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.
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.
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.
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.
Know Your Expected Aid Before You Apply
The Student Aid Index determines how much federal aid your family qualifies for. Enter your income, assets, and family details to get your estimated SAI in under 3 minutes, then send it straight to the College Cost Calculator.
- FAFSA Simplification Act formula
- Pell Grant eligibility estimate included
- Collapsible breakdown shows every calculation step
- Imports directly into the College Cost Calculator
Free, no account needed. About 3 minutes.
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. Start with CU Boulder while we verify more schools.
- Human-verified pricing, updated on a real schedule
- Floor plans and amenities checked against the property
- Clearly labeled resident feedback, never presented as fact
- Currently live for CU Boulder, more schools coming
Free, no account needed. Expanding beyond CU Boulder soon.
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, run the SAI & FAFSA Estimator and then the College Cost Calculator. Already committed and shopping for the dorm? Jump to the Dorm Packing List Generator.