dorm Packing List Generator.