In today’s economy, many students are opting to take the community college route after graduation. This choice means getting the basic courses out of the way at community college and transferring after two years to a four year institution. Since community college hours are less expensive, the decision can often save families thousands of dollars in tuition.

But, once the decision to transfer is made, it’s often difficult to find the right college and it’s been hard for the colleges to find and recruit those students. Many colleges are now seeing the value of these transfer students and are going after them, much as they do with high school students. As more and more students decide to take this college route, more colleges will recognize this pool of students and begin recruiting them.

A new site, CollegeFish.org (now doing beta testing)  is available free for all community college students. It collects information provided by users, including “co-curricular interests, size of institution desired to attend, housing needs, financial need, GPA, anticipated course load, ability to relocate geographically, etc.” This information is then used in an algorithm designed to “rank [five] colleges which provide the best fit for the student.”

If your teen is considering the community college route, bookmark this site and take advantage of the matching services it offers to students. The transfer process can be a bit daunting and complicated, but this will offer a tool for students to help simplify the process.