Today’s guest post is from GoSchoolWise, a new website offering free tools to help with college prep.
Is this school a good fit for my child? Do we have a balanced college list? How much will college cost us?
If these are the questions you are asking yourself, there is good news. A smart computer called IBM Watson (the computer that beat humans in Jeopardy) is helping answer these questions for thousands of parents this year at GoSchoolWise.com.
GoSchoolWise.com has 3 tools that use sophisticated algorithms to help answer the questions you were wondering. The good news is all these tools are free for high school students and their parents.
College – Personality Fit Tool: The tool has analyzed over 600 US colleges and identified personality traits of students at those schools.
Example: Some of the personality traits of Georgia Tech students are: Unselfish, Go with the flow, Thoughtful, etc. Some traits for students at Columbia University are: Independent, Change-Agent, Direct etc.
The tool can analyze your child’s essay or Tweets to develop her/his personality traits and identifies their personality fit with each school on your schools list. In addition to campus visits this tool can give you a unique perspective how well your child will fit in at a particular school.
Let us know if you agree with the personality traits of your child by sending a message here.
- Admissions Insights: The tool analyzes the schools you are considering applying to and gives you valuable information on the potential acceptance rate based on your child’s gender, and the admissions round you are considering (EA, ED, RD, etc.).
The tool also recommends other schools your daughter or son should consider as well as checks if you are in compliance with the Early application policy such as Restrictive Early Action or Single-Choice Early Action for different schools.
In addition to a bunch of other admissions insights, the tool beautifully lays out the schools on a US map (with school pictures) for you to visualize how far your young one is considering going. - Financial Insights: The tool takes your family income and uses historical data as well as factors in the financial aid families with similar income received, predicts the total annual cost of attendance for your child. This can be valuable information to help you understand how much college can cost your family.
You really thought this post will end without giving you any bonus tools and features.
Well guess what we have…
3 Bonus tools/features: SchoolWise also has additional tools/features to help families. Some of the other noteworthy features are:
- College Admissions News: College Admissions news and updates from around the web are curated with the help of IBM Watson. The news feed keeps families updated on the latest admissions advice and developments.
- Academic Index: Looking to apply to Ivy League school? You should check out the Academic Index (AI) Calculator. AI is a score between 60 – 240 used by Ivy League schools to score the academic achievement of an applicant. The score is highly correlated to acceptance rates. Even though Academic Index is not a secret anymore, but the Ivy League universities and other highly selective colleges are hush-hush about its use.
- Schools Pages: Each 4-year college has a beautiful schools page, with pretty images, videos, and interactive tools. One example is the gender diversity tool, which shows the class mosaic. Also, check out the notable alumni and the key recruiting companies section for each school. Some school page examples are: Harvard University, MIT, College of William and Mary.